Cleveland Indians: Yan Gomes should start versus all left-handed pitching

Yan Gomes may be the Cleveland Indians starting catcher but he should start every game against left-handed pitching, even if it means he’s not catching.

Yan Gomes looked like he was a star in the making back in 2013 and 2014. Over those two years, he hit .284 with a .801 OPS and 122 OPS+. He played in 135 games in 2014 and won the Silver Slugger award for his offense behind the plate. Fangraphs had him worth 7.7 wins over those two years while Baseball-Reference had him at 7.9 wins.

However, over the next three seasons, he hit just .215 with a .643 OPS and 67 OPS+. He was worth just 1.9 wins by Fangraphs and only 1.3 by Baseball-Reference. Needless to say, he looked like a backup, and a mediocre one at that, offensively at least.

Gomes’ offensive stats

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One area that Yan Gomes has still managed to succeed at is hitting against left-handed pitching.

For his career, he has hit .276 vs southpaws with a .793 OPS and 123 OPS+. Comparatively, he’s hit just .229 with a .671 OPS and 89 OPS+ against right-handers in his career. His numbers in 2017 were much of the same too as he had a .848 OPS and 126 OPS+ versus lefties and a .644 OPS and 73 OPS+ versus righties.

Gomes’s OPS against left-handed pitching was one of the better ones against southpaws on the entire Cleveland Indians’ roster in 2017 and was just nine points lower than what Edwin Encarnacion put up (.857). For a team with plenty of left-handed bats, using an asset like Yan Gomes would be in the Tribe’s best interests.

Newly signed first baseman Yonder Alonso sounds like he’s going to play every day; however, the left-handed hitter has struggled versus lefties throughout his career hitting just .234 with a .651 OPS and 75 OPS+. His numbers last season were much of the same

as he hit .181 with a .670 OPS and 80 OPS+ against southpaws. Against righties, however, Alonso hit .282 with a .900 OPS and 139 OPS+. I’m not the only one to notice these numbers either as even ESPN’s Keith Law has said Alonso should be platooned by the Indians (Insider Subscription required).

Where to play Gomes

So while the Indians may not be platooning Alonso yet, the probably should really consider doing it sooner rather than later, and Yan Gomes is the perfect platoon partner. Gomes could DH on days he’s not catching, with Encarnacion moving to first base. Or, the Indians could get creative and let Yan Gomes play some first base this year.

That may sound crazy but Gomes has played the position in the minors and even at the big league level back in 2012 with the Toronto Blue Jays and 2013 with the Tribe. However, it’s mounted to just 21 big league games and 58 total games. Having said that though, it’s more than Carlos Santana had at the position before he was thrown there originally…

Could a platoon work?

Gomes doesn’t have to be in a com

plete platoon with Alonso either. Gomes can still catch some versus left-handed pitching, allowing manager Terry Francona to match his catchers with specific Tribe pitchers if he wants.

This also allows Roberto Perez to catch more and utilize his best skill, his defense. Perez is arguably a top-five defensive catcher in the game, so while his bat may be lacking he makes up for it. Letting him catch 100-110 games with of Gomes catching the rest (50-60) is a nice split that maximizes Roberto’s skills (defense) and Yan’s (bat vs LHP). Not like Gomes is a bad catcher either…

And given Alonso’s splits, you’re actually maximizing three players’ skills with this setup. Each of the three (Gomes, Perez, Alonso) could see about 108 games as a starter and still get plenty of plate appearances.

I realize this may seem complicated at first, but given the number of games the Indians face against right-handed pitching and left-handed pitching (a 102-60 split in 2017), the plan could work, even if it’s not a strict 100-percent of the time platoon.

Next: Today in Tribe history: Eckersley traded to Boston

Now, this probably doesn’t happen but what do you think, should Tito use Gomes more against left-handed pitching? Or should the Tribe let Alonso play every day and continue to just use Gomes and Perez as catchers with them splitting duties back there? Let us know in the comments below.