Cleveland Indians: Early roster changes that need to happen

What early roster changes should the Cleveland Indians be considering?

The 2021 Major League Baseball season is not even a tenth of the way to its completion, but there are already causes for concern for the roster of the Cleveland Indians. Those misgivings revolve around the Tribe’s offense, which is currently the bottom-dweller in the American League across multiple offensive categories. A roster shake-up might stimulate positive change in fortunes for Cleveland at the plate.

The Indians are currently in a strange position. After a tough extra innings loss to the Cincinnati Reds, the team is at .500 (7-7 record) and just a game and a half back of the Royals for the division lead. At first glance, that’s not a bad place to be following an offseason where you traded away your best player packaged with a solid veteran starter.

One positive is that the pitching for the Cleveland Indians has been incredible to start the year; which has kept the team in games and gifted the opportunity to secure a win almost every night. But despite the winning record, the team has experienced major malfunctions when swinging the lumber.

Through the first 13 games played the Indians are last in the American League in team batting average (.206), last in runs scored (49), last in hits (85) and second-to-last in on-base percentage (.284). The Indians have also relied heavily on the long ball to push runners across home plate. Nearly 60% of the team’s runs have come via the home run. This is largely due to atrocious situational hitting; Cleveland is, again, dead last in the league when hitting with runners in scoring position (.145).

Although the season is still young, that is not a formula for sustained success.  As a comparison, of all the teams to win their division last season, none had a HR-to-total runs ratio higher than 36%. So, clearly, there are issues to address with the lineup if Cleveland wants to contend for a playoff berth.

A good start was deciding to cut major league ties with outfielder Ben Gamel prior to yesterday’s contest. Many Tribe fans were surprised the 28-year-old made the Opening Day roster after a less-than-stellar showing in spring training. His inclusion was made all the more confusing as it came at the expense of Bradley Zimmer, who had a great spring down in Arizona, batting .290, to Gamel’s paltry .172.

Admittedly, Zimmer has not had an eye-catching start to a big league career, being one that has been riddled with injuries. But Zimmer, arguably, earned that spot over Gamel in spring, and he is clearly the better defensive player of the two, while being blessed with much more speed on the base paths. Those are qualities that can help a ball club even when the bats are quiet. Meanwhile, Gamel logged just one hit to his name and has struck out in almost half of his at bats in 2021 after being hitless in his first 10 games.

Another Cleveland farmhand who might have felt hard done by after an impressive spring is Bobby Bradley. The 24-year-old first baseman batted a cool .303 with a pair of dingers down in Goodyear and, like Zimmer, has little left to prove in the minors. He clubbed 33 home runs in 2019 at Triple-A Columbus and appeared the best choice to split time at first base with Yu Chang.

However, the Indians gave the nod to Jake Bauers who has struggled as a hitter since he stepped into the big leagues and is batting an anemic .174 in 10 games this season. The decision to give the 25-year-old Bauers the job over Bradley, just like the one that saw Zimmer lose out to Gamel, is looking very dicey now that we’re three weeks into the season, and the Indians are a rock bottom offensive team. It’s hard to imagine either of the men who were sent packing to Columbus performing any worse at the dish.

Unfortunately, barring an injury, any additional roster changes will not be forthcoming any time soon. The Clippers’ season does not begin until May 4 and Zimmer and Bradley won’t have seen in-game action since they were optioned in late March. The Cleveland Indians will likely want them to get a few at-bats under their belts before potentially calling them up in mid-May. Which means Tribe fans will have to grudgingly tolerate the struggling Bauers and Gamel for a few more weeks, at least, before personnel changes might be, mercifully, enacted.