Cleveland Indians: A look at the players in the Arizona Fall League

While the MLB season may be over for the Cleveland Indians, they have a few prospects who will continue to play in the Arizona Fall League.

Some of the Cleveland Indians prospects will partake in the Arizona Fall League this offseason. The Indians will be on the Glendale Desert Dogs along with players from the Orioles, White Sox, Yankees, and Dodgers. Most of the aforementioned teams have pretty strong farm systems.

While it would be interesting to take a look at what some of the other franchises are bringing to the table, we will be focusing on who will be representing the Tribe this year.

Yu Cheng-Chang

Yu Chang is perhaps the most prominent name from the Indians organization on this list. He’s made quite the name for himself in the Indians farm system and spent time with the club in Spring Training as well.

This past year in Columbus, Chang sported a .256 batting average with 13 homers and 62 RBI. He’s been a key infielder for the Tribe farm system, but he likely will have to take another approach than his natural shortstop position if he wants to have a shot with the Indians big-league club.

Li-Jen Chu

Li-Jen Chu climbed his way from A-Advanced Lynchburg all the way to AAA Columbus this last year. September call-ups helped him with that, but he deserves credit for his good numbers. He maintained a consistent mid-.200’s batting average in all three levels of play this year.

He’s playing for a chance to stay as a catcher in Triple-A alongside Eric Haase and there’s a chance we will see him in Spring Training next year as well. Chu appeared in the AZL in 2016 where had a .500 BA in 10 games.

Connor Marabell

It was an interesting season for Connor Marabell. He was immensely successful in AA Akron but struggled since being called up to AAA. Marabell racked up 23 doubles in Akron but that number dropped to just 8 in Columbus.

The outfielder will look for a chance to prove himself in a franchise that has a need at the position. He’s proven he has a big bat that can do damage for the Indians offense, but his numbers in AAA show that he needs more development. He can do just that here in the AZL.

Pitchers

Three pitchers will appear in the AZL for the Indians. Justin Garza, Rob Kaminsky, and Dalbert Siri all get the call to play for Glendale. Garza is the lone starter of the group. He moved up from Mahoning Valley to Lynchburg this season. In Lynchburg, he had a 3.71 ERA with a nice 69 strikeouts.

Kaminsky spent most of the year in Akron where he rung up four saves in 23 games. He likely won’t see Spring Training time, but he could get the call up to Columbus if he continues to hold down the back-end of the bullpen.

Lastly, we have Siri, who had 15 saves in his time in Lynchburg. A call-up to Akron is likely in his future in 2019, but a good performance in the AZL will certainly look good on his impressive resume. He had a 2.45 ERA in 47.2 innings in 2018.

That’s all for the Fall League. Things have already kicked off and Glendale is off to a rough 0-4 start. While this isn’t about the record as much as it’s about the prospects, you’d certainly like to see the Tribe prospects contribute to some wins.