It took an extreme combination of circumstances, but Yandy Diaz will return to the Cleveland Indians roster today to face the Toronto Blue Jays and depending on how those circumstances turn out, could be around a little longer this time.
Circumstance #1: Tribe Hitting vs Lefties
It’s fair to say that the Indians got a little lucky when they won the series against Kansas City considering the fact that the Royals went with two left handed starters and a bullpen full of match-up men. In fact, it took a right handed reliever, Joaquim Soria, coming into the game on Sunday for the Tribe to score a single run.
Overall this season, the Indians rank 26th in baseball with a 74 wRC+ against lefties and the old school numbers are bad as well with them hitting .212/.303/.314. Compounding the situation is that the Indians outfield is entirely left handed outside of Brandon Guyer, who was struggling to the extreme against all pitchers prior to Sunday (and officially Abraham Almonte, although he profiles as a lefty). Of course, this outfield situation occurred because of circumstances two and three.
Circumstance #2: Austin Jackson hits the DL and is replaced by a reliever.
Circumstance #3: Michael Brantley sprains his ankle.
Pretending that Almonte could hit both right handers and left handers with Jackson out was a problem and that is essentially what the Indians did as they went from a seven man pen to a nine man pen in two days without addressing the outfield situation. Even before Brantley took a bad step running the bases, the Indians were talking about promoting Diaz to bring some right handed power back to the outfield.
With Brantley out, however, the Indians are missing their most balanced lefty. Without him, the Indians would essentially be looking at an outfield of Guyer, Almonte and Chisenhall against left handed pitchers, and that’s not a pretty picture.
This is where Diaz finally comes in. He hit well during his Major League debut early in the season and can play both corner outfield spots if necessary. With Brantley out, Diaz can play in left or right with Guyer and Chisenhall filling out the other two spots. This at least gets Almonte out of the line-up, something that the Indians probably should have done prior to Brantley’s injury. It will be a pure platoon situation most likely as the Indians can go with an all left handed outfield against righties, but at least they won’t be punting on a third of the line-up against left handers any more.
Circumstance 4: An 8 man bullpen is overkill.
Terry Francona has never made it a secret that he believes “more relievers, more better,” but he has also never used an eight man pen efficiently. It’s extremely hard to get enough work for each pitcher to keep them sharp even with a seven man staff considering the Indians rotation and eight (or nine as it was for a few days) is way too much. Since Shawn Armstrong was called back up on May 2nd he pitched once, as has Dan Otero, while Zach McAllister hasn’t pitched at all and Joe Colon didn’t make an appearance at all as the ninth man. Nick Goody made an extended appearance on the 2nd, but has only retired one batter since. McAllister and Goody have pitched too well early on to ignore them and Otero had a rough start, but has since struck out 7 in five scoreless innings without allowing an extra base hit or walk.
At a minimum, each of these pitchers should be throwing once every three games and that’s not possible with an eight man pen and elite rotation. Removing Armstrong and adding Diaz not only helps the offense, but it helps define relief roles and make sure everyone stays ready.
Extenuating Circumstances: The Useless Michael Martinez
How long Diaz will stay this time is up in the air, but if Francona wants to maximize his line-up production, it will be a long time. We don’t know how long Brantley will be out yet, but it will likely be less than ten days (otherwise the Indians would have placed him on the DL and kept Armstrong) and Jackson will be back before then as well most likely. With Corey Kluber also expecting to return from the DL soon, it would be easy to send Diaz back to AAA in just a couple days.
However, there is the Michael Martinez quandary. Now that Jason Kipnis is back in the regular line-up, Martinez has started just once in the last 12 games and played in just two of those 12. After a double in his first at bat made his rate stats go crazy, he’s since returned to regular Martinez levels. He provides absolutely no value to the team that literally hundreds of minor leaguers couldn’t exceed and Francona has been using him as if this was the case.
A utility man doesn’t have to be relegated to less than a game a week, however. If Martinez could hit, there would have been multiple pinch hitting opportunities for him as teams match-up against the Tribe’s lefties. If he were a great outfielder, there were times when he could have been used to replace Almonte defensively. Instead, he’s rode the bench like the AAAA player he is. Diaz, however, could easily find himself with at least one at bat per game. It would give the Indians an added strategic advantage, even after Jackson returns. Diaz can play every position defensively that Martinez can and we all know how much Jose Ramirez would love to go back to second if Francona wanted to keep Diaz at third and move the Indians versatile third baseman around. For the moment, Diaz will likely be used mostly in the oufield, but once Brantley and Jackson return, he could be used as a platoon outfield bat, reserve infielder and pinch hitter against lefties. Martinez is only one of those things and doesn’t have the ceiling that Diaz does.
If the Indians want to maximize their roster, this won’t be another cup of coffee. They’ll stay with the seven man pen and ditch the dead weight as soon as everyone is healthy. While their plans are still up in the air, the use of Diaz in coming days may point towards their preference.
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