When the regular season begins for the Cleveland Indians on March 26th at home against the Detroit Tigers, there’s still a notion that it’s anyone’s guess who will be the three starting outfielders.
If you are betting on the Indians to win the World Series this season, they are going to have to figure out just how they are going to get productivity from their questionable at best outfield.
About the one thing that is certain about the outfield is that somehow, someway, it’s going to include Oscar Mercado, who last season as a rookie came out of nowhere to play better than many expected.
There’s a chance though that Mercado might not be the center fielder when the season starts, a position he played most of his rookie year.
The Indians this offseason made a deal with the Texas Rangers for center fielder Delino DeShields, and the team has been very high on him since they acquisition.
If DeShields can hit, there’s a good chance that they put Mercado in left and DeShields will play in center field, the spot he’s played a majority of his career with the Rangers.
There’s so many options right now that the team needs to weed through, from new signed Indian Domingo Santana, to lefty pitching crushing Jordan Luplow.
It’s not been an easy task to try and figure out what three players might be the best for the Indians outfield when March 26th rolls around, but it looks like as of now there are still more questions about the outfield than answers.
The team will need to not only to put a premium on playing defense and making sure not to give up cheap runs, but also to make sure that the team can hit and produce runs.
It’s part of the reason that on an almost daily basis the team seems to shift around players in the outfield while they are in Goodyear at spring training.
Jake Bauers is another player that has ability, but as he woks out his swing his spring he’s also piling on the strikeouts, right now entering Monday’s game seven straight.
Bradley Zimmer and Greg Allen are likely both heading for the minors once the season starts, and then there’s the case of power-hitting Franmil Reyes who dropped weight to be able to play the outfield more.
Can they do enough to figure out the best three to start 2020? Like it or not they are going to have to or the outfield is going to continue to be a huge problem for this team this upcoming season.
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