Shake It Off
As the Taylor Swift "Eras" tour sweeps the nation, I awake this morning not as a Swiftie, though I am a fan of her and her music, but as someone trying to channel her 2014 banger, "Shake It Off", into my favorite baseball team. The Guardians of Cleveland are in desperate need of some shaking of things, whether it be their heads in the sorrow of how they have lost the last few games or roster spots for players that are simply not producing. As a team that routinely underperforms in April commiserates to where they end up in the end-of-year standings, it's unsurprising that they are three games below .500 on Star Wars Day. But the way with which this team is underperforming is the cause for concern.There is less to be worried about with regard to the offense if you look deeper into the numbers, but that doesn't mean nothing should be changed. If you look at wOBAcon, which is not the name of the Din Djarin's newest target in The Mandalorian, but rather stands for weighted on-base average on contact, the Guardos are last in the league at .311. Broken down into layman's non-analytic terms, the team is getting on base the least amount when they actually have BBEs or batted ball events. but their xwOBA, which gives us an idea of what would have on a BBE in a vacuum based on the launch angle, exit velocity, ballpark factors, and other mitigating circumstances, the Guardians are 21st at .312. The contact first team is last in barrels, which is lower than expected or what you want but not terribly surprising. There are individuals that are having good seasons hitting the ball hard, Josh Naylor amongst them, but they are being hit right at people.The pitching side has more issues than you'd expect for a team known round these parts are the Cuyhoga Pitching Factory LLC. Shane Bieber has not had many vintage Shane Bieber starts, Zach Plesac is about to be Zach "Please be wind and rewind" at the last Blockbuster in existence, Triston McKenzie and Aaron Civale have been on the shelf most of the year and the team has already spun out Hunter Gaddis back to the minors and likely will do the same with one Peyton Battenfield. Logan T Allen ((Or TOAO, The One and Only, as he is referenced in our Discord.)) and Tanner Bibee have come up and produced as expected, elitely, but with no Sticks or Civale as steadying presences in the rotation, the bullpen has been worked more than you'd like. Xzavion Curry is getting close to deserving a shot in the rotation, Eli Morgan was in one of those modes until his "blowup" in New York where he allowed his first run of the season. Emmanuel Clase has a cutter that isn't cutting, James Karinchak is a walking blown save, while Trevor Stephan is vibing along being steady. Sam Hentges's return this weekend will help, and there are others that could bolster the pen if that's where Plesac lands or the team gets uber-aggressive with guys like Joey Cantillo or Gavin Williams.So what can be done except wait for luck to turn and warmer weather to energize some bats? Plenty. So let's look into the things that the front office can do to shake up the roster, make some moves, and get out of this early season slump.
1) Call up Brayan Rocchio and have him start at shortstop
There is little reason for Rocchio to not be on the major league roster right now playing every day. He's in the middle of a 16-game hitting streak, so if General Manager Mike Chernoff or President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti are worried about him coming up cold, that's ludicrous. Amed Rosario is one of the more polarizing players on #GuardiansTwitter, with many many many folks ready to get pitchforks and torches to raid manager Terry Francona's office if he keeps the veteran in the two spot of the lineup. And they have a variety of good reasons too: Rosario has a 58 wRC+, a near career-high K%, and is triple-slashing .227/.263/.318, and has five GIDP on the season ((Same as Josh Naylor, FWIW.)) And while the argument of "he will get his and end up being a 100 wRC+ player by the end of the year" is more than likely true, this team can't afford to waste any more plate appearances waiting for that to happen. With the balanced schedule, teams lost six games against intra-divisional foes, which was how the Guards were able to be so blah in April's past and still come out on top. That's 4-5 wins that you could pretty securely remove from the win column, and while they could still *be* wins, they are more hard-fought games than the ones aginst the Tigers of Detroit or Royals of KC. The future is now and the future is Rocchio.That being said, you insulate the youngster. Andres Gimenez can slot into the spot behind Steven Kwan and in front of Jose Ramirez effortlessly and gives the front end of the lineup some serious help while you put Rocchio in Gime's 7th or 8th spot. Too many teams are bypassing Kwan to get to Rosario and pitchers don't fear Ramirez or his protection behind to make it work. Playing Rocchio over Rosario and moving Gimenez up the lineup makes too much sense for this roster. Should have already happened and Rocchio runs the risk of being "overcooked" as Willie Hood mentioned on Twitter this morning.https://twitter.com/willhoo99/status/1654081870777184256?s=46&t=aWf9iWhwNUILQYmuv_8bWg2) Remove Plesac from any equationHad I been calling the shots and had my druthers, Plesac wouldn't have broken the spring on the roster. He'd be punching pitching mounds on a different field and/or fighting buttons to a different jersey color. But being that we can't change that past, we should have already seen the last start in a Guardians uniform for Zach Plesac. It was reported yesterday that Battenfield will start Friday's game against the Minnesota Twins, taking over what was Plesac's rotation spot. Whether he is moving to the bullpen to be a long man or getting sent down to the minors to work on "stuff" remains to be seen but between the product on the field and the seemingly surly attitude of the 28-year-old starter has doomed his role with Cleveland. Personally, again, I'd designate the player for assignment, ridding our roster of him and creating a hole for someone like Gavin Williams, but I know this organization likes to squeeze any and all juice left in the fruit before discarding the husk. However, just last year, Franmil Reyes was sent packing with contract options remaining, so there is precedence for such a move. Time will tell3) Turn over the bottom of the roster with prospectsSure, for a team that most expected to be in the playoffs it is incredibly early to be calling in the prospects, but this is, as always, a different type of organization. With last year's debuts, the prospects that would be making their way to Cleveland have already had some seasoning. I'm talking about replacing Gabe Arias with Tyler Freeman, Cam Gallagher with Bo Naylor, and Oscar Gonzalez or Will Brennan with Micah Pries. It's become clear that Arias needs regular at bats to reach his height, and with the roster as it is, it just isn't happening in Cleveland. Rocchio is a better prospect and would get the starting shortstop job over him if the org was *really* into replacing Rosario, and Josh Bell, Josh Naylor, and probably even a David Fry are higher priorities right now than Arias at first. It would behoove Arias to spend some time in Columbus and get a right-field glove fit for him.Tyler Freeman can do what Arias hasn't to this point, which is plug and play on the roster with greater success. Gimenez, Rosario, and Ramirez all play every day or at best get DH duties on travel days. Freeman can cover the middle spots and Fry can handle the random third base start when JRam needs a blow and is the DH. I have never really seen it with Arias as a prospect, the contact profile is just too hit or miss, literally, but I know he has prodigious power when he does connect, so moving him to the outfield to contend with George Valera's injured hand for the next move is a more creative and plausible path to playing time.Speaking of playing time, it needs to be the Bo Show in Cleveland. I actually am loathe to get rid of Cam Gallagher, which is a weird feeling, but his handling of the pitching staff has been immaculate as a backup and thusly would want him to go back to Columbus and work with the Williams's and Cantillo's of the future there. Starting catcher Mike Zunino has produced enough at the plate to make up for his inability to collect the sliders and sweepers from this pitching staff, but bringing up Bo and allowing him to play 3-4 times a week would greatly affect the effectiveness of this rotation.As stated above, this team is close but needs a shake-up. I very much think this is still a division-winning caliber team, and so while some of the changes I am calling for would be off beat for the organization to do so early, I do think they see the writing on the wall and are willing to make bolder moves this season compared to others. It's time to get weird in Cleveland, so that come July we can...Keep cruisingCan't stop, won't stop movingIt's like I got this music in my mindSaying it's gonna be alright