Patrick Bailey’s strong series against Astros shows how valuable he is to Guardians 

Last week the tenor of the Cleveland Guardians’ season changed on a dime when José Ramírez suffered a hamate bone fracture that’s going to keep him out until July. 

While the Guardians offense has been a bit better this season, Ramírez is one of the best third baseman in baseball and the heartbeat of the Guardians’ lineup. It’s hard to overstate how much Cleveland’s going to miss him in their lineup. 

Although the Guardians have gone just 2-4 since Ramírez suffered his injury, they’ve had one big bright spot in the lineup in the form of Patrick Bailey, who posted a .364/.417/.364 slashline in those six games with two runs scored and a walk. 

Sure, that’s nowhere near the kind of output that Ramírez is known for, but it’s still an exciting development given how much of a liability Bailey’s bat has been throughout his career. 

Patrick Bailey just had his best weekend as a Guardian

Almost all of that damage came on Friday and Saturday when Bailey went 4-for-7 against the Astros including a three-hit game in Cleveland’s win on Saturday. 

Not only was that Bailey’s third multi-hit game of the year (all of which have come with Cleveland), but it also helped pad Travis Bazzana’s career day, as two of those hits led to him coming around to score on Bazzana’s homers. 

While Bazzana is no stranger to hitting with runners on base thanks to incredible production from Brayan Rocchio at the bottom of the Guardians’ lineup. But the Guardians have moved Rocchio up to the top of the order since Ramírez got hurt, which left his bottom of the order crown up for grabs. 

Now, Bailey’s showing against the Astros wasn’t perfect. In fact, there’s also an argument to be made that it actually showed his limitations since all four of his hits were singles. But this is also a guy who was hitting just .140 in 30 games with the Giants before being acquired by Guardians. 

And there’s more to his game than what he does at the plate considering he’s one of the game’s best defensive catchers. He’s currently in the 97th percentile in pop time, 92nd percentile in caught stealing percentage and also has guided pitchers to a 4.24 ERA when he’s behind the plate. 

The Guardians made their priorities behind the plate clear when they decided to roll with a catching tandem of the light-hitting Bailey and Austin Hedges, but Bailey showed just how productive that tandem can be with his performance over the weekend. 

The Guardians seem to have the future of their catching situation figured out with Cooper Ingle, but Bailey also has three years of team control remaining via arbitration. He may not have the same offensive upside as Ingle, but he's clearly a valuable piece.

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