Cleveland Indians outfield plan after Eddie Rosario, Jordan Luplow trades

Cleveland Indians outfield plan after Eddie Rosario, Jordan Luplow trades

Back on April 1, the Cleveland Indians opened up the 2021 campaign against the Detroit Tigers. The outfield for the Tribe in that game consisted of Eddie Rosario in left, Jordan Luplow in center and Josh Naylor in right with Ben Gamel later subbing for Luplow. Now, none of them are still on the roster.

Gamel barely made it out of April, being claimed off waivers by Pittsburgh on May 9. Naylor was later lost for the season due to injury. As for Rosario and Luplow, the Tribe sent both to other clubs at the trade deadline.

Eddie Rosario was dealt to the Atlanta Braves in a move to save salary in which Cleveland received essentially nothing after releasing the only player that came to them in the deal. As for Jordan Luplow, he went to the Tampa Bay Rays along with D.J. Johnson for pitching prospect Peyton Battenfield.

The outfield in Cleveland has slowly evolved throughout the season, but with the pair of moves at the trade deadline the Tribe no longer have any of their Opening Day outfielders on the active roster. Naylor will be back next season at some point, hopefully, but the other three aren’t even with the organization anymore.

Moving forward into the rest of the season Cleveland will be able to audition a few different positions to see what they have for the future. However, there might not be a bigger audition than the outfield. At this point, pretty much every spot is up for grabs. Some players have a better starting point to win a starting gig for next year, but it’s anyone’s race.

As we transition into the final leg of the season, these five outfielders will be competing to showcase their skills to the front office. Currently, all five are on the active roster, but that’s likely to not be the case by the start of next season. Adding at least Naylor back into the mix and there will be a few of these five on the outside looking in.