It’s Time for Lonnie Chisenhall to Prove He Belongs

Throughout his time with the Cleveland Indians Lonnie Chisenhall has shown flashes of what the team had envisioned when they made him the 29th overall selection in the 2008 MLB Draft.

Indians fans have seen those spurts multiple times throughout his 5+ seasons with the ball club. Chisenhall exploded for three homeruns and nine RBIs in a game at Texas in 2014.

In that same season the he hit a blistering .345 through June as it finally looked like the young third baseman had figured out major league pitching before turning in a sub-par (at best) remainder of the season.

Since that stretch in 2014, Chisenhall has been wildly inconsistent while going through a position change and coming across multiple injuries along the way.

After a less than stellar 2015 season, Chisenhall has come into 2016 knowing it’s time to produce or else the Indians may have no choice but to move on.

Chisenhall began the season rehabbing from a neck injury and didn’t see his first action of the new season until April 20 after being activated from the 15-day DL. In 25 at-bats so far, Chisenhall has just five hits and is batting and getting on base at just a .200 clip.

Early in spring training it was looking like Chisenhall would be the Tribe’s everyday right-fielder as the team was searching for answers in the outfield with the roster looking slim those positions.

Marlon Bryd has come in and taken virtually all of the playing time in right when the Tribe goes against a left handed starter which has really cut down Chisenhall’s playing time. The smooth transition for Jose Ramirez in the outfield figures to only knock down that playing time more in the near future if Chisenhall doesn’t turn his play around.

With the Indians top two prospects in the minors being outfielders (Bradley Zimmer and Clint Frazier) time could be running out for the 27 year-old third basemen turned outfielder.

With the Indians’ expectations of being in contention this year and beyond, it’s time for Chisenhall to show that he belongs. If he doesn’t, the team could look to package him with other players/prospects in a trade or simply just let him walk at season’s end.

It’s all up to Lonnie. Well, most of it anyway.