The Cleveland Guardians have five players that may need to be moved on from.
The Cleveland Guardians are currently struggling as the season moves past the first month of action. They’ve developed a good offensive core and a solid rotation but some key pieces from both are either slow to return to form or are out-right struggling. These struggles and some key injuries have slowed the Guardians some.
Now, not every guy hitting below .250 or has a bloated ERA is going to end up on this list. A name with a big ERA you won’t see is Bryan Shaw. He’s been pitching well, but he had one game where he had to go out and eat five runs, which ballooned his ERA. Another guy struggling is Myles Straw but this is more of a slump than an indication that he’s not a good player.
These guys on this list aren’t slumping, they are, obviously but all of them are historically poor performers who have hit their third or fourth chance.
That’s something to keep in mind as we go through them one by one, that this isn’t just their small, month-long sample size that we’re judging. It’s their recent struggles on top of their historic struggles.
After all, it’s not fair to judge a player just on 30+ games in a 182-game season. No, we’re looking at the issues that have persisted for some time.
So if you’re mad that it’s “so early”, don’t be. These are players with recurring issues that are holding back the team. There may be an upgrade coming or not but right now, we’re not sure.
Franmil Reyes
Franmil Reyes is heading towards a career-high in strikeouts this year. If he hits 500 plate appearances, he’ll likely breach the 200 strikeout mark. He’s been awful all year, and save for one series against Toronto, it doesn’t look like he’ll be getting better any time soon. Reyes has always struggled with patience at the plate. In his two full seasons in the majors, he’s had 156 strikeouts and 149 strikeouts, respectively. In both of those years, he’s had more strikeouts than hits.
In fact, for his career, he’s got more strikeouts than hits.
This is who Reyes is, unfortunately. He’s only ever excelled in small sample sizes like when he was called up as a rookie or in the 60-game season of 2020. Ask him to play more than 100 games, and he’s hitting below .250 and striking out like it’s his job.
Reyes only has 11 RBIs, while Josh Naylor has 22 in just two-thirds of the at-bats. Even if we take out his last nine RBIs, which were done in the last two games he played in, he still has 13 RBIs in two-thirds of the at-bats.
This isn’t just an issue of Reyes being a streaky hitter. He’s simply a bad one. Jose Ramirez is kinda streaky. Yet, Ramirez isn’t perpetually killing an inning with ill-timed strikeouts.
Oscar Mercado
You really shouldn’t be surprised Oscar Mercado is on this list. Sure, Mercado had a semi-impressive 2019 but clearly, that was more hype than hope. Since then he’s hitting just .198, and a lot of the time he looks like he’s slow to the swing. He simply doesn’t seem capable of hitting major league pitching.
Right now he’s getting a break due to the Guardians not wanting to play Josh Naylor in the outfield, and that’s apparently the new trend going forward. I would like to see Naylor back out there, only to conquer the beast that is fear, but I get why the Guardians don’t want him patrolling out there anymore.
Due to that, there isn’t another player ready to take Mercado’s spot. That fantasy trade idea of landing the Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds would be awesome but he’s struggling right now too. Richie Palacios is the front-runner to replace Mercado full-time, but another name-making waves currently is Oscar Gonzales in Triple-A. If the Guardians call him up, that may be the end of Mercado on the big club.
At 27 we know what Mercado is and isn’t and it seems like he isn’t an everyday starter.
Aaron Civale
None of the Cleveland Guardians rotation guys are looking like Cy Young winners at this point in 2022. Whether it’s from the lack of spring training, fatigue, no more sticky to control balls with, or what have you. They all seem very beatable. Beatable, however, is not bad. it just means they’re human.
One of the biggest issues however isn’t their lack of shut-down pitching, but the fact that Aaron Civale is getting roasted. In his last 17.2 innings pitched, Civale has given up 22 earned runs. He’s given up five home runs and is falling apart before the fifth inning. So not only is has he given up six runs in three of his last four starts, but he’s also burning out the bullpen by doing so.
He has no control over his pitches, evidence of this is the three batters he’s hit by pitches in that same four-game span. It’s not like he’s playing the edges and just not getting the calls. He’s not walking guys, he’s giving up hits. 27 of them, to be more exact.
The problem is that the Guardians don’t really seem to have many guys ready to replace Civale should that call need to be made. This might be another situation where a trade may need to be made.
Austin Hedges
This one seems obvious, right? Austin Hedges is a fine defensive catcher, but he isn’t so good defensively that you can afford to keep him in the lineup much longer. He’s not a good game caller either for pitchers. Just looking at the struggles that a lot of the pitchers have had at times, especially when he’s calling the game from behind the plate, one has to wonder what he has on the likes of Terry Francona to keep getting the starting job.
Right now Hedges’ job seems safe, as Triple-A’s Gavin Collins and Double-A’s Bo Naylor are not performing well enough at the plate to make you think they’re ready to replace Hedges. After all, that’s the biggest issue with him, is his offense. There’s no reason to waste a call-up on a guy who may not provide much difference in performances.
You can go back to the trade well, but that is part of the issue, isn’t it? The team already needs to trade for another outfielder and starting pitcher. There’s not that much in the minor leagues you really want to give up at the moment. Teams like the Guards succeed due to their ability to develop and call up minor league talent.
Trading that away on rentals or minor upgrades isn’t wise.
Yu Chang
This one is, admittedly, a bit unfair, but only to a point. Yes, Yu Chang has only played three games in 2022 for the Guardians and another five for Double-A and Triple-A affiliates the Rubber Ducks and Clippers respectively. He’s been on the injury list and COVID list already this year, and so his at-bats are really not consistent enough to get a read on.
Yet, he was demoted to Double-A and only hit .200. Then he got called up to Triple-A and hit just .167. Yes, bad sample size, except it’s not. Not really. In the minors, he’s barely a .250 hitter, and in 355 plate appearances in the majors, he’s hitting just .210. He’s another cat who’s already 26 and still trying to “find himself” at the plate. He’s been given shots over the course of the last four seasons and never once has he really shown an ability to prove himself reliable.
This isn’t like an Owen Miller situation, where Miller barely hit .200 in his first year of action but in the minors was looking like Ted Williams. Miller needed time to adjust to the skill level but was showing regularly that he was a good hitter. Chang has always struggled to show that.
He remains hitless in the majors for 2022 and may end up being passed over like Bobby Bradley was if someone can prove he’s not worth hanging onto anymore.