Unheralded Guardians prospect quickly working his way into middle-infield future 

While the Guardians’ middle-infield picture had been a bit underwhelming in years prior, this year has been a bit of a different story thanks to the emergence of Travis Bazzana and Brayan Rocchio. 

For the first time since the days of Francisco Lindor and Jason Kipnis, it seems like Cleveland finally has two mainstays working in the middle of the infield. We’ve come a long way from the days of Will Wilson, Amed Rosario or Tyler Freeman playing up the middle. 

But just because those two have locked down the middle-infield at the big league level doesn’t mean that there still aren’t reasons to pay attention to the Guardians’ infield pipeline. 

One of the names in that pipeline is infielder Luke Hill, who has already made it Double-A after being drafted last year and was recently highlighted by the MLB Pipeline team as the Guardians’ top performer from last year’s draft. 

Luke Hill is an intriguing name in the Guardians’ infield 

Hill, a fourth round pick last season out of Ole Miss, entered play on Sunday slashing .288/.429/.594 with 11 home runs and 43 RBI in 48 games this season across High-A and Double-A. 

He’s been even better since reaching Akron, as he had a batting average of .370 with six doubles in seven games since getting promoted. He also played in 15 games at Single-A last season. 

Although Hill didn’t get the same amount of attention last year as Cleveland’s first round pick Jace LaViolette, he’s already zoomed past him in the minor league ranks. LaViolette entered the weekend with a .800 OPS in 48 games at High-A Lake County. 

While Hill’s production is obviously a win for the Guardians, it adds even more congestion to the top of the Guardians’ minor league system. 

Along with having an abundance of outfielders and catchers, the Guardians also have Angel Genao waiting in Triple-A. 

While the Guardians added the switch-hitting Genao to their 40-man roster in the offseason to protect him from the 40-man draft, it seems like the only way he’d be able to make the Guardians’ big league roster is if there’s some kind of injury. 

Hill is a bit different from Genao in that he exclusively hits from the right side and has a bit more power. He also primarily plays second base and third base compared to Genao who just plays shortstop. 

Another way that Hill could help the Guardians is as a trade chip, which we just outlined with Genao. 

The Guardians have far more prospects than open roster spots, so it wouldn't be a surprise if they make some kind of move at the trade deadline to try and consolidate the abundance of prospects on their roster. 

Hill won’t help them win a trade package by himself, but he’d be a good sweetener for a rebuilding team looking to reshuffle its infield. 

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