5 prospects the Cleveland Guardians could see by the summer
By Chad Porto
The Cleveland Guardians could be calling up a few more players this June.
The Cleveland Guardians are off to a bit of an uneven start. They lost back-to-back home series against the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees and saw their record fall to 7-6 on the year. By no means are we anywhere close to panic mode but there are a few concerns that are popping up that we need to keep an eye on.
Firstly, the team’s first basemen aren’t living up to the hype. Josh Bell is notoriously not a slow starter, and we combed through the stats to prove that. So for his splits to be as bad as they are, .109/.250/.130 and an OPS of .380 really aren’t a good sign.
He’s not the only one struggling. Amed Rosario is hitting barely over .200, same for Josh Naylor. Gabriel Arias and Oscar Gonzalez have come out swinging, and missing, and this backup catcher-by-committee idea is not working at all. Mike Zunino is clearly a capable major league hitter but neither Cam Gallagher nor Meibrys Viloria are doing their part.
That doesn’t even factor in the struggles of Cal Quantrill, Hunter Gaddis, or Zach Plesac as starting pitchers. The Guardians may need to make a few call-ups in the next six weeks and these are the following players who are doing the work in Triple-A Columbus.
Honorable Mention – Catcher Zach Collins
Neither a rookie nor a first baseman, Zach Collins is hitting the face off the ball in Columbus, with splits that will make your mouth water. Right now, Collins’ splits are .390/.490/.756 and an OPS of 1.246. He also has three home runs, eight RBIs, and a stolen base.
Obviously, if he were to get called up, it’d be to serve as the backup to Zunino, and his stats would not be at the same rate they were in Columbus, but he’s clearly more of a threat behind the plate than Gallagher and Viloria.