As everyone knows, the Tribe has an offensive problem right now. After a 1-5 road trip that featured terrible losses to the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants, everyone is freaking out trying to find the answer for this problem. Rightfully so, as both of those teams are sellers at this year’s MLB Trade Deadline. For goodness sake, the A’s had already started selling before their series with the Indians was over.
So now fans are throwing out their best trade ideas to fix this issue and names like Jay Bruce to Jonathan Lucroy are being suggested. It appeared that trading for a bat was the only way that Cleveland could fix their scoring problems. But another option arose recently. And it just so happens that option plays ball in the city LeBron James calls home.
Francisco Mejia is the name that many Tribe fans are bringing up to save the Indians season and help them climb out of their offensive woes. Cleveland’s top prospect is currently playing baseball for the Akron Rubberducks down in Double-A. While the case was made earlier today on why Mejia should be called up immediately, here is my reasoning against bringing up the offensive-minded catcher this season.
Well to begin with, I already stated one of the main arguments against the call-up of Mejia. Though he is absolutely hitting the cover off the ball with a .325 batting average and 10 home runs to total 35 runs batted in on the campaign, his defense is still something that must be worked on. He has allowed 30 stolen bases out of a potential 44 throw out attempts. That means approximately sixty-eight percent of baserunners have been able to swipe a base against the 21-year-old. That is a tremendous drop-off from the defensive efficiency of both Yan Gomes and Roberto Perez. And before all of the counter-arguments begin about the lack of offensive production, the same can be said about numerous positions on this year’s Tribe team. But we will get to that later.
The point is, for as good as Mejia is at the plate, he is just as green behind the plate. And though you will argue until you are blue in the face, we all know the amount of bashing he would receive if he were to come up and struggle defensively. It’s just not worth it.
If the Indians were to have rushed Francisco Lindor throughout the ranks of the Cleveland minor-league system and he fell flat on his face, how would the organization have looked? Absolutely terrible. Lindor was the opposite of Mejia, a very strong defensive shortstop who was still working on his offensive game. Lindor was a star waiting to happen, but he needed to grow.
So Cleveland sat through years of mediocrity and even when they could have brought him up in 2013 during the run to the AL Wild Card, they stood firm in their plans to let him grow as a player. The payoff looks pretty nice, as the energetic youngster provides a spark to this team and is ready for big-time moments that he wouldn’t have known how to handle in 2013. That’s where we are with Mejia. He isn’t ready to take on these responsibilities and big-time moments that will be asked of him when he jumps into the starting catcher role.
Let me ask you this, how comfortable are you with a rookie catcher behind the dish come late October? It is extremely risky to bring up Mejia and not only put in jeopardy his growth as a young player, but also the chemistry with the starting rotation.
The trade deadline is coming up and there are bats that are definitely out there, including the ones I mentioned above. If the Tribe want to ensure their spot in the Fall Classic, this writer suggests making a move before the time is up. But it doesn’t have to be at the catcher position. Carlos Santana has had a fast fall from grace after a career year that had most people in Cleveland yelling for a contract extension. And as much as everyone loves Jason Kipnis, his numbers along with his health have been big question marks for later in the season on one side of the infield.
The Indians need a proven bat, that much is obvious. They need a guy they can call on to get a clutch hit and even spread some words of wisdom to the younger guys in the clubhouse. The 21-year-old Mejia isn’t that player. Not yet.
Like Francisco Lindor, Mejia’s time to shine in Cleveland will come. Just not this year.
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