When ESPN's Keith Law ranked baseball's top prospects earlier this year, only two players placed ahead of Indians catcher Carlos Santana: Jason Heyward and Stephen Strasburg. So far in 2010, Santana, who is currently day-to-day with a knee bruise, has done nothing to dissuade the notion that he's a future star. The 24-year-old has posted a ridiculous .364/.451/.727 slash line, homering four times in 51 Triple-A plate appearances. So when will we see him in an Indians' uniform?
Cleveland's catching duo of Lou Marson and Mike Redmond has been unproductive thus far, to say the least. With only two singles and two walks in 28 plate appearances, Marson's numbers coming into today sit at .080/.148/.080, and Redmond's (.190/.227/.238) aren't much better. Even if Santana takes some time to adjust to playing at the Major League level, he should still be an immediate upgrade.
The Indians have already postponed Santana's free agency for a year by keeping him in the minors until now, and will have to decide how much longer they'll delay his big-league debut. In an article for ESPN.com, Baseball Prospectus' Christina Kahrl suggests that in the AL Central, the Indians are "contenders by default" and that they're "minimizing their already slim playoff chances" as long as Santana remains at Triple-A Columbus. As one of the more cost-conscious teams in baseball though, Cleveland could save millions by putting off a Santana promotion until June, preventing the catcher from eventually qualifying as a Super Two player.
For a team with deeper pockets and more serious postseason aspirations, calling Santana up now would be a no-brainer. At 24, he appears ready to contribute in the bigs, and he'd replace a black hole of production behind the plate in Cleveland. However, even in the AL Central, it's unlikely that the Indians have the talent to make a playoff run this season, meaning we shouldn't expect to see Santana called up for at least a few more weeks. It may test the patience of Indians fans, but for an organization frequently forced to trade away their pricier stars, looking to the future and delaying Santana's service time clock is the right move.
No chance that the Indians are playoff contenders in 2010.
Let Carlos Santana show the front office that his monster start isn’t just a hot streak so that they can make sure he’s ready to be in the show permanently.
Carlos Santana hit a ball off his knee on Wednesday. He’s going to sitting for at least a few days. They will not call him up until they think his defense and English skills have improved enough anyway. That, and his arbitration clock. A team with the Indians finances has to, unfortunately, deal carefully with all matters regarding player salaries.
I’ve said this on a few other sites, but I’m calling for June 7th to be Santana’s debut. It pretty much gurantees he won’t be a Super Two guy. It’s the first game of a homestand (so the fans get first looks at him). It’s an ESPN game against the Boston Red Sox. What better way to usher in the Santana era than the game that will feature Victor Martinez’s first trip back to Cleveland since the trade? It’s a match made in heaven if you ask me.
i hope soon because he’s on my fantasy team. the dumbest move the dodgers ever did was trade this guy.
i cant believe we let this guy go just to save a million bucks on the casey blake deal!
no one can believe they let him go. but they did have martin who was doing great before everyone else found out how to pitch him.
It’s just a matter of time. Just like Chapman, Strasburg, Starlin Castro ect. All 3 should be up by June. Chapman 1-1 with a 0.80 ERA 18 SO in 3 starts, Strasburg 2-0 0.73 ERA 17 SO in 3 starts, and Starlin Castro is hitting .404 1 HR 12 RBIs .426/.649/1.075 is his OBP/SLG/OPS in 13 games
Down the road he may project better at a position other than catcher. Had Blake been a total bust, this trade could have been up there with DeShields/Pedro. Remains to be seen…
I agree with you, you can never tell how a guy does from the minors to the big leagues but the scouts are raving about him. The Indians agreed to pay Blakes 6 weeks worth of salary when they traded him to the dodgers for Santana. What it really was was a sale of a top minor league prospect so Frank McCourt and his wife could pocket more money. Because of there disgusting divorce being public it came out that frank McCourt made $110 million dollars tax free last year. By the time they are done the dodgers will look like an expansion team.