3 Cleveland Guardians who have stumbled out of the gate who may not be able to recover

3. Estevan Florial

There was one player from the beginning of the offseason that should not have made the Opening Day roster but did anyway. That player was Estevan Florial. The former New York Yankees outfield prospect did not do much before landing in Cleveland, and that has not changed in the early part of this season.

Florial is 2-11 with five strikeouts, with one of his two hits being an unlikely triple. Struggling at the plate is nothing new for Florial and is something that seems unlikely to change now or in the future.

To put it bluntly, Florial does not look the part of a major league hitter. There is a certain amount of production required for players that strike out at a high rate, and Florial's lifetime 31.3% strikeout rate more than qualifies. The issue is that Florial swings and misses so frequently, and the contact he has made has not been hard (Florial's hard-hit rate is 16.7%). This lack of hard contact is not going to lead to any sort of consistent production any time soon.

Cleveland took a chance on Florial with the hopes that he could provide a much-needed power boost to their outfield group. If Florial is unable to have an uncharacteristic turnaround at the plate, it seems likely that the team will move on from him in order to clear a spot for the highly regarded Chase DeLauter sooner rather than later. Putting an end to experiement which never should have taken place to begin with.