Cleveland Guardians 2022 Outlook
Going into the 2021 MLB Season, fans of the Cleveland Indians knew it was going to be an intriguing year. Not only was it going to be the last season for the Cleveland baseball team under the name ‘Indians’, but the team was going to look severely different than the team that got swept by the New York Yankees in the Wild Card round in the 2020 playoffs.
For the first time since the 2014 season, All-Star Shortstop Francisco Lindor was not in the clubhouse. Lindor — alongside pitcher Carlos Carrasco — was sent to the New York Mets in exchange for two young shortstops in Amed Rosario and Andres Gimenez, and two young prospects in Pitcher Josh Wolf and Outfielder Isaiah Greene. Along with the departures of “Mr. Smile” and “Cookie”, veteran First Baseman Carlos Santana signed with the Kansas City Royals, leaving the Indians with only youngsters at the position.
The team did use the money they saved by discarding Lindor and Carrasco and invested in former Minnesota Twin Eddie Rosario to man the left corner in the outfield. The other two outfield positions were occupied by Ben Gamel (Center) and Josh Naylor (Right).
With the lineup struggles expected, the Tribe banked their success on the 2021 season with the health of their pitching staff. Not only on their young starters in Shane Beiber, the 2020 Cy Young winner, Zac Plesac, Aaron Civale, lefty Logan Allen and Triston McKenzie, but their bullpen, which consisted of flame throwers on the backend in youngsters Emmanual Clase and James Karinchak, but also reliable veterans in Nick Whittgren, Bryan Shaw and Phil Maton.
The team started off hot in April and May, ending the first two months of the season 29–24. Then, injuries started to pile up.
Designated Hitter (DH) Franmill Reyes missed almost all of the first part of the season with an abdominal muscle, Catcher Roberto Perez broke his thumb, Naylor had a gruesome, Joe Thisman-like leg injury, and at one point before the All-Star break, all five members of the Indians starting rotation to begin the season were not pitching for the team (Beiber, Civale and Plesac were all out with separate injuries while Allen and McKenzie were pulled from the rotation due to lack of production). The loss of talent caused the Indians to fall out of playoff contention earlier than expected. On the last day of July, the Tribe held a 51–50 record, but the WhiteSox held a double digit lead on them in the AL Central.
Indians management decided the season was effectively over, so they needed to get a look at their young talent during the second half of the year. At the deadline, they traded away Second Baseman Cesar Hernandez to the rival WhiteSox, dumped Eddie Rosario to the Braves and sent Maton to the Houston Astros for Center Fielder (CF) Myles Straw.
At the deadline, Manager Terry Francona also decided to step away for the rest of the season to focus on his health. Over the last few months, he’s gone under the knife for a toe injury and a hip replacement. There is optimism Francona — the winningest manager in Indians’ history — will manage in 2022. Bench Coach DeMarlo Hale managed in his absence.
If Francona does manage the Guardians in 2022, there is a lot to be excited about with the ball club that calls Progressive Field its home. Their starting pitching, when it got healthy in the back half of the 2021 campaign, was phenomenal.
Before his thumb injury sidelined him for the majority of the second half of the season, Civale looked like a legitimate Cy Young candidate, posting a 10–2 record with a 3.32 Earned Run Average (ERA) according to Baseball Reference. Before injuring his thumb ripping his t-shirt off, Plesac posted a 4–3 record with a 4.14 ERA, but Plesac got zero run support all season. He was the starting pitcher all three times the Indians got no-hit in 2021.
Over the second half of the season, Cal Quantrill — who replaced Allen in the rotation — went 8–1 and lowered his ERA from 4.23 to 2.89. McKenzie in the second half of the season went 4–5, but he lowered his ERA from 5.87 to 4.81, and he went six or more innings in nine of his 13 starts in that span.
If those four pitchers and Beiber stay healthy, the Guards will once again have a Top 3 starting rotation in all of baseball in 2022, with all five being potential Cy Young winners, something that has rarely been seen in the history of MLB. Not to mention Eli Morgan, who came into his own in the second half of the season, going 3–4 in that span, but he lowered his ERA from a disastrous 7.86 down a full two points to 5.27. Morgan figures to be in the Adam Plutko role in 2022 for the Guards (come out of the bullpen and be a №6 starter when necessary).
The other thing going for the Guardians going into 2022 is the youth of the team. 2021 was meant to be a developmental year for the Tribe. Losing Lindor, Carrasco and Santana left a void of leadership in the clubhouse. However, young guys such as Amed Rosario, Civale and Bobby Bradley stepped up to replace them.
The Straw trade solidified CF for the Indians for the next few seasons. Amed Rosario hit 11 dingers and .282 for the Tribe in 2021 compared to Lindor, who only hit .232 for the Mets (who finished with a worse record than the Indians). Rosario and MVP candidate Jose Ramirez are going to man down the left side of the infield in 2022. The right side is going to be held by Bradley at first base. Roberto Perez and Austin Hedges will handle catching duties. The only question for the infield going into 2022 is second base.
The current options at second include Gimenez, Owen Miller, Ernie Clement and Gabrielle Aries, who the team got in a 2020 deadline deal with the Padres that also netted them Quantrill and Naylor.
Speaking of Naylor, he may be the biggest question mark for the team next year. If he does play, he will more than likely man the right field position. However, where does that leave Bradley Zimmer? The Guards have been so patient with him, but even with his surge in late 2021, he still only hit .226, and that’s not good enough to be an every day player. If Naylor isn’t ready, Zimmer will probably get the №1 opportunity to start in right. It’ll be a battle between him and Oscar Mercado.
In the simplest terms, the Guards are going to have to make a trade before the 2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) comes to an end. That’s why the team played a lot of young guys at the end of this season. Gimenez, Miller, Clement, Mercado, Zimmer, Harold Ramirez and Yu Chang are all under consideration for a trade as President Chris Antonetti and General Manager Mike Chernoff look to add an Eddie Rosario-like power bat in left.
The bullpen should remain relatively the same. With Shaw being a free agent, he’s the only one likely not to return.
The Guardians organization believes in the old-school, “Defense Wins Championships” mantra, and with a rotation that could be the best in MLB and a dominating bullpen, the Guards should be able to compete once again for the AL Central crown next year if healthy, even with the struggles expected to take place with the bottom of the batting order.
