Cleveland Indians: Edwin Encarnacion after 8 games in 2016, 2017

Some Cleveland Indians fans may be worrying about Edwin Encarnacion, but it is far too early to be feeling anything too negative.

It’s amazing how winning cures everything.

On Tuesday, Cleveland Indians fans were celebrating a 2-1 walk-off win. On Wednesday, a 2-1 loss had some fans coming out with fiery hot takes about this offense being horrible. Even though the team only had five hits on Tuesday, compared to three in Wednesday’s loss.

A lot of the focus has been placed on Edwin Encarnacion, who has not had himself a great start to the year. The lowest moment came on Tuesday when he grounded into two separate double plays with the bases loaded. It was not ideal, but certainly nothing worth panicking over.

Some Indians fans may already be claiming Encarnacion to be a failure. The best thing to do with such a take is to ignore it and let it wither away in the cold, gray world that is Cleveland in April. However, let’s indulge the take for a second.

Through eight games, Encarnacion has five hits in 29 at-bats for a .172 average. He has just one home run, one RBI, has drawn four walks and has struck out 12 times. In fact, he has struck out at least once in all eight games. His team is 4-4.

Through eight games in 2016, Encarnacion had eight hits in 30 at-bats for a .267 average. He had no home runs, four RBI, had drawn no walks and had struck out six times. His team was 3-5.

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These are obviously just on-the-surface stats with no context for each given plate appearance, but the point is that the first eight games are nothing to panic about. Because after a similar start in 2016, Encarnacion finished the year with 42 home runs, 127 RBI and an OPS of .886.

Baseball fans should know better than to be concerned about a player’s natural abilities so early in the season. Encarnacion is not going to have a career-worst year, and claiming he is horrible is so illogical it is painful.

Encarnacion is too experienced to be in a mental slump at the plate, and he will work things out sooner than later. It may even take until May. Keep in mind he only hit three home runs in April 2016.

Overreacting now is the same thing as picking out his worst eight-game stretch from any year and claiming him to have lost his ability.

Next: Brantley caps off a special home opener

Baseball players take time to adjust to the long haul of the regular season, and just because Francisco Lindor is playing like a superstar doesn’t mean everyone is at that level in the first two weeks of the season.