Cleveland Indians: Yan Gomes may be breaking out of his slump

Cleveland Indians catcher Yan Gomes had an awful start to the year, but a great series against the Detroit Tigers may be signaling a change.

Yan Gomes entered the 2017 season looking to put a disappointing 2016 behind him. A .176 batting average in April didn’t exactly achieve that goal.

Gomes continues to impress fans with his defense, but his performance on offense showed why the team tried so hard to get Jonathan Lucroy a season ago.

Roberto Perez‘s defense is good enough to start, but like Gomes he has his struggles on offense. For now, Gomes remains the starting catcher and while April was a struggle, he has gotten off to a solid start in May.

Gomes went a combined 4-for-7 in two games against the Detroit Tigers, striking out just once and raising his average up to .224. He did not score or drive in any runs, but just getting multiple hits in consecutive games is good for Gomes at this point in time.

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Two games is not enough to assume Gomes is back to his Silver Slugger ways, but hopefully it means he is seeing the ball well again. He only has 13 strikeouts in 58 at-bats, and four of those came in one game. Oddly enough it was when the Indians scored 13 runs against the Tigers in a 13-6 victory on April 15.

Aside from that one game he has been putting the ball in play, just not in an effective manner. His two RBI are a bit of an eyesore.

Gomes’ best season came in 2014 when he won the Silver Slugger award. He hit .278 and launched 21 home runs, driving in 74 runs.

The Indians don’t even need him to repeat those marks in 2017. He just needs to do better than his current clip of being so ineffective with driving in runs or coming around to score.

He only has six walks this season, so if he is going to continue to struggle to hit he needs to learn from Carlos Santana and begin drawing walks. It is easier said than done, but something has to change for Gomes to remain a full-time member of the starting lineup.

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But fans can look at his past two performances as perhaps a sign that things are changing. We won’t know until tonight, but a series against the last-place Kansas City Royals may help Gomes continue his current run of luck at the plate.

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Cleveland Indians catcher Yan Gomes had an awful start to the year, but a great series against the Detroit Tigers may be signaling a change.

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