The Cleveland Indians announced Friday afternoon that All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor will miss some time with a calf strain.
Just as Spring Training is about to start, the Cleveland Indians got hit with some bad news. Shortstop Franciso Lindor is going to miss some time with a calf strain.
Missing nearly two months will certainly have an impact not only for Lindor, but the Indians as a team. Roster decisions are going to have to be made.
Francisco Lindor may miss most, if not all of Spring Training. This means that Lindor may end up going to extended Spring Training just to get up to speed and miss the start of the regular season. Extended Spring Training only being an option if Lindor suffers a setback or is not progressing like the team would like him to.
Cleveland is going to have evaluate some replacement options in the interim.
Eric Stamets
Eric Stamets is yet to make an appearance at the Major League level. Out of the 687 games Stamets has appeared in, 611 of them have been at the shortstop position. Stamets has more than enough experience defensively to handle duties at the shortstop position.
Stamets can occasionally drive the ball in the gap or even over the fence, but is not a power hitter by any means, with 42 home runs and 122 doubles over seven minor league seasons. The concern with Stamets is that he struggled overall at the plate at AAA Columbus. Stamets’ slash line was an unimpressive .202/.272/.324/.596 in 78 games. If Cleveland were to go with Stamets it would not be due to his prowess at the plate.
Yu Chang
Another option to replace Francisco Lindor is Yu Chang. Chang spent 94 of his 127 games in AAA last season at shortstop. Chang had more success at the plate last season than the aforementioned Eric Stamets. Putting together a .256/.330/.411/.741 slash line, Chang hit 13 home runs, 22 doubles and drove in 62 runs.
Between Eric Stamets and Yu Chang, Chang may be the better option in the interim. The Indians do not need to establish their future shortstop, they just need someone to hold down the fort until Francisco Lindor comes back. Yu Chang may be the better option to replace Francisco Lindor on a short-term basis. Whether that is just during Spring Training or the start of the season remains to be seen.
Max Moroff
The final option currently on the roster is Max Moroff. Moroff was acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates earlier this offseason. Unlike Eric Stamets or Yu Chang, Moroff has experience at the Major League level. Moroff has appeared in 84 games with the Pirates and 22 of them came at the shortstop position. 13 of the appearances at shortstop were actual starts and not as a replacement later in the game.
Offensively Moroff struggles at the plate. Moroff’s career slash line in the Major League is relatively unimpressive .193/.293/.331/.625. While he has not been all that impressive, Moroff just needs to play good defense at shortstop and get the occasional hit. That is if the Indians decide to use Moroff as Lindor’s short-term fill-in.
Francisco Lindor’s injury places emphasis on evaluating depth at the shortstop position and establishing utility players
Spring Training just got a bit more interesting due to the fact the Indians need to find their shortstop to be Francisco Lindor’s injury replacement. Either one of Eric Stamets, Yu Chang or Max Moroff could be the Opening Day shortstop for the Cleveland Indians in 2019, (again this is if Francisco Lindor does miss all of Spring Training and Opening Day).
This also means that recently signed Ryan Flaherty may make the team in a utility role. In fact the team may use both Flaherty and Moroff as utility players this season. In the end the team will get some more definitive answers in regards to some of their minor league shortstops and recently acquired utility players.
