Indians: Team can’t afford to keep giving time to Jake Bauers and Ben Gamel

Between the two of them, Ben Gamel and Jake Bauers have exactly one hit, four base-on-balls, and one RBI in a combined 28 at-bats. The Indians cannot keep giving these two time to find their swings. It’d be one thing if both men were historically great hitters like Jose Ramirez. You give Ramirez time to find his swing, even if it’s still August; because you know he’ll get there.

That’s not the case for Gamel, a career .258 hitter, or Bauers, a career .211 hitter. Gamel was never supposed to be much of anything for the Indians, and considering the fact the Tribe walked away from Tyler Naquin to go after Gamel for a contract the same price and length as Naquin’s, Gamel has to outperform Naquin to justify his spot.

Spoiler, he won’t.

For Bauers, he’s a fine player, and versatile enough to play in the outfield, but as far as it goes currently, he’s not good enough to keep his spot. Any other year, and sure, give him time. Yet, the Indians have two players in the minors who could radically improve the offense in Nolan Jones and Bobby Bradley. Jones can play the outfield (goodbye Gamel) and Bradley’s a first baseman (goodbye Bauers).

That’s where the problem lies, two of the Tribe’s better prospects are being blocked by two of their worst major league players.

As a rule of thumb, I like to wait until the end of April before going on a “he’s gotta go/he’s gotta get called up” soapbox, but with how bad both men have been, it’s hard not to get antsy mid-way through the year.

Especially considering the fact that Gamel and Bauers are taking away opportunities from better teammates in Jordan Luplow and Yu Chang. Chang is only hitting .235 with two RBI’s, but that’s a .172 point improvement over Bauers. For Luplow, he’s tied for second on the team in RBI’s while Gamel hasn’t even gotten a hit yet.

Bauers will get a shot to work his way into the lineup, he was a big name prospect with Tampa Bay for a reason but I’d be gobsmacked if Gamel, at this rate, was still on the team by May 1.