Cleveland Indians: 3 players who can start the season at second base

There are only three options to start at second base for the Cleveland Indians to begin the 2017 season if Jason Kipnis is set to miss any amount of time.

Unfortunately, All-Star second baseman Jason Kipnis is not going to be ready to start on Opening Day. In a bad way to start 2017, Kipnis injured his rotator cuff. He is supposed to be out for two weeks, but that is exactly what we heard about Michael Brantley last year. That did not go very well.

Thankfully, the Cleveland Indians have a few options who might start the season and get an opportunity to impress. The three options are not great, but all make sense in one way or another. I am going to take a look at Jose Ramirez, Michael Martinez, and Erik Gonzalez. I will weigh the pros and cons of adding each of these guys to the Opening Day lineup and provide an offer on what the Tribe should do.

As a bonus, I will see what Ronny Rodriguez’s odds are to break the lineup to start the season. All of these guys have different values at second base, and they are all at very different points in their careers. The impact of knowing that one of these guys is only a short-term solution at second base is also something to consider as Kipnis really cannot play anywhere else at this point in his career if someone takes off. I’ll start with Jose Ramirez, and work down to Gonzalez.