CLEVELAND — When the Cleveland Indians traded away designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion and first baseman Yonder Alonso and had outfielder Michael Brantley leave in free agency, they lost the heart of their batting order and three of their biggest run producers from the 2018 season.
Indians manager Terry Francona believes that if Hanley Ramirez can successfully restart his Major League Baseball career and earn a roster spot in spring training, he could fill that void in the middle of the batting order.
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Francona said. “We told Hanley our goal is to see the best of him.
“That’s what we’d really like to do. If that happens, he’s a guy that’s kind of a middle-of-the-order-type bat. It’s a different situation. Getting let go by the Red Sox, there were contractual things. We don’t have that here. Now, it’s going to go on performance. We have a need, and we hope he can fill it. That’s the idea.”
The 35-year old Ramirez has a career .290 batting average (1,825 of 6,300) with 374 doubles, 269 home runs and 909 runs batted in over 1,652 games during his 13 years with the Red Sox (2005, 2015-2018), Florida/Miami Marlins (2006-2012) and Los Angeles Dodgers (2012-2014).
Ramirez has career splits of .361 on-base, .487 slugging and .848 on-base-plus-slugging percentages. He is the only active MLB player with at least 250 home runs and 250 stolen bases. Ramirez stole 281 bases over his first 13 years in MLB.
Also, Ramirez is one of only seven active players with 250 home runs and more than 1,000 runs scored (1,045) in his career.
“Right now, we’re not asking Hanley to do anything other than DH,” Francona said of the three-time National League All-Star.
Should Ramirez make the opening-day roster as a DH, the Indians would have to do some shifting to do at first base and left field.
Recently acquired utility man Jake Bauers can play infield on days when first baseman Carlos Santana is off or serving as the designated hitter, or he could be a platoon player for a team short on Major League experience in the outfield.
Although Bauers had a .201 batting average in 96 games with the Rays last season, he scored 48 runs, drove in 48 and finished with 35 extra-base hits, including 22 doubles, 11 home runs and two triples. Plus, Bauers drew 54 walks to raise his on-base percentage to .316.
“He’ll probably do a lot of both,” Francona said. “He’s 23 years old and he’s young. I’m not trying to trick him. I’ll talk to him and told him to communicate back with me, but I think he thinks he’ll be able to handle it just fine. If he can, it makes us a better team.”
According to Francona, the Indians “may not have been able to consider” signing Ramirez for a spring-training audition had Bauers not been versatile enough to play multiple positions.
“When you get into the season, things always happen where if guys can move, they can save you from making a roster move,” Francona said.
“Just having some versatility is really important. You look around the league, and I think maybe 10 years ago, being a utility player, people frowned on it. Now, guys like Ben Zobrist and (Josh) Harrison, they’re good players and most good teams have one of those guys, and it kind of saves you.”
