Rank’em: The biggest and best games on the 2021 Browns schedule
May 13, 2021It’s go time: The Cavs cannot have another forgotten season
May 18, 2021At the time I’m writing this on Sunday morning, Andrés Giménez has sparsely seen the field of late for the Cleveland Indians. His only service in the first trio of games against Seattle came of the pinch-running variety, when Eddie Rosario required substitution after being plunked in the foot late in Game 1 of the series on Thursday night. Giménez touched home plate courtesy of a Josh Naylor bop, providing the former with a surely insufficient amount of solace before his weekend-long benching. (EDIT: Benching, over. Sunday’s lineup was announced as I write, and Giménez’s name lines the page. Maybe he’ll hit four homers and render this article moot. Probably not.)
Gimenez, the 22-year-old Venezuelan-born shortstop whom the Indians acquired as a part of the package for Some Met Whose Name Escapes Me, shone in Arizona this spring, earning him praise from wizened skipper Terry Francona. It’s a rare event for the Cleveland skipper to praise someone as young as Giménez so unreservedly. That performance and praise, as well as with the .263/.333/.398 line he attained alongside stellar defense in 48 pandemic-laden 2020 games, offered real hope for the future. The slick-fielding youngster made it out of camp with the starting shortstop job; only baseball messiah Fernando Tatis Jr. was younger amongst Opening Day starting shortstops.
If Tatis is baseball’s Prince Who Was Promised, Giménez too has been treated by Clevelanders as a potential savior kind of figure. Replacing an all-time great—let’s be clear, that’s what Lindor is for this franchise—is a touchy subject. Gimenez, who’s so young and held his own in a strong rookie campaign, carries the promise of seamlessly weaving the previous era to the present. His success might suggest that the team’s retool might not take long, that good things lie ahead.
The reality, though, is that Gimenez has looked lost at the plate, and the hope that he’d hit the ground running is wearing thin. Having played in 28 of Cleveland’s first 37 games, all at shortstop, Giménez has whiffed his way to a .171/.220/.303 batting line, complete with a 30.1% strikeout rate that shrouds a 3.6% walk rate. His 43 wRC+ is the lowest on the team, and the 12th lowest in baseball, amongst those who’ve stepped to the plate more than 80 times. Expectedly stellar glovework has kept him at replacement level, at once a testament to his defense and to the importance of shortstop defense in general.
If Cleveland had immediate intention to demote Giménez, they likely would’ve done so before their 2021-mile flight to Seattle. I’m guessing the consecutive days off serve to reset Giménez’s approach and confidence at the plate, while also providing an opportunity to see the extent to which fellow former Met Amed Rosario can be trusted at shortstop should his counterpart continue to struggle. They might have spent the time modifying his swing. If Giménez continues to struggle after his reset and Rosario proves to be best suited for roving center field, Cleveland could also opt for the speedy utilityman Ernie Clement or piping-hot Owen Miller—himself part of a large trade return, this time for Mike Clevinger—down I-71 in Triple-A Columbus. There’s also Yu Chang, but his MLB struggles have been even darker than Giménez’s.
Cleveland has options, and they’ll use them if they must, but they’d no doubt prefer to see Giménez, the team’s best defender, pinpoint the root cause of his problems and mend it without a roster move. The question is, what is the root cause? Is the youngster pressing to make a good first impression for his new manager, coaches, organization, and fans? Did he or the coaching staff change something in his approach or mechanics that isn’t working? Is it just a random smattering of events that will correct its course with more playing time? If anyone knows the answer, it’s locked behind the doors to the Cleveland clubhouse.
Whatever the underlying cause, Gimenez’s underlying discipline statistics have regressed significantly from last season. While maintaining the same level of aggression in the zone, he’s chasing pitches out of the zone significantly more often.Not a recipe for success. Just as concerning, he’s been whiffing nearly twice as often as he did in 2020. That season, Giménez was in the 55th percentile in misses per pitch seen amongst those who batted as many times as he did (since swinging and missing is bad, for my calculation, the lower the percentile, the better). This year, he’s made contact less while swinging more, and his 19.3% swinging-strike rate is in the 96th percentile. Only eight players who’ve batted at least 80 times have whiffed with more regularity than Giménez has.
Year | Level | PAs | BA | OBP | SLG | ISO | K% | BB% | wOBA | wRC+ |
2021 | MLB | 83 | .179 | .279 | .308 | .137 | 29.4% | 3.5% | .235 | 47 |
It’s difficult to contribute offensively when you’re whiffing at one out of every five pitches you see. You’d have to really crush the ball when you do make contact. Gimenez’s quality of contact has improved slightly in conjunction with the whiffs, but not nearly to the extent that would justify all the swinging and missing. It’s not surprising. Unless we’ve all vastly misjudged his ability, Andrés Giménez doesn’t possess the raw power required to offset his symphony of missing. Few people do. The other players who have whiffed about as often as Giménez this year include struggling sluggers, like Joey Gallo, Luis Robert, and Javier Baez, or other young players who haven’t quite made it big, like Taylor Trammell, Ryan Mountcastle, and Willy Adames. Even while making really great contact, the former trio is struggling based on how frequently they’re whiffing. Giménez doesn’t have close to that much power. Like the latter trio, he must cut down on the strikeouts, and therefore the whiffing, to have any future in the big leagues.
Luckily, he and his team certainly know this, and I’m guessing the three days off (or more, I don’t know what the future holds! EDIT: Just three.) are an attempt to reset his headspace and refine his approach. It’s worth remembering that Giménez has literally never struggled at professional baseball. He excelled in rookie ball at 17 before settling into an above-average minor league hitter. Incredibly, his 2019 performance in Double-A almost identically mirrors his 2020 MLB debut.
Year | Level | PAs | BA | OBP | SLG | ISO | K% | BB% | wOBA | wRC+ |
2019 | AA | 479 | .250 | .309 | .387 | .137 | 21.3% | 5.0% | .316 | 105 |
2020 | MLB | 132 | .263 | .333 | .398 | .136 | 21.2% | 5.3% | .321 | 104 |
Perhaps that means he’s just a professional solid hitter, that his natural instincts allow him a certain floor, and he’s an adjustment away to getting back to this level of production. That’s perhaps too high an expectation. It’s not impossible, but it’s not likely. That said, there’s no doubt he is trying to make some adjustment, and there’s a strong chance he improves on his 47 wRC-plus. I know no one finds projection systems to be satisfying, so instead, let’s use his career norms as baseline expectations for Gimenez’s future production:
Year | Level | PAs | BA | OBP | SLG | ISO | K% | BB% | wOBA | wRC+ |
20-21 | MLB | 215 | .227 | .290 | .361 | .134 | 24.7% | 4.7% | .286 | 81 |
It should be noted that his career totals, which amount to less than half a season, were worth .8 WAR, thanks to great defense at the most important position. That’s about a two-win pace, the loose benchmark for a league-average player.
There’s room for more, too. I need not remind you again, Giménez is 22 years old. Until now, he’s never struggled. His scouting report indicates and sweet lefty swing confirms that he has the potential to grow into a difference maker with the bat at some point in the future. The natural loft he puts on the ball has a chance to play extremely well in Progressive Field’s short right field wall. As is often the case, public sentiment toward any player swings too much. The high expectations for Giménez were too high; the impatience with him now is overblown as well. It wouldn’t shock me if he makes a detour to Columbus if he continues to struggle, but I’d expect that visit to be brief. The defense is simply too good for him not to make a contribution at the MLB level. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing far more swings like this one in the future.