Spring Training Update: Brantley’s Feelin’ Good

For the first time ever, I can say that I’ve been to Cleveland Indians spring training. There were years worth of minors at every corner, more major league guys than there should be, and enough sun to make every fan still bitter about “The Rain Delay” fall over in envy.

On the minor league fields it was a mix of all levels of prospects. I had the pleasure of seeing 2016 draft pick Will Benson for the first time live on field six. His size alone was enough to surprise me, leading to the conversation of if he’s too big to be in the outfield. If he can make his height work to his advantage than it will never be an issue, which it something he can figure out while in the minors. His stance is very compact, something I wasn’t expecting, and though he made some good contact, shot the ball to a defender quite a bit. He needs some work still before getting moved to Mahoning Valley, so I would expect him to start his year in AZL at least for the first half.

Other minors to note, Alexis Pantoja continues to impress with his maturing defense, and the same can be said for Ka’ai Tom in the outfield, as long as he stays healthy. The smoothest swing of all the minors I saw, hands down OF Andrew Calica. I like seeing that he continues to make good, hard contact, instead of seeing him get hit by pitches. There were even a few guys who got to play in the big league games, Connor Marabell, Bobby Bradley, and Joe Sever among others made appearances once the big league guys came out of their games.

Yandy Diaz, who I saw mostly with the big league players, got all the fan’s attention during BP every time he stepped to the plate. Every hack at the ball either dropped it at the warning track, or found it’s way over the fence. Why is this important? The possibility that he could make it on the 25-man roster while the Indians try to move guys around while Jason Kipnis is down. Between Diaz, Richie Shaffer, and Giovani Urshela, Diaz might have the most promise offensively, while Shaffer has just as much promise behind his glove, and Gio with his experience already at the MLB level.

Among the major league camp, things were laid back as the season gets closer and closer. Edwin Encarnacion looked to it right in with his new team, entertaining Yan Gomes and Jose Ramirez around the BP cage while lead-off Carlos Santana swung away to the outfield. On Friday, Francisco Lindor appeared back at camp after his time playing for team Puerto Rico in the WBC. Branltey seemed very happy to have him back, as they goofed off in the outfield while Lindor told him of all the people at the WBC games.

The big focus all spring has been Michael Brantley and his potential to be on the Opening Day roster April 3rd against the Texas Rangers. I was happy to overhear a conversation between Brantley and a few of his team mates during warm-ups the other day. Friday morning was the morning after his first back-to-back set of games since 2015, and he looked like there was nothing physically holding him back or hindering his ability to play. The players joked between games of catch. Brantley noted after throwing to his partner how great his arm feels, stating that “[his] arm feels really good.” This is something we’ve all heard through reports from the media that he’s said before how good he feels, but this was different. It was between him and his team, said in an almost impressed sort of way like he expected the fatigue that wasn’t there, which is something every Tribe fan wants to hear.
Spring Training Update: Brantley's Feelin' Good

All in all it was a successful trip, and it amazed me that once I stepped on the grounds of Goodyear, everything else that wasn’t baseball faded away. People always say that spring training should be taken with a grain of salt, but I’m leaving here with more confidence in this team than I already had before.

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