Cleveland Indians: Owen Miller promotion can’t come soon enough

Following a disastrous series in Seattle, it’s clear the Cleveland Indians still need help offensively, and the remedy may come from prospect Owen Miller, who’s currently playing for the Class AAA Columbus Clippers.

Sunday’s boondoggle was highlighted in the seventh inning, when the Tribe had runner’s on first and second. Eddie Rosario, batting second, decided to bunt. He moved the runners over, but in sacrificing himself, he took the bat out of Jose Ramirez’s hand.

Seattle happily walked J-Ram and Franmil Reyes proceeded to predictably hit into the inning ending double play.

The sabermetricians hate bunts, since they gift wrap the defense an out. That said, they’re easy to love when it works, and it backfired in a big way for Tribe in the series finale.

So, where’s the help? Still a fair question since we’ve been asking it for six weeks now. The answer appears to Owen Miller, an infield prospect with the Columbus Clippers.

Miller, who was acquired from the Padres in last summer’s Mike Clevinger has hit,  hit and hit ever since spring training commenced back in February. Through May 17, he was 20-of-40. The Athletic’s Zack Meisel tweeted he would “Be surprised if Miller is on ML roster soon.”

Cleveland.com’s Terry Pluto dove a little farther into a potential promotion, noting Miller will probably play shortstop once he joins the roster, despite playing just two games there this season. In his minor league career, Miller mostly played shortstop when he was a part of the Padres organization.

The Tribe’s current shortstop situation has carved out another vacant hole in the lineup. Andres Gimenez is strugglingly greatly at the plate. He’s 22 and skipped over the Triple A level when he was with the Mets a season ago. Despite coming on strong at spring training, Gimenez needs more time to incubate.

Amed Rosario grades out horribly defensively at short, but as done enough to warrant more time in center field. He’s not going to win the Gold Glove, but he’s not a disaster (so far), either. That said, Rosario isn’t exactly tearing up opposing pitching. He is batting .262 in May, a dramatic improvement from the .179 he posted in April.

The Indians have three games on schedule against the Angels in LA before heading home for a weekend series with the Twins. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Miller in uniform against Minnesota.