Cleveland Indians: Lonnie Chisenhall dealing with same injury once again

Cleveland Indians outfielder Lonnie Chisenhall just can’t seem to stay healthy as he is out once again with a calf injury.

Lonnie Chisenhall has been a solid player for the Cleveland Indians in 2018 when he has been healthy. That last part is the problem.

Chisenhall is on the disabled list once again with a strained calf after missing several months to start the season with a similar injury. It has been an issue for some time and both Chisenhall and the team’s medical staff need to figure out what is going on.

From a baseball standpoint, it is hard to have much confidence in Chisenhall’s long-term health moving forward. He was slashing .321/.394/.452 before hitting the disabled list once again. He has only appeared in 29 games this season.

The Indians responded to the injury by bringing Greg Allen back to town. One option being thrown around on Twitter was to bring up Francisco Mejia and let him get some time in the outfield. I don’t see any negatives to that situation and it could give the team a glimpse of what the young man can do in the outfield during a time of year when there isn’t as much stress on him as there would be in October.

The current outfield situation involves Michael Brantley, Rajai Davis, Tyler Naquin, Brandon Guyer and Greg Allen. Not exactly a star-studded group but it is solid enough as the team sees just how bad things are with Chisenhall.

At the same time, this may be the perfect opportunity to bring up Mejia. Putting him in right field doesn’t take a dominant player out of the lineup like it may do with Chisenhall out there.

One potential theory is that the Indians want Mejia’s trade value to stay high with all they hype surrounding him in Triple-A. Opposing scouts mostly know what kind of player he is, but a few bad games with the Indians could cause some doubts, whether valid or not. If he is being considered in a blockbuster trade, keeping some mystery surrounding him could be a strategy in place.

Next: Danny Salazar not returning in 2018

The Indians haven’t dealt with too many major injuries this season except for Chisenhall, who just can’t seem to stay healthy. Unfortunately, this may mean he ends up out of the rotation in October due to doubts about his sustainability.