This weekend the Indians made a somewhat surprising move by demoting the entire left side of their infield, sending Jose Ramirez and Lonnie Chisenhall to AAA Columbus. Both Ramirez and Chisenhall have been painfully bad this season, particularly at the plate. Last season, Ramirez made everyone believe he could be a legitimate starting short stop in the big leagues, but his performance through the first few months of 2015 has placed serious doubt into that notion. Similarly, 2014 saw Lonnie Chisenhall have a career year, one that seemed to make clear that Lonnie was worthy of being an everyday third basemen. With the demotion to Columbus, both Chisenhall’s and Ramirez’ futures with the Cleveland Indians are up in the air.
As rumors of the demotions began to surface, many were wondering if top prospect Francisco Lindor would finally make his long-awaited major league debut. But the front office would continue to keep everyone off guard by promoting Lindor’s infield compadre, Giovanny Urshela. While some have criticized the move, arguing that Lindor’s abilities would have a greater impact on the Indians, I think the front office made exactly the right move in choosing to promote Urshela before Lindor.
Let’s first make it clear that this obviously wasn’t a case of the organization having to choose one or the other, clearly they could have chosen to promote both players at the same time and an argument could be made that that is exactly what they should have done. But that wouldn’t prevent the fact from remaining that promoting Urshela is the better move for the Indians right now.
Both Urshela and Lindor are considered some of the best defensive prospects in baseball, with Lindor already possessing what scouts believe is a Gold Glove-caliber defensive ability. The key difference between the two is what Urshela can provide at the plate. Since the beginning of last season he has improved tremendously with the bat, making him a much more well-rounded baseball player than he was when the Indians initially signed him in 2008. There is one place Urshela has improved in one area specifically that has made him a deadly hitter, and that’s in the power department.
In 24 games with Akron at the beginning of last season Urshela dominated AA pitching to the tune of a .300/.347/.567 triple slash with 147 wRC+ rating. That .267 ISO rating is absurdly good, but was likely a product of a small 24 game sample. He was promoted to AAA Columbus where he was one of the youngest players in all of AAA, but that did not stop him from raking in the International League as well. In 104 games with Columbus Urshela slashed .276/.331/.473 and posted a 120 wRC+, not too shabby for a kid younger than 90% of his competition. Urshela continued to showcase his power with 13 home runs and a .197 ISO rating, tending to prove that his early season performance in Akron may not have been a fluke. So far this season he has battled injuries and only played in 21 games, but he’s continuing to produce at the rate he did last season with a 124 wRC+ and .275/.301/.475 slash line.
It’s these improvements at the plate that make him more important to the Indians’ lineup right now than Lindor. Right now, among the 23 qualifying major league third basemen with 180 plate appearances, Chisenhall sits 23rd in wRC+ with 61. Considering that 100 is league average, this is an absolutely terrible rating and not in the least bit surprising for fans who have been closely watching Lonnie this year. The negative effect is amplified even further by the fact that third base is a position with more emphasis on a player’s offensive capabilities. Of the 23 third basemen with the requisite number of plate appearances qualifying them for the leaderboards, 14 of them have wRC+ ratings over 100. That means 60% of qualifying third basemen are contributing on offense above the league average rate, and the Indians are lagging far behind.
Comparing that to the short stops, there are 21 players in all of major league baseball who have the requisite number of plate appearances to qualify for the statistical leader boards. Jose Ramirez is 10 plate appearances shy of qualifying, but as it stands, just 7 of those 21 short stops have a wRC+ rating over 100. If we expand our pool of players to those who have 170 or more plate appearances that leaves us with 24 short stops, JRam being one of them. Ramirez’ 40 wRC+ rating ranks him dead last in this category.
But this only proves what most people probably already knew before looking at any statistics at all, short stop is a position where defense is valued more highly and teams are much more willing to put a short stop into the lineup who can’t hit worth a lick if he plays stellar defense. However, if you are getting far below average production from third base, a position that is expected to produce at a much higher rate on offense than short stop, the negative effect on the team becomes much more pronounced.
With Lonnie’s ability to be an everyday third baseman at the major league level now on questionable footing, it was necessary to make a change. With the improvements Urshela has made at the plate, coupled with his already elite defensive abilities, Urshela has the potential to provide much more value to the Indians’ lineup right now than Lindor can. Francisco Lindor will be able to step in on day one and provide great defense, but his bat will take some time to develop and even when it does, having a third basemen who is an excellent hitter as well as a defender is significantly more important for a team that struggles in the field and at times is lacking at the plate. There is no question that Giovanny Urshela and Francisco Lindor will be significant contributors to the Indians’ success for years to come, but right now Urshela fills more of the Indians needs.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
