The Indians have only played two games so far this season thanks to two rain/cold/snow outs, but there has been at least a little good news on the injury front. Michael Brantley has been working out with the team in Cleveland and is expected to work out with the Columbus Clippers while the Indians are on the road. He is expected to return to the line-up in one to two weeks.
Much closer to a comeback is Lonnie Chisenhall, on the DL with a sore left wrist. He was supposed to play in a game for the Clippers last night, but was rained out. The plan as of now is to get him about five games to make up for missing the final weeks of Spring Training before returning to Cleveland. That would mean the earliest Chisenhall could be expected to rejoin Cleveland would be for the series in Tampa from the 12th through the 14th, possibly on Wednesday the 13th.
In the two games played so far (and using the expected lineup for game three as further example), Terry Francona has opted to use Jose Ramirez in left field ahead of Rajai Davis with Tyler Naquin in center and Marlon Byrd in right. All the Indians outfielders have played this year, but if anything can be taken from the early season strategy, it is that Francona is shying away from using Byrd in the field (as he should be) and Collin Cowgill at all (also as it should be). His use of Ramirez as a regular outfielder (again, he has only made one start, but was expected to start game three over Davis as well) has lead many to question how the defense and roster will align once Chisenhall is returned.
There are two places Francona and GM Mike Chernoff could look to make room on the Indians 25 man, from the outfield directly, or from the bullpen. The Indians were planning on starting the year with a seven man pen and five outfielders before they knew of Chisenhall’s injury and it wouldn’t be surprising if they went back to that.
While numbers from 2016 are limited, Byrd had significant splits last year with his positive performance coming against left handed pitching. Since Chisenhall has the opposite against right handers, it makes sense to pair the two as a platoon in right field. Similarly, Cowgill hasn’t been great against either side, but is significantly better against left handed pitching while Naquin is better against right, at least as far as his AAA stats from 2015 are concerned. This is another natural platoon in center with Davis and possibly Ramirez in left field if the Indians want to run with essentially six outfielders until Brantley returns.
As far as considering Ramirez an outfielder is concerned, it may be the only way he is able to get at bats this year. He looked a little shaky in his debut in left on Wednesday, but didn’t make any actual fielding mistakes. Given that Jason Kipnis and Francisco Lindor should be expected to play at least 150 games if all things go well, Ramirez will have to get used to left to get into games at all. Once Brantley gets back, he will probably take some playing time from Juan Uribe, but for the moment, the Indians could do a lot worse than Ramirez in left.
Picking the reliever to remove to make room for a six man outfield could be difficult. The Indians opted for the veterans in all cases and have no non-integral members that could be simply sent to AAA for a short stint. Since the Indians have only played two games, we have yet to even see Dan Otero and, other than Ross Detwiler, haven’t seen any pitcher more than once. Since they broke camp with Joba Chamberlain, Detwiler and Otero in the first place, it seems unlikely that they would be willing to give up on any of them without giving them a real chance. Of course, there’s always the option of doing something with Trevor Bauer, including possibly placing him in the rotation for a short while and sending Cody Anderson to AAA. This is not a probable outcome, just a possibility in navigating a difficult situation. The Indians do have off days on the 11th and 18th, so they could could even get away with a four man rotation while keeping Bauer in the bullpen for the short term.
The other option to make room for Chisenhall would be to remove an outfielder. Assuming the infield is healthy and really capable of playing every day (most of the worry here is on Uribe), the switch hitting Ramirez doesn’t really need a platoon partner and Davis is also capable of playing daily. Using Davis in left, Naquin in center and Ramirez as the extra man wouldn’t be an extreme drop from any production Cowgill would be capable of and it would be an easier cut than any reliever. Cowgill is out of options, however, and would have to pass through waivers for the Indians to keep control and send him to AAA.
Considering that Brantley will hopefully be back a week or two after Chisenhall, the Indians will have to lose an outfielder and a reliever pretty much no matter what. Ramirez is a keeper as the Indians only extra infielder, but Naquin is another possible demotion possibility if Brantley is starting in left, Davis in center and Chisenhall in right. Few expected Naquin to make the team out of Spring Training, but his incredible play forced the Indians decision. He will need to turn a similar feat over the next two weeks if he wants to keep that job. If he doesn’t, the Indians will save some days on his service time and he will always be available once players begin to make the decisions on who to cut a little easier.
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