The Guardians announced Friday afternoon that outfielder Estevan Florial cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week. Florial accepted an outright assignment and will report to Triple-A Columbus. He remains in the organization without holding a spot on the 40-man roster.
Acquired from the Yankees over the offseason, Florial broke camp with Cleveland despite a rough Spring Training. His offensive struggles carried into the regular season. Florial tallied 111 trips to the plate but limped to a .173/.264/.367 line while striking out 36.9% of the time. After hitting three home runs in the season’s first month, he turned in a .120/.200/.240 slash in 55 trips to the plate during May.
Florial was once a highly-regarded prospect in the New York farm system. Evaluators were intrigued by his power, speed and patient plate approach. Florial has well below-average pure contact skills, though, resulting in big strikeout tallies both in the upper minors and against MLB pitching. He played in 48 games over parts of four seasons in the Bronx, hitting .209/.313/.296 while fanning 41 times in 134 plate appearances (a 30.6% rate).
This is the second time in Florial’s career that he has cleared waivers. New York outrighted him last April and kept him in Triple-A for most of the 2023 season. The 26-year-old hit 28 homers and stole 25 bags with a .284/.380/.565 line in 482 plate appearances. Florial has never had any problem turning in strong results in the minors, though even last year’s huge slash came with an alarming 29.9% strikeout rate.
Surprising that a rebuilding team like Miami, the A’s, or Colorado didn’t pick him up and just stick him in the lineup and let him play. It looks to me like he just needs reps to figure it out.
I agree with you. He might need a couple hundred more abs but no reason he could be a useful 4th outfielder or bench bat.
I’m actually surprised CLE didn’t give him more of an opportunity. It seems like, despite being a top prospect, NYY never really gave him a fair shot.
Did you look at his stats before making this silly comment?
Um layventsky, or should I call you Estevan Florial?? You had plenty of time with both organizations. Fact is you and Laureano were holding roster spots for younger players that are actually producing.
I don’t think many of you have actually watched him at bat. He’s pretty awful. I think pitchers figured they can throw strikes to him cause he doesn’t barrel up much of anything. To quote Crash Davis he “couldn’t hit water of he fell out of a boat.”
Umm, I’ve watched every game so far, and have been watching baseball since 1962. What else you got? Florial has less than 300 Major League at bats. You “experts” seem to think that’s a career.
You’re right windowpane. We’re just haters lol. I just didn’t like the fact we got him in the first place and was taking at bats from Arias and Fry… Same with Laureano…
This guy can still clown
Yes, that’s an absolute fact after less than 300 at bats!
I know the Guardians will be glad to have him at AAA but he really looked bad at the plate. Hopefully they can make some tweaks to try to get that bat going because he was not putting up competitive ABs. Pitchers were pounding him with FBs in the top part of the zone and he just couldn’t touch them.
I remember Yankees fans gushing about this guy when he was a prospect.
Mike Schmidt hit 196 his first full year
And ended up in the HOF
1973 23 PHI NL 132 443 367 43 72 11 0 18 52 8 2 62 136 .196