The Oscar Gonzalez situation and how it impacts the future of the Guardian's 40-man roster decisions

OK, if the internet didn't exist and all we had was "Remember when I told you..." then this would be a different story.   

But a number of us were saying last winter that the Indians needed to re-sign Oscar Gonzalez before he left as a 6-year minor league free agent.  Remember, based on the old rules, that means that the guy has actually played in your minor league system for SEVEN seasons as you have to have more than 6 COMPLETE seasons once you sign in order to qualify as a minor league free agent, assuming the player was not released.

Then, once we all breathed a sigh of relief, we were saying it was a no brainer to roster a 23 year old who hit 31 HRs and ended the season raking at AAA. 

However, we were all working with limited information.   We wanted him protected based on his power numbers and his ability to hit for average and his strong arm in RF.    We didn't see the other skills which is why there was less gnashing of teeth in not rostering Gonzalez and less jubilation when the Rule 5 draft was cancelled.

But we (fans and bloggers) are not scouts and some of the beat writers, fans and bloggers bought into the Indians' KoolAid that Gonzlez's lack of walks would doom him and that the rest of his skill set (fielding and speed) were not enough to overcome his lack of selectivity at the plate.

Still, how does one make that judgement on a 23 year old coming off his best minor league season against the best pitching in the minor leagues (AA and AAA)?

Well, now we know who Oscar Gonzalez is: a guy with plus power who uses the whole field as a hitter, who has a great arm, better than average speed and improving defense.  

Looking at it now it appears a no-brainer to have rostered him last fall, despite the roster crunch we all knew as coming.   I even suggested rostering him INSTEAD of Kwan, who I saw, and still see, as a 4th outfielder with limited power and only average speed.

But why did the Guardians' experts whiff on Gonzalez?  He has flashed all 5 tools and the only one he is lacking on the 6th, the Money Ball skill of plate discipline.  The last is a make-or-break skill in the majors, to be sure.  But the first 5 get you lots of chances to improve.   

The question should be: what are the Guardians going to do to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again?  We will have the ever-improving Will Benson coming up this winter and, likely, next winter we will have Alexfri Planez,  Junior Sanquintin and maybe Gabriel Rodriguez looming as power potential guys with unfinished tool sets who we will have to make decisions on.  

Hopefully the Guardians' scouting and player development people will have refined their pardigms so that we don't have a repeat of the Oscar Gonzalez situation and we will make better decisions going forward. For a team that HAS to maximize every minor leage asset they have and can't afford to waste anythng, it is crucial that our player development people do better than they did with their evaluation of Gonzalex.