Cleveland pitchers and catchers report for their first workouts this Thursday. Jerseys will be buttoned, caps will be pulled on, and balls will be thrown in anger. Finally.
The Indians have very real ambitions of making it back to the World Series, as they did in 2016. Last year was ultimately a disappointment, a collapse at the hands of the New York Yankees in the ALDS.
Perhaps the team can use that defeat to fuel them this season. It could be just the chip on their shoulder that is needed to spur them forward.
If I have any criticism of that 102-win team from 2017, I could say they strolled their way to the postseason in a perfunctory manner. They encountered no challenge in their division and the stakes never felt very high. The streak was amazing but the rest of the year felt like purgatory until we got back to October. Once there, they were rudely woken up by the Yankees. Hopefully the team will be keen to right this wrong in 2018.
On that note, and with Spring Training so tantalisingly close, I'm going to look at some Indians related topics that I want to see answered over the course of the next couple of months.
Falling For Francisco
This time last year I spoke about the catcher position, and my wish to see some stability there between Yan Gomes and Roberto Perez. Stability is largely what we got in 2017, as Gomes had his best season since the 2014 Silver Slugger-worthy campaign that made him a household name (in Cleveland anyway). Perez also improved in 2017, recording admirable stats for a back-up catcher.
However, neither catcher really took total ownership of the position, thus leaving the door ajar for Francisco Mejia, recently voted the number one catching prospect in all of baseball. Mejia will almost certainly be given an opportunity to make an impression on Francona and the big league staff this spring, and I would like to see him make the most of his opportunity. I would even go so far to say that he should be setting his sights on that starter's spot for Opening Day, despite his relative inexperience.
The 22 year-old Mejia had a brief glimpse what life is like on the Indians roster last year when he was rewarded with a September call-up. The switch-hitter posted a .154/.214/.154 slashline, with 2 hits in 14 plate appearances. It wasn't exactly the first impression he would have maybe liked but it would be harsh to judge him on so small a sample.
On the whole his 2017 season was largely successful. Mejia spent his entire time in the minor leagues at Double-A Akron where he slashed .297/.346/.490 with 14 home runs and 52 RBI over 383 plate appearances. A very solid season by all accounts, despite being hindered by the odd leg injury on occasion. He undoubtedly has one of the best bats among all prospects and his power numbers are on the rise each year too.
However, it was noted that Mejia did appear slightly worn down towards the end of the minor league season, with reports claiming he "looked tired and disengaged behind the plate."
With thoughts of his long term future and progress in mind, the Indians have toyed with the idea of Mejia playing at third base, and he even featured there during the Arizona Fall League towards the end of last year. The Indians, in my opinion, look set at third base for the immediate future, with Giovanny Urshela, Yandy Diaz and Jose Ramirez all comfortably able to play the hot corner. However I can see the benefit of testing Mejia there, as a bit of versatility in a player his age cannot be a bad thing. If it extends his playing career, I'm in support of this idea.
Wherever he ends up playing, the Tribe certainly don't need to rush Mejia along. He hasn't even seen time at the Triple-A level yet and could probably benefit from more maturation in Columbus. Gomes and Perez are both committed for a couple more years yet, and the signs from both men in 2017 were positive.
Having said that, I'd love to see Mejia enjoy a breakout spring and have realistic ambitions on making the Opening Day roster. If he can stick as a catcher, that would be even better.
My mind says, 'stay on the farm.' My heart says, 'this is your time Francisco.'
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That'll wrap up part one. I'll be back again, looking at a different aspect of the 2018 Indians team before the season begins.
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