While nobody in the Cleveland Indians organization wants to look ahead to 2018 just yet because of how special this postseason has a chance to be for the big league club, there are several interesting decisions they’re going to have to make whenever the season does end.
They’ve already attempted to solve (or create depending on how you look at it) one roster issue by having Francisco Mejia play third base in the Arizona Fall League and see if they can find room for his bat on the roster with Yan Gomes and Roberto Perez locked up in long term (albeit friendly) contracts.
Or, could they also potentially open the door to make Eric Haase a part of their future behind the dish. All the attention is on Mejia, and not unrightfully so, but Haase is a name that you’re already not familiar with, you should be.
Haase was the Indians seventh round pick in 2011 and was highly regarded in his own right. While he doesn’t own Mejia’s hit tool, he’s much more polished defensively, especially at the moment and also has always had plenty of pop in his bat.
What Haase has done to put himself sort of back on the Indians radar is putting himself in position to use that power to even more of advantage.
Hasse has put up wRC+ of 113, 140 and 133 in season’s where he’s had over 300 plate appearances. So it didn’t look as if he needed to make drastic changes to have a shot at the big leagues someday but this is where the use of new data and analytics has possibly helped take a guy who could have been just a fringe backup to being a potential regular or part of a catching tandem.
Thanks to what we know now about launch angles and the optimal point of contact for a baseball, many hitters are trying to hit for more power to increase their value and Haase has taken advantage of a tool readily available to every hitter in the sport.
“You want to hit the ball hard but hitting it on the ground doesn’t give you a good chance,” Haase said in August in the midst of what certainly was a breakout season. “ I wanted to clean up my approach, work on my launch angle, cut down on my strikeouts and get better pitches to damage with.”
Haase didn’t reduce his strikeout rate. However, it did remain steady at 30%. And while that’s not a great number to be at, that it didn’t spike even further in the midst of a mechanical change to Haase’s swing is an accomplishment of its own. Haase, along with some of the Indians minor league coaches utilized Hit Trax to help take his good raw power a bit further.
“One of the things was I felt like I had pop,” Haase said. “But I wasn’t swinging at pitches that allowed me to get the ball in the air. Luckily for me, I sat down with the coaches (Tim Laker and Luke Carlin) last year and they pointed out a lot, but not too many big mechanical changes. I felt good with the idea of cleaning up my approach. I’ve never done that before. It was a breath of fresh air to be able to do that. I’ve always been a good low ball hitter but I had to lay off off speed (pitches) down that I don’t have a good chance to put a good swing on.”
Haase hit 16 homers in High-A and then 12 in Double-A in 246 plate appearances. Nothing earth shattering, but solid. But in 2017 Haase hit 26 homers, setting all kinds of Akron franchise records and posted an Eastern League best .315 ISO. Additionally, his walk rate rose from a middling-average rate to an above average 11.15%. Thanks to analytics and technology, Haase was able to tap into a skill he already possessed – above average power.
Of course, with swing changes at age 24, there were going to be some new things to learn about his approach because he had been swinging the bat an entirely different way for a long time. The changes can lead to being more vulnerable to a certain pitch and area that he might have been able to at least make contact with before and also changes the point of contact in which he was hitting certain pitches before and the use of his hands or other instincts and mechanics. Learnin the new nuances of his swing may have led to not dropping his strikeout rate, but that’s something that could still happen.
“Obviously I want to cut down on my strikeouts. That’s always kind of been my achilles heel,” Haase said. “I was missing on the higher side early in the season. I tinkered with a few things and the timing clicked for me.”
Of course with a new swing and approach means a new scouting report on Haase was going to surface and once again, he was going to have adjust his new swing and approach to the adjustments pitchers in the Eastern League made to him.
“I definitely started seeing more offspeed down,” Haase said. “I was geared up for offspeed up in the zone. I’m in good mechanical position to hit those pitches but need to lay off those to get better pitches to hit after that.”
Haase was able to get eight plate appearances at Columbus as somewhat of a reward for his big season. Now that Haase’s offense has been elevated to another level, it makes him even more of an intriguing prospect because his defense has always been considered above average as well. He’s registered sub 2.0 pop times (how long it takes for a catcher to come from his crouch and release a throw to a base where a runner is stealing) as well as showing excellent receiving and blocking skills. Mejia’s arm may be better but Haase right now exceeds Mejia defensively everywhere else and his attitude about his defense falls right in line with the Indians organizational philosophy for catchers.
“That (defense) is priority #1,” Haase said. “ I’m trying to get our starters as deep into the game as possible and keep runs off the board. If I hit, I hit but I’m a catcher mostly. I’m just trying to earn the pitchers trust. I’ve been with them a few years. I know guys from catching them and have a better relationship with them on and off the field and it’s translating.”
Haase did receive a decent signing bonus from the Indians, which bought the Michigan born catcher’s commitment away from Ohio State (yes, the Dearborn, MI native was committed to play baseball for the Buckeyes) and he does enjoy a comfortable proximity from home while playing for the Indians organization (save for stints in Lynchburg, VA). His family is three hours away and he certainly enjoys having his wife and child close by while he goes through the grind that is the minor leagues.
“It’s a great separator having them everywhere I’ve been,” Haase said. “I’m extremely blessed and they’ve been amazing through all this. That’s one thing I’ve worked on with my schedule in my down time is quality time with my family. It helps on both ends of the ball. We get so wrapped up in baseball and it consumes your life for so long. Any time you can have a hobby, with me it’s my family away from the field, I can get away and clear my head a little bit.”
They will be with Haase as he enters an offseason where he could be a minor league free agent and the Indians would need to add him to the 40 man roster or re-sign him to keep him. He also could be exposed to the Rule 5 draft if they don’t. The power Haase has tapped into is very real with his swing changes because the Eastern League and Canal Park are very pitcher friendly. Combined with his defensive skills and attitude about defense, he should be firmly on the Indians radar for the future and maybe the Indians trying to Mejia at third base next month is a way they can clear one road block from his path.
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