Cleveland Indians: Predicting who will break out in 2018

Pitchers and catchers have finally reported to spring training! Now we finally have some baseball to talk about. As such, it’s time to think about potential breakout players in 2018.

There are several breakout candidates this season. There will be players who made minor impacts last season that now have a chance to be a major factor on this team. There will be players who have not gotten much of a chance at all in the big leagues yet who could be called up and put in important roles.

What determines a breakout? There’s no statistical threshold a player needs to reach to have broken out. It’s a mix of the eye test, along with stats and how the player was projected to perform.

Given those conditions, here are some players who have the potential to break out for the Cleveland Indians this season.

Yandy Diaz

Diaz has the bat, there’s no question about that. The glove is the big question mark with him. Currently, he sits behind Jose Ramirez on the depth chart at third base. But given a variety of potential infield alignments, Diaz could end up with a starting gig if Kipnis has to move to the outfield to start the season. It will be down to him and Giovanny Urshela to win that job and Diaz’s bat may be too much to ignore for Terry Francona.

If Diaz can get that starting spot, he can settle in to his role and his bat will stay hot. He only hit .263 last year, but he has a lot of upside in that bat. With such a high ceiling, he still has plenty of room before he reaches it.

He is in line for a lot more at-bats this season, and if he can make the most of that opportunity, he will for sure be considered one of the breakout players of 2018.