CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – A day after manager Terry Francona said there weren’t any moves to be made to wake up the Cleveland Guardians slumbering lineup, the team sent outfielder Oscar Gonzalez back to the minors.
Gonzalez, who homered against Tampa Bay in the AL Wild Card Game to send the Guardians to the divisional series last October, was demoted to AAA Columbus Saturday.
“It’s almost like a reset because he doesn't have to look up the scoreboard right now and see [his average],” Francona said Saturday afternoon prior to Game 2 against the Twins. “Hopefully that'll help. The other thing is we need to get [Gabriel] Arias some at-bats. He’s too important to our future and he hasn’t swung bat great, but we got to find a way to get him some at-bats, so we'll work him into that mix in right field too, along with when he plays the infield, just to kind of get him some more at-bats.”
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Gonzalez, who hit .296 with 11 home runs and 43 RBI in 91 games after being called up last season, had one of the three hits in Friday night’s 2-0 loss to the Twins – an infield single in the seventh inning.
But with his average sitting at .192, Francona and the Guardians felt the time was right to send him down.
“We felt like last night we might be doing Oscar right now a disservice by playing him sparingly, and just watching the way he kind of chased last night,” Francona said. “Last time when we called him up, he had a lot of at-bats under his belt and he felt really good about himself, so we’re going to hopefully get him going again as opposed to playing him every so often.”
Gonzalez had appeared in 25 games this season that saw him collect just 14 hits in 73 at-bats with a home run, five RBI and two walks.
“April can be a pretty cruel month here,” Francona said. “It’s not just here, it’s Major League pitching. I mean, we had to send Josey [Jose Ramirez] back. It can be a tough month and he made it tougher by chasing so much. Going to have to find a way again.
“We tried to tell him last night, we’re not asking him to walk. We just want you to swing at pitches you can handle because we think he’ll do some damage.”
The team called up infielder Tyler Freeman from Columbus to replace Gonzalez.
“We know that he’s a solid kid,” Francona said. “He can move around the infield even. He was going to play right field tonight in Columbus, so that obviously got scratched. I don't know exactly because we don't know how guys are going to, does a guy need a day off? But it gives us some versatility. I'm still trying to figure out how to use Fry. So those are things that are on my mind in trying to figure out how to make this work.”
Platooning right – Arias was in the lineup in right field for Saturday night’s second game with the Twins, but Will Brennan will also see plenty of time in right.
“He's going to be fine,” Francona said of Arias, who hasn’t played the position at the big league level. “I've been watching him in practice, and I think he actually might be pretty good.”
Pitching perfect – With the Guardians offense in the tank, it’s understandable if the pitching staff is feeling the pressure of having no margin for error right now.
“That's probably the case with everybody. It’s human nature,” Francona said. “I think our young guys have done a really good job so far some ways when you have two stars under your belt, I think you’re still at a point where you’re looking forward to your start. So I think we're okay there.”
The Guardians are just 4-16 in games that see them score three or fewer runs this season.
On track – Starter Tristan McKenzie is on his way to Arizona to continue his rehab work.
“He's probably about over the Mississippi right about now,” Francona said. “Yeah, he came in, did some work this morning and took off.”
McKenzie is eligible to come off the 60-day injured list on May 29.