Cleveland Indians: The Tribe need to stop platooning outfielders

The Cleveland Indians have been platooning outfielders for years, and it’s time to stop.

The one gripe you can say about Terry Francona’s style of managing is his strange need to platoon outfielders since arriving in Cleveland. It really became a theme in 2015 and 2016 but it’s persisted through the years. To be fair, as a Cleveland Indians fan, if that’s the biggest complaint you have about your manager then you’re doing pretty well. That and his sometimes over-reliance on one or two pitchers out of the bullpen in the postseason. That’s it though, those are his worst quirks.

Part of the problem with platooning outfielders or playing fewer quality guys in favor of “matchups” is that baseball, more than any other sport, is about rhythm. It may take a guy three months to find his stroke, but when he does he starts beating the ball like it owes him money. The problem with platooning outfielders is that you’re typically running one guy in and out of the lineup every day, not allowing really anyone to settle into their rhythm.

Sure, there is an upside to it, not only do you occasionally have a matchup advantage but you’re also not having a guy sit too long on the bench and get rusty.

Which is good, because Francona likes to use his bench. It’s just his thing. The problem is that this thing has been a problem for a few seasons now. Tyler Naquin, arguably the second-best outfielder not named Michael Brantley over the last four years, has been left off the team for stretches of the time, or ha barely cracked 80 games a year. Everyone can see he’s a good player and yet he’s treated like he’s Mario Mendoza. If 2020 has proven one thing, it’s that the outfield platoon needs to be a thing of the past.

Now that the tribe has a few good players to run out there, the team shouldn’t have such drastic lineup changes anymore. To the credit of interim-manager Sandy Alomar, the lineup has been consistent since Naquin has been called up and the team is winning series. So it looks like things are starting to take shape.