CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Cleveland Guardians enter the holiday weekend with their offense in a coma and their season on the brink of slipping away as June quickly approaches.
Manager Terry Francona sees what we all do – a club that has scored three or fewer runs in 31 of 49 games while losing 10 of their last 15 games and 11 of their last 14 series after opening the season with back-to-back series victories over Seattle and Oakland.
“We need to do better,” Francona said prior to Friday’s opener with the St. Louis Cardinals. “If yelling and screaming at them made them do better, I'd do it. That’s not going to make somebody hit. If changing the lineup, if I felt that it would make somebody hit, I’d do it.”
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When it comes to jump starting the lineup, Francona has been searching for answers, and he is still looking as they hit the 50-games played mark Friday night.
“I guess I would ask you who would you move up,” Francona said rhetorically.
“I'm open if you have somebody you think should move up, tell me.”
Francona was being facetious of course, but there is no shortage of fans who have suggestions.
Josh Bell, who signed a two-year, $33 million contract in the offseason, has struggled to find any rhythm with a .226 average and just three home runs and 21 RBI entering Friday night.
“He’s been very streaky pretty much everywhere and I really hope that one of those streaks shows up and the power surge comes with it,” Francona said. “Don’t think he's gotten the ball in the air as much as he probably has in the past. Just again, you're dealing with people and sometimes it doesn't go the way you really want it to. Yeah, I’m sure he would love to be sitting there saying, I got 13 home runs and he doesn't. So the good news is he's a worker or the hard thing is a little bit of a tinkerer.”
It’s not just Bell or even All-Star second baseman Andres Gimenez, who just got a seven-year, $106 million extension, is hitting .236 with three homers and just nine RBI.
“I thought the last couple games he hit a couple balls to left field,” Francona said, indicating that Gimenez may be close t breaking out. “I don't want say he scorched them…I think sometimes with Andres just seeing some hits is going to help him keep his head up. [I] think he’s been over trying and trying to do a little too much.”
Collectively Cleveland is hitting .225 as a team and they rank 30th league-wide in runs scored, hits, home runs, RBI, slugging percentage and on-base percentage.
More scouting – The reduction of games against each divisional opponent from 19 to 16 by Major League Baseball this season is allowing for more uncommon opponents to become common opponents thus expanding the scouting required to prepare for series throughout the season.
It’s a challenge the Guardians, and everyone else in baseball is embracing.
“It’s a bunch more [work]. I mean, I know [Thursday] I came in here just because I wasn't comfortable where I was maybe going to be at just by coming in [Friday],” Francona said. “Teams that you haven’t seen and then are, don’t even have spring training out in Arizona. I mean, I certainly have cable tv, but it takes a little more [preparation]. The goal I think is to know them before you play and not after.”
The last time the Guardians played the Cardinals was July 2021 where the teams split the brief two-game series in Cleveland. This is just the 13th time the two clubs have met and the sixth trip St. Louis has made to Progressive Field since it opened in 1994.
Finding time for Freeman – Infielder Tyler Freeman has appeared in just seven games this season where he’s gotten 19 plate appearances but is doing what he can to be ready in a pinch when he is called upon.
“I just feel like if I have the mentality of I’m getting in the game every single day that my preparation, my routines, my ground ball work, everything I do will kind of take care of itself,” Freeman told 92.3 The Fan Friday. “Whether if I am in the lineup or not, I’m trying not to shy away from my routines. I want to make sure I'm getting my work in still and being prepared for the games.”
Francona admitted that he hasn’t gotten Freeman, who has six hits with two doubles and three runs scored, the volume of playing time he’d like.
“Part of the reason out of spring training, we ended up going with our third catcher because we knew with [Gabriel] Arias and Freeman what we were going to end up doing is hurting both guys,” Francona said. “So we end up taking the third catcher trying to maybe help that along and let Freeman play out of necessity. Then Tyler was called up and it’s something I need to figure out a little bit better. I'm not quite sure how always, but I'm certainly working on it because I don't want him to sit as much as he is.”
In the Cards – If the Guardians are looking for a reason to be optimistic about turning things around, all they have to do is look to this weekend’s opponent – the Cardinals.
St. Louis started the year 10-24 but have won 13 of their last 18 to get their season on track.
“What I try to do is stay with us,” Francona said. “They certainly are making up for, I don't want to say lost time, but the guys that they have, they're a pretty good track record with a lot of them and they’re starting to play catch up and you've heard me say it before, that makes them very dangerous.”
Rehab updates – The reports on starter Triston McKenzie, who was in the clubhouse Friday afternoon, are positive according to Francona. McKenzie threw 68 pitches for AAA Columbus over 4 1/3 innings where he allowed four earned runs on six hits with six strikeouts. McKenzie’s fastball topped out at 96 according to the Guardians. McKenzie is slated to throw again for the Clippers along with Aaron Civale Sunday according to Francona. Cody Morris is slated to throw once more for AA Akron before being elevated to Columbus.