Shortstop only Amed Rosario better at the plate

There has been a significant improvement at the plate after playing exclusively at shortstop for the Cleveland Baseball Club.

At the start of the season things were not going well for Amed Rosario in his first season with the Cleveland Baseball Club. After coming over from New York along with Andres Gimenez in the deal that sent Francisco Lindor to the Mets there was some uncertainty about how the infield would be configured. The initial deployment featured Gimenez at shortstop and Rosario in center. This was mainly due to the fact that Gimenez is a better defender than Rosario and it could help solve their issues in the outfield. Unfortunately it led to struggles at the plate for Rosario.

29 G .221/.288/.358/.646 .264 BABIP, 3 doubles, 2 triples, 2 home runs, 9 RBI, 9 BB, 21 SO 74 WRC+ while seeing time in center field

Since moving to only playing at shortstop after Gimenez was sent down to Columbus for his own struggles at the plate, Amed Rosario saw a huge improvement.

18 G .302/.371/.413/.764 .367 BABIP, 2 doubles, 1 triple, 1 home run, 5 RBI, 6 BB, 13 SO, 121 WRC+

It is quite clear that not having to learn a new position on the fly has made Amed Rosario more comfortable at the plate. The improved performance has come at the right time for Cleveland and it takes some pressure off of Jose Ramirez to carry the offense with Franmil Reyes on the injured list. There will be a bit of a correction at some point with Rosario hitting at a level more akin to his career averages. Hopefully that correction is more of a dip and less of an all out slump.