Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis needs to have a rebound season. Showing signs of his former self could go a long way for Cleveland in 2019.
Jason Kipnis’ success at the plate has declined in recent years. His struggles have led to quite the vocal opposition to Kipnis just being on the roster. While it is true that Kipnis has not been the same player from a few years ago, there is still some hope for a rebound performance from Cleveland’s second baseman.
Jason Kipnis slashed .215/.315/.389 with an OPS of .704. 2018’s numbers are less than Kipnis’ career slash line of .263/.337/.417 and a .754 OPS. This is somewhat of a concern. Considering Kipnis is over 30 and declining production wise there is not a lot of hope for a drastic turnaround. Although there is hope for a turnaround of some sort.
There was a well publicized swing change late last season. Kipnis studied his swing from the 2016 campaign and compared it to his swing at the time. After some adjustments Kipnis improved at the plate. The slash line over that time was .246/.329/.492 with an OPS of .821. This is much improved over his overall slash line for the season and there is no doubt his final numbers were boosted by this 19 game surge.
The good news for the Indians is that Kipnis identified a flaw in his swing and made a change to become more productive at the plate. With the roster changes Cleveland made during the offseason the team will need Kipnis to resemble more of his former self rather than the version that showed up for the majority of 2018. Kipnis does not need to be the player who garnered fringe MVP votes in 2013 and 2015. All Cleveland needs is production similar to the last 19 games in 2018 and that should be enough to warrant regular playing time.
