The Indians plan to utilize Carlos Santana as the team’s primary first baseman, skipper Terry Francona told reporters including MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian (via Twitter). That means that Edwin Encarnacion will mostly serve as the team’s designated hitter, though the two will also exchange roles at times. While that’ll increase the wear and tear somewhat on Santana, who’s slated to hit the open market after the season, it will give him a chance also to show his defensive chops after lining up as the DH primarily in 2016.
More from the AL Central:
- The White Sox could welcome Todd Frazier back to action as soon as Wednesday, Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago tweets. Manager Rick Renteria says that the veteran has improved quite a bit over the past several days. Chicago is hoping to ease Frazier into action without inflaming his strained oblique; though the club would no doubt love to showcase him for possibly interested rivals, the priority no doubt is on making sure that a more significant injury doesn’t develop — potentially fouling up hopes that he’ll develop into a nice trade deadline chip.
- After struggling through a rookie season in which he hit .185/.231/.281 in 149 plate appearances, Royals middle infielder Raul Mondesi is “a different guy this spring,” manager Ned Yost told Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com. While the 21-year-old Mondesi has impressed thus far as one of four contenders for the Royals’ second base job, the fact that he has minor league options remaining could work against him, Flanagan notes. Of the other contenders, Cheslor Cuthbert and Christian Colon don’t have options left, so they look like shoo-ins for roster spots. Whit Merrifield, meanwhile, could be too valuable to the Royals as a utility man to demote. Nevertheless, Yost has left the door open for Mondesi to grab a spot. “The decision will come down [to] what is best for his development,” Yost said. “If he’s at a point where he can contribute … Defensively, his range is unbelievable. The coverage is unbelievable in terms of how far he can go side to side, and getting pop flies.”
- Royals DH/outfielder Brandon Moss is dealing with some lower back stiffness, as Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star tweets. He’ll sit out today’s action, though it seems there’s little reason for concern at this point. Moss is considered day to day.
Say goodbye to Santana. Unless he plays like Chris Carter at 1B, the Indians just added 15 more teams to their competition to keep him.
Honestly, I think that was the plan. This gives them a good chance to evaluate whether he is worth resigning at a first baseman rate as some teams would surely considering signing him to play first regardless of where plays in 2017 due to his offensive output. If he performs well and signs elsewhere the tribe brass can cite market restraints but have EE with Bradley powering through the minors. If he performs poorly, he may depress his market enough the stay within the tribe’s price range.
I agree I think that is exactly what they are thinking. Might give them an excuse not to resign him as their budget will be tight next off season. Though it’s not like first baseman raked in the cash this off season
In addition to the budget side of this, I think this is also an act of appreciation from the tribe. Santana has been with the Indians for a long time and he’s entering a contract year. If the Lucroy veto taught us anything it’s that playing time on the field matters and can substantially affect your value.
I give it two months; three months tops
Kinda dickish commentary on Mondesi. He was 20! If the Royals weren’t mindlessly rushing him to the bigs based on a couple of WS appearances, he’d have been having a good (I presume) year at AA, tops. Probably should have started the year with the Blue Rocks. It’s all well & good to brag that your prospect is “the youngest guy at every level” & excuse his .260 BA, etc., because of it, but at some point you have to put him in a position to succeed & then let him do it. Putting him in the bigs at 20 when he hadn’t crushed the upper minors is NOT it. And pointing out a crappy rookie year without taking a sentence or two to point all this out is pretty unfair. I’m not a Royals fan or even a Mondesi fan (nothing against him, tho), but this struck me as unfair to him.
I agree with this, but I’m not sure the writer was really trying to say anything against him. It wouldn’t have hurt though to include something like even though his line is terrible it’s impressive that he even made it to mlb that early.
The part about what’s best for his development is probably the most important. Sending him down becuase he has options makes sense, but sending him down because he really has no business being in the majors yet makes as much sense.
Carlos Santana’s defensive chops? That’s hilarious.