3 concerns for the Cleveland Guardians that may not go away

Gabriel Arias and Will Brennan are not ready to be everyday Major Leaguers

It’s not a great thing to see young hitters struggle as Gabriel Arias and Will Brennan are doing currently. There are a lot of calls to see these two get more or fewer at-bats depending on who you’re talking with. The thing is, both men have struggled so badly in the majors this season, it isn’t unreasonable to think both men need to be sent back down.

More importantly, the talk around trading Amed Rosario needs to stop until Arias can prove he can hit consistently. Despite what scouts say about Arias, stats don’t lie, and the man has struggled to hit in the minors over the last few seasons. He’s spent time in several leagues this past season, the Arizona Complex League, the International League, and the Puerto Rican Winter League, and between those three spots, he’s hit just .230. Add on his two disastrous stints in Cleveland so far, and he’s hitting just .219.

He can turn it around, for sure, but this idea that he’s ready is just not true. Either his mechanics need work, his approach at the plate needs work, or he’s just not fast enough to keep up with major-league hitting. Something is off there.

The same is true for Brennan, who, however, was hitting very well over the last two years. But something is hindering him this year and it’s unclear what it is. Though looking at his FanGraphs page, it’s pretty clear that a major factor is his impatience. He has his lowest walk-rate per-at-bat in his career, and the highest strikeout rate of his career as well. We’re not just talking about his short stint in the majors either. We’re talking across every game of baseball he’s ever played where there was a paycheck afterward.

He’s also trying to drive balls into center field at a much higher clip. Nearly 43% of the balls he makes contact with head off in that area. Over the course of his career, he’s usually been a pull or push hitter, but in the majors he’s stopped doing that. Considering pulling and pushing the balls into the wide parts of the outfield was his whole game in the minors, it’s interesting to see why he’s gotten away from that.