The Indians offense is fantastically inconsistent and it’s maddening

The Cleveland Indians are tied for fifth in the Majors for most home runs through the first few weeks of the season. They stand just two back of the leaders with 23 home runs as a team, with four teams tied for first with 25. A most impressive stat by a team that many thought would have no power all year.

The problem is that the Indians are 28th in the Majors in batting average, 23rd in on-base percentage, 14th in slugging, and 20th in OPS. The Indians are all over the place offensively. On one hand, their power and ability to hit the gaps is impressive. On the other hand, they’re not getting on base or getting non-power hits to help the team. They’re wasting these home runs.

The biggest stat that basically goes to show you how much the Tribe has wasted these home run shots is to look at the RBI total. Currently, the Indians are 25th in the league in RBI’s.

Of the top five home run hitting teams, assuming the Indians are number five, only the San Francisco Giants have a worse home run to RBI ratio, with 25 home runs and only 60 RBI’s. The other three teams; the Reds, Braves, and Cardinals are tied for the team home run lead and are also in the top ten in RBI’s scored so far this year.

Making the Indians and Giants an anomaly.

The good news for the Indians, the top power guys for the team are also their best hitters historically. The top home run hitters for the team are Jordan Luplow, Jose Ramirez, Franmil Reyes, Roberto Perez, Eddie Rosario, and Andres Gimenez. While Ramirez, Reyes, and Rosario are down to start the season, all three are going to bounce back eventually. They’re too skilled not to. So if they can increase their average and on-base percentage, while maintaining the home run pace, then the Indians will turn around the ship.

For Perez, he’s not far off from what fans expect, which is only about 30 points higher than his .200 average has him at. As for Gimenez, it’s only his second full season and expectations for him will vary widely.

Lastly, is Luplow. Luplow is on pace for a monster year, and the only thing holding him back is opportunities. In his first year with the Indians, he hit .276 with 15 home runs in only 225 at-bats. For context, if a player averages four at-bats per game across all 162 games, then they’ll have 648 at-bats.

So imagine the power number Luplow would have if he’s given just 500 at-bats, let alone 600. We’re talking about a guy who’d be close to hitting 40 home runs in a single season, a pace he was on in 2019 and a pace he’s on again in 2021.

The other big problem with the Indians’ offense is that it’s still too early in the season to overreact and make dramatic changes. So patience is a must. The power is there, which should assure fans. Guys like Ramirez and Cesar Hernandez aren’t going to be hitting this badly all year. Things will turn around for them.

Yet, the questions over what a guy like Gimenez and Amed Rosario brings to the table will persist, as they should. Thankfully though, the Indians are showing that they have the makings of a good offense, they just need time to get their groove going.