Tyler Freeman could make Myles Straw a free man

As the real estate agent who tried to sell John Mulaney and his wife a house would say, "Sometimes you don't know what's gonna happen and then something happens." This is how Myles Straw must be feeling now as he watches youngster Tyler Freeman coming for his starting centerfield spot in the rearview mirror. Sometimes you don't know what's going to happen and then something happens, and that something is Freemania. ((Just made that up. It's like Linsanity but for Tyler Freeman. It surely will not catch on.))Myles Straw in April of 2022 was riding high: he had just signed a deal that, if he was smart with his money, would set him up for life. A five-year, $25 million deal that presumptively made Straw the centerfielder of the future in Cleveland. Sure, Straw's bat left much to the imagination, as he has always been a throwback type of player: a slap hitter "make a single into a double with a steal" type of guy in an era where sluggers are more likely to proudly present their MaxEV in the locker room over their stolen base total. And it was okay through 2022, where despite posting a 67 wRC+, where a measurement of 100 is league average, he totaled 2.1 fWAR on the season based mostly on his excellent defense. You can live with a subpar bat at one position when that player provides Platinum Glove-caliber defense. However, then 2023 cratered Straw's value: the bat never got better, as he failed to pull the ball *and* stopped running for the middle three months of the season. Straw had 64 events where he was on first base and he only attempted to steal second on six occasions, securing the bag only four times. ((I will grant him that I cannot find if there was a man on second or there were two outs and stealing was inopportune. But still...)) And not only was he bad at the plate, but the glove failed him too. Defensive sabermetrics are hard to qualify, but it was plain to see that Straw was not his best self and it showed as he saw a steep drop from 17 defensive runs saved in 2022 to only six in 2023.The front office has obviously seen the state of the outfield, outside of Steven Kwan, and set about upgrading, both from outside the organization and inside. Fans spent the winter pining for a Shane Bieber trade to bolster the outfield pool and they were met with Estevan Florial for Cody Morris. Infield prospect Angel Martinez was shown how to shag flys in center and Rule 5 pick Deyvison De Los Santos has been expanding his repertoire to right field to make sure he can stick on the roster for the season. But it seems like last year's terminated experiment renewed might be the thing that pushes Straw not only to the bench but maybe out of the org: enter Tyler Freeman.Freeman was supposed to get work in the outfield last year, but a shoulder injury kept him from getting work in earnestly. When he returned to health, it was time to play real games, so it was back to the infield and the bench for the bigs. Freeman became known as "the Reverse Chik Fil A" last season as he seemed to only play on Sundays for MVP Jose Ramirez's day off from the field. He performed well enough that there were questions as to why he wasn't getting more run down the stretch, but his batting profile has never been one that screamed "Give me a shot!". Freeman has never been a power hitter: a doubles hitter at best with an okay K-rate and a could-be-improved walk rate. But this winter, Freeman put in the work to learn the outfield and has established himself as a viable option in centerfield this spring. He's hitting .286/.375/.500 with one home run and two steals in Spring Training with an Opponent Quality rating of 8.6, which means he's doing this against viable major league starting pitching.The outfield mix is still super muddy, with Kwan the only one on any kind of a certain path. Florial is out of options and would be DFA'd if he does not make the roster. De Los Santos is likely sticking so the team can hold the asset, and Ramon Laureano has done enough to be the veteran in the room and the lefty killer for the plethora of platoon playmates. Will Brennan figures to stick around as well, and a mix of Kwan/Florial/Freeman/Laureano/Brennan is a decent righty-lefty setup that allows for DDLS to be a corner infield guy and keep Freeman as the super-sub Ben Zobrist type. Straw can still make the roster as an OF5, a defensive replacement or pinch runner late in games, but his time as a starter is likely gone. Straw is still owed $17.5m in salary and $2.25m in buyouts for 2027 and 2028, so while it is unlikely Cleveland cuts bait and puts all of that on 2024's payroll, he can be moved for a Double-A bat with Cleveland eating $10m of that money, especially if the org continues to cut some fat from their middle infield reserves. What once felt like security has now turned into the opposite. "Sometimes you don't know what's gonna happen and then something happens."