A look at our outfielders, curent and future

 OK, time for a frank chat.  Our outfield situation is still a mess.  

Myles Straw - He is who he is: a great defensive outfielder and a scrapper at the plate.   He is an old-time, throwback player and, if he avoids injuries, can be a solid career centerfielder for the Indians.  He is locked in centerfield.

Josh Naylor - The best thing I can say about Naylor as an outfielder is that he is better in the outfield than Amed Rosario.   But Naylor is not even an average major league outfielder.   And its not like he is a great hitter.  Now, if you want to throw Franmil Reyes circa 2021 out there you live with his defensive limitations because he is an elite power hitter.   I mean, think Harmon Killebrew.  But Naylor?  He is a utility/platoon guy on a good team and is certanly not an outfielder.

Steven Kwan - He is coming back to earth...fast and hard.  On a good team he is a 4th outfielder who can play center field with enough defense and passable punch-and-judy offense to give Straw a day off.  But, at this point in his career, he is not a starting outfielder.   Still, on a team with Straw, he could be a passable starting outfielder IF the Indians have a pwer-hitting outfielder at the other corner.

Oscar Mercado - Again, a guy who is what he is.   Mercado, in my opinion, is a AAAA outfielder.  He will hang around the majors because he feasts off of bad major league pitching.  But when he faces a good pitching staff, like the Giants, he is basically a non-factor.  Even before the Giants series this was evident, dating all the way back to 2020.  The only reason he is still on this roster is because he is right-handed.  We need to get him out of Cleveland, although, right now, he is our second best defensve outfielder.

Amed Rosario - The experiment was a good one but Rosario is not an outfielder.   He is righthanded, which we need in the outfield but Rosario is a shortstop and, in fact, may only be a really good offensve player when hitting second in the order in front of Ramirez and Reyes.  I think we will find, and its likely part of the reason the Mets were willing to part ways with Rosario, that he has a very limited window of productivity.  And that productivity is at shortstop and hitting second. He is not an outfielder.

Richie Palacios - I like Palacios.  But it is either him or Kwan on this team. I don't really think either is a right-fielder.   Palacios can play some second base and I guess his bat could force itself to the majors in place of Mercado.  But Palacios is a left-handed hitter and is more like Kwan and, therefore, is not really a replacement for what we get from Mercado.

Oscar Gonzalez - Gonzalez is bad defensively with a strong but inaccurate arm.   He takes very few walks and those numbers will likely become totally non-existent aganst major league pitching.   He has two calling cards: he hits for power and hits righthanded.  However, last year is splits were slightly better agains righthanded pitching and even in 2019 when he hit .333 against lefties, it came with no homeruns.   Putting him on the roster and then sending him to the minors if he doesn't pan out would be fine if we didn't have such a roster crunch.   I fear, wthout more seasoning, he will simply be Mercado but without the defense.

Nolan Jones - He is hurt, he was not that productive when he wasn't hurt, he is just learning the outfield, he hasn't played at all this year and he hits left-handed.   There is no plus right now for Jones.  Maybe in the future but not right now.  He is not the answer and might not be for a year or two which will be problematic as he could be out of options by then

So we are back to where we were: We have to trade for an outfielder and obviously the choices would be Bryan Reynolds or Juan Soto (only because his team does not have the players to put around him in the near future to be competitive.   I know the Pirates are in the cat-bird seat but evey day he is with the team he is costing them money and is doing nothing to move them into being a competitive team.  As far as Soto, in our nation's capitol it would be almost impossible to trade the face of the franchise but we know in Cleveland that this is not impossible.  So maybe it can happen.  However, with Hedges at catcher we cannot afford more holes in the lineup.  We have to replace one of those holes (Mercado) with a trade and who better to trade for than guys who will be among our top hitters and not just Harold Ramirez part deux.