The Cleveland Indians will be counting on Tyler Naquin to produce in 2019
The opinion of Tyler Naquin depends on who is asked. There are some who remember the spark he provided for the Indians in 2016. Others remember the error in the World Series and the subsequent disappointing 2017 campaign. Like it or not Naquin is expected to see significant playing time this season and the team needs him to step up.
The 2016 version of Tyler Naquin was exactly what the Tribe needed. Slashing .296/.372/.514 with a .886 OPS, Naquin hit 14 home runs, 18 doubles and three triples. Naquin also drove in 43 runs and scored 52 times. This inaugural campaign was good enough to finish third in Rookie of the Year voting.
2017 was not as kind to Naquin. Struggles early on led to his demotion to AAA Columbus. In 19 games Naquin struggled and put together the sub-par slash line of .216/.250/.270 with an OPS of .520. Recency bias forces most to remember this version rather than the productive 2016 version.
2018 was an up and down year, Naquin struggled from the start but caught fire about two weeks into the season. Before suffering an injury Naquin sported a slash line of .333/.367/.453 with a 820 OPS in 26 games with an official at-bat. While these numbers may have been a bit unsustainable, they were encouraging as it showed Naquin resembling a productive hitter, a far cry from 2017. Upon his return from injury Naquin was not quite right as his slash line dropped to .212/.240/.283 with an OPS of .523. This was before suffering a season-ending injury.
Tyler Naquin can bounce back
It seems like the name of the game for Tyler Naquin is health. Naquin produced well in 2018 before his initial injury, but struggled afterwards. Cleveland needs Naquin to at least fall somewhere between the performances of this 2016 and 2018 campaigns. Naquin is still only 27 years old and has not entered the prime of his career. While his prime may not include an elite ceiling, it should at least provide league average production from an outfielder.
The question mark that remains for the time being is if Naquin can stay healthy. 2017 and 2018 were injury riddled campaigns that ultimately limited the production of Naquin. As long as Naquin stays healthy he can potentially be a productive player in the Cleveland Indians lineup and help alleviate the concern about the state of the outfield.
