Oscar Mercado optioned to minors

The Cleveland Baseball Club has optioned the 26-year old center fielder.

There will be a new starting center fielder on Opening Day for the Cleveland Baseball Club. Oscar Mercado was informed that he is being optioned by the club to start the season.

Oscar Mercado was a surprising contributor for the team in 2019 as he looked to have the starting center field job locked down. Mercado slashed .269/.318/.443 with a .761 OPS in 115 games. This resulted in some pretty good counting numbers including 25 doubles, 15 homers, and 54 RBI. 2020 was not as kind to Mercado as he struggled at the plate, slashing .128/.174/.174 and an OPS of .348 in 36 games. Cleveland resulted to using other options in center that were not very promising. Considering Mercado was never profiled to be a good hitter, 2019 may have been an outlier season. 2020’s performance does not seem to be true to form either, as his regular production on average may actually be somewhere in the middle.

This leaves Cleveland with Amed Rosario, Bradley Zimmer, and Ben Gamel as their center field options currently. Zimmer has had his own set of struggles, and Gamel has no upside. None of these are rock solid options, but it does say something in regards to how the team feels about Oscar Mercado.

Other moves

The tam informed Beau Taylor, Tyler Freeman, and Owner Miller that they will not make the Opening Day roster.

Meanwhile they have informed relief pitcher Tyler Stephan that he has made the roster.

The roster for the Cleveland Baseball Club appears to be taking shape as Opening Day is on the horizon.