Cleveland Indians: The Makeshift Outfield Is Working

Several players have stepped up to make the Cleveland Indians’ outfield average–and that’s not a bad thing.

In some incredible twist of fate, the outfield is not a disaster. It may not be great, or even good, but the combination of players has been average. While the Cleveland Indians have only played eight games, their outfield still ranks 17^th in the majors in weighted runs created plus. Perhaps more incredibly, the defense grades as only slightly worse than average.

How has this incredible feat occurred?

For one, the 38-year-old Marlon Byrd is not playing like a 38-year-old. Across his 27 plate appearances, he has hit .250 with a .417 slugging percentage. Defensive metrics rate his work in the outfield being more or less average, and his base running has held up so far.

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Again, this is nothing special because (1) he has played seven games and (2) his work has been average. But there is something quite fun in finding mediocrity in what many expected to be a black hole of production. Even ZiPS is starting to jump onboard the Byrd-train, or perhaps the Byrd-plane, and they expect him to be slightly better than average down the stretch.

Another key to the outfield’s lack of failure has been Jose Ramirez. Ramirez, like most of the members of the Tribe’s outfield, should not be playing in a major league outfield. A shortstop by trade, Francisco Lindor’s existence has banished him to the grassy region of Progressive Field. This said he has recorded eight hits in his first 24 at-bats, and he has shown some amount of power in that timespan as well.

Rajai Davis has also been okay, and his .294 on-base percentage is almost average. He has supplemented this with an uncharacteristically high isolated power to post a .311 weighted on-base average, which places run production on the batting average scale. Unfortunately, projection systems like ZiPS and Steamer do not believe in this recent phenomenon, and they both predict that his offense will return to below-average levels.

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Nevertheless, the outfield has survived without Michael Brantley. Many Indians fans expected weeks of suffering before the former MVP candidate returned to action, but his has yet to occur. While the outfield has not been pretty, it has not been ugly either. Perhaps this will not last forever, but that is okay. We just need this bandage to hold for a little longer.