CLEVELAND -- Cleveland Indians outfielder Brandon Guyer missed the final two weeks of the 2017 regular season and all five games against the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series because of an issue with his left wrist extensor tendon, but appeared to be on the comeback trail at the start of spring training.
However, Guyer hit a roadblock in the form of an aggravation of his injury while working through an outfield drill Wednesday.
“He aggravated that area, so we’re going to let him spend a couple days with the trainers, and then, Monday, we’ll start gearing him back up,” Indians manager Terry Francona said Thursday. “I think the doctors feel the best way to go is to let it calm down for a few days, and then, send him back out and rev him back up.
“When he’s in the game? I don’t know exactly. He was going to be a little later anyway, but he’ll start his progression again. They just wanted to give him a couple days to let that thing calm down.”
Should Guyer be out for an extended period of time and not be active by opening day at the end of March, the Indians have depth in the outfield.
Along with Lonnie Chisenhall, who platooned with Guyer throughout much of 2017, and non-roster invitees Rajai Davis and Melvin Upton, both of whom have plenty of Major League experience, the Indians could turn to former AL Rookie of the Year finalist Tyler Naquin.
Naquin was the starting center fielder in the 2016 World Series, but found himself spending much of 2017 in Columbus, including a long stretch to rehab from injuries.
Because of back and knee issues last season, Naquin played in just 19 games with the Indians, collecting eight hits in 37 at-bats (.216 batting average) with one RBI, two doubles and just two walks against nine strikeouts, all of which were a far cry from what he accomplished in 2016.
“He didn’t get a ton of at-bats for us, and his at-bats in Triple-A were spotty at times because he was rehabbing his knee and his back, both,” Francona said. “We saw him two years ago kind of take the league by storm, and then, the league started to make their adjustments to him. He’s trying to make his adjustments back. It’s fun to watch young guys do that. The really good ones continue to adjust to whatever the league’s doing and still be productive.”
Over 321 at-bats in 116 regular-season games in 2016, Naquin smacked 95 hits, including 18 doubles, five triples and 14 home runs, one of which was a walk-off inside-the-park shot against Toronto Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna on August 19th.
Naquin scored 52 runs, drove in 43 and posted a .296 batting average with a .372 on-base percentage and .514 slugging percentage.
Naquin was named the AL Rookie of the Month in both June and July of 2016.
“He looks healthy,” Francona said of Naquin. “He looks eager. At the beginning of the year, there’s probably going to be some outfield positions that are up for grabs, and we’ve seen him before literally go take it. We’d like nothing more than…We want to see everybody do good. I hope by the end of the spring, we have some really hard decisions because everybody played so well. That would be terrific.”
