Santana surge coming at the right time

The Cleveland Indians made some big off-season moves headed into the 2017 season such as signing slugger Edwin Encarnacion to a three-year $60 million contract and lefty reliever Boone Logan also signed for a surprising $6.5 million deal for 2017.

However, one transaction that has sort of slipped under the radar was the Indians’ decision to pick up the $12 million option for 2017 for Carlos Santana. At the time, it seemed like a no-brainer move and one with no long-term risk since it would be for just one year and then Santana would be eligible for free agency in 2018 barring any new contract agreement.

The former catcher, who has turned into a first baseman/designated hitter, was coming off his best season in 2016 and seemed to finally settle into his role on defense with some occasional DH time to give Mike Napoli a break. Plus, Santana had been a critical component of a World Series playoff berth.

Santana, now 31, had come off career highs in many statistical categories including 34 home runs and 87 RBI. He also posted bests for slugging (.498), OPS (.865) while cutting down his strikeouts by 23 (99) from the 2015 season (122) despite having 32 ABs more in 2016. He even drew the same number of walks (99) as Ks, which is pretty impressive for a power hitter.

Santana posted a 3.0 WAR in 2016 and also had a respectable .259 batting average and an impressive .366 OBP, both marks among the best of his seven-year career to that point. He had career-best season in the prime of his career and the Indians didn’t have to think too hard about keeping him around for one more season, at least. No way, the Tribe was going to let him leave without receiving compensation via trade or at least a suitable replacement in free agency.

After all, the newly-acquired Encarnacion along with Santana in the middle of the lineup would provide the Indians offense quite a punch with two hitters coming off big home run seasons. Plus, the Tribe had already invested a lot into Santana’s career after acquiring him from the Los Angeles Dodgers organization as a minor league infielder and then converting him into an offensive-focused MLB catcher, before an unsuccessful stint as a third baseman.

To this point in his career, Santana also has proved to be somewhat of a financial bargain. He had earned $19,218,500 in six seasons to that point. Now he earned the opportunity to make $12 million in one season in 2017.

In his seven seasons with the Tribe, Santana also had posted a 21.2 WAR, just slightly above a fairly respective average of 3.0 WAR per season.

But this optimism was tempered for most of the season until fairly recently as Santana was off to a miserable start in the first half. Some were critical saying he was having a terrible year during his free agent year. His slash in the first 84 games and 371 plate appearances was only .238/.340/.409 (.749 OPS) all well below his career averages and he had hit just 10 home runs with 47 RBI.

However, in the second half he’s surged hitting .292/.393/.563 (.957) in 29 games and 122 plate appearances. He’s also hit 8 home runs and driven in 16 runs during that span. Two of those home runs came against the Minnesota Twins when he went 3-for-3 and reached base five times with 3 RBI. He also increased his WAR from 1.3 to 1.9 for the season after that one game.

With 117 games in the books and 45 left to play, Santana has 18 home runs and 63 RBI and projects to have 26 HRs and 88 RBI to finish the season. He also projects to strike out more this season (109) and walk fewer times (95) than he did in 2016 but is projected to score 93 runs, which would establish a career-high after scoring 89 in 2016.

In 2017, Santana is now slashing .248/.353/.447 (.800 OPS), which is right on par with his career averages of .247/.363/.442 (.805 OPS). The great thing about Santana is when he gets hot, he can carry the team. He’s an important cog when it comes to the team winning.

His hot bat is coming at a key time with 45 games to play and the Indians leading the American League Central Division by 5.5 games over the Kansas City Royals, who the Tribe will play 10 more times within the next 32 games Those games will likely go a long way toward crowning the division champion.

So far, Santana has played in 113 games and the Indians have a mark of 62-51. In those 62 Tribe wins, he has had 283 plate appearances and has hit 12 home runs with 44 RBI, while slashing .312/.428/.543 (.971 OPS). Not surprisingly, when Santana is not hitting the Tribe has had a much harder time winning.

In the team’s 42 losses in which he has played, Santana has hit only 6 home runs and driven in 19 runs in 210 plate appearances. He’s slashing .169/.252/.328 (.580 OPS) in those 42 games.

If Santana can keep up his second half surge and not fall into any major slump, the Indians should be well on their way to another postseason berth.