I don't know if I have seen the Guardians set their final roster this far in advance of the opener. Maybe, logistically, this made the most sense. I am not sure. But, in any case, let's break this down.
Catcher: Hedges, Lavastida. This is the only combination that made sense and the hindsight of knowing that they wre going to keep both Zimmer and Mercado and not keep any non-roster pitchers really cemented this pairing as we had no roster spot to add Sandy Leon.
Infield: In a pattern that is repeated throughout the opening day roster, experience with the major league Guardians and being on the 40-man roster were the two determining factors. Therefore the combination of Ramirez, Bradley and Gimenez were locks anyway. Chang, Clement and Miller earned the last 3 spots by their spring performance and versatility.
Outfield: Straw, Reyes and Rosario (also could be listed as an infielder, obviously) make perfect sense. Kwan earned his spot with his ST performance. The two guys who don't make sense are Zmmer and Mercado. While Francona always says that ST performance doesn't mean anything, it actually does when it mirrors the performance over the last couple of years in the regular season. Zimmer has struck out in more than half of his spring training at bats, at least hale (or more) of those against minor league or weaker or less experienced pitchers. He had his chance and he blew it but he gets rewarded. Mercado is a mediocre defensive player who is a weak hitter. The issue here is actually a question: Would you rather have a Richie Palacios who has potential to contribute offensively or guys who you KNOW, based on their performance in the majors and spring training, are very, very likely to add nothing to this team that got no-hit 4 times last year.
I mean, at least one of Zimmer or Mercado should have been traded or released, probably Mercado. We should have signed an outfielder in the off-season (not the injured Michael Conforto who would also cost us our first rund pick). There is no excuse, if Mercado and Zimmer do start the year on the roster this is inexcusable, especially for a team that was no hit four times last year.
PItchers: Look, similar to the outfielders, this pitching staff was set in stone last winter when no moves were made by the Guardians to upgrade. There is not a single surprise on this roster nor should there be because there was no room on the roster to play. All the minor league invitees got sent back to the minors (they were all second or third tier, at best free agents anyway), hurt guys were put on the 60-day and Tobas Meyers was sent to the minors for more seasoning. The only pitcher on this roster without big league experience with the Guardians is Konnor Pilkington and he is here for mopup duty only and will be sent down once the rosters are reduced to 26 and the pitchers are limited to 13.
Summary: ESPN was right. The Indians get an "F" for their off-season moves, which were essentially non-existent. Francona, Willis and the management are putting a solid logical plan in place that only has two flaws: If Clase or more than one of our starting pitchers get hurt we are screwed because we can't win by outhitting the other team and (2) Our offense is too weak to even guarantee a good perfomrnace by the starters and relievers will guarantee us a win. When you are no-hit 4 times last year it is likely you could waste a lot of good pitching performances this year in 1-0, 2-1, 2-0 losses. Even their minor league free agent signings suck but given that they had no intention of even signing more relievers than Shaw, I can see why they didn't bring in needed relievers on minor league deals.
Hopefully only positive things happen with the players going forward as we may have just enough to be on the positive side of .500 this year. Seeing Bieber walk of the mound between innings flexing his hand last night and seeing his performance in the 4th inning didn't give me an assurance that this is going to be the outcome.
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