This Week in Guardians Baseball: the Brayan Rocchio Experience

The Cleveland Guardians called up uber-prospect Brayan Rocchio after injuries to Tyler Freeman and Amed Rosario left the ballclub short of shortstops on the active roster. He did not get into a game before being optioned back to Triple-A, but it was a clear signal that the time is near for Rocchio's MLB debut.So, what are your thoughts on Rocchio?Dave: I hope he becomes a real boy! Oh sorry that's Pinocchio.Mike: I am as excited for Brayan Rocchio as I have been for any Cleveland prospect since Francisco Lindor. Full stop.That said, I don't mind the stopover in The Show at all. Yeah, I wanted to see him, but if he had any underlying worries about the process of that debut, then those should be gone. Next time he's called up, it will be all business. This process is the same method the team employed with Battenfield in 2022. It is similar to how they used Bo Naylor last September; though he got some time, it was sparingly. I don't agree with this method all the time because if we get Pilkington next week while Logan Allen & Tanner Bibee are right there, well, I won't go negative here. Regardless, the organization has a good track record here of caring for the development of top prospects.Matt: Bryan Rocchio might be the piece that takes the Guardians to the next level. You already have two 100 million dollar players at 2B and 3B (still surreal that I’m even writing that sentence) but they are missing the piece at the most important position in the infield. Rocchio has probably the most potential of all of the SS prospects in system and he fits what the guardians are doing right now. With speed to steal 20+ bases, a slick glove, his bat to ball skills along with his budding power he’d fit right in. The unfortunate part is his promotion was short lived because of Rosario/Freeman’s injuries being more bumps and bruises but I don’t think that means we won’t see him in some capacity this season. Once he does make his debut though and gets an actual chance we might see the trio of Gimenez, Ramirez and Rocchio being the infield trio for a long time.Mitchell: Rocchio has earned comparisons to another switch-hitting, defensively gifted, contact-hitting shortstop who came up through the Cleveland organization. Those comparisons are natural, if not entirely fair. From the time of his draft in 2011 to his arrival four years later, we heard tales of Francisco Lindor's preternatural feel for the game, his professional attitude, and of course, his immense propensity to excel at the game of baseball. He was consistently a Top 10 prospect in all of MLB. That's not Rocchio, but you'd be forgiven for making that mistake. The fledgling middle-infielder has more questions in his game than Lindor did, both regarding his approach at the plate and the consistency of his defense. In fact, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs suggested that his glovework notably regressed in 2022. Still, we're talking about someone whose nickname has been "The Professor" since before he was a gleam in the eye of most Cleveland fans. I still have plenty of faith in his long-fabled defensive prowess. It's possible he was bored down in Akron. It's possible he didn't adjust well to manning a different position daily, a difficult task when you're entire professional life is still uncertain, but a necessary evil for a minor league system loaded with middle-infield talent. Now, he gets his first chance to prove he's the best of the bunch. Sure, it's likely to be short-lived this time around, and he probably won't quite live up to the Lindor comparisons, but at worst, we're talking about a near surefire Major Leaguer with the chance to be a whole lot more special than that.Gerbs: However brief and non-existent it was, Rocchio's stop in the majors is representative of the fact that the organization sees not only the talent in the player, but the urgency that comes with this season. The front office squeezes every drop of juice from the prospect orange before tossing them aside ((Unless you're Franmil Reyes, then you just had to go.)) so the fact that they optioned Rocchio back up indicates that this is a move that will likely happen for longer, in-season, just later. We can argue the move should have been made for a long time, that Amed Rosario's back should be shelved for a few weeks to help his bat get ready...but I'm happy to see that the move was made in an effort to ensure that there was coverage and that it can be made later in-season.