Guardians have several options to fill shortstop
The Guardians enter spring training with their shortstop position wideopen. It was clear last year when the Guardians traded Amed Rosario that they wanted to give their influx of prospective middle infielders more atbats, and now three young options are available.
Here’s a closer look at the position battle.
Arias earning time with his glove
Gabriel Arias, who turns 24 this week, has been given the most playing time to date largely due to his aboveaverage arm and defense. He’s logged just over 400 plate appearances over the last two seasons in the majors and has a combined .207 average and .630 OPS. The offense simply hasn’t come around yet. And the Guardians lineup badly needs more production.
Arias will likely have at least a semiregular role somewhere due to how he can be utilized off the bench. But an everyday role will demand some offensive consistency.
Freeman’s upside could provide spark
Tyler Freeman has long had the reputation as being an above-average option at the plate for a shortstop. But, like Arias, it hasn’t translated to the major league level yet.
In a slightly smaller sample size than Arias (254 plate appearances), Freeman, who is 24 years old, has a similar OPS (.641). Arias’ arm probably would act as a tiebreaker here, so if Freeman is to win the job to start the 2024 season, his bat will need to do the talking. The offensive potential, at least, is higher here.
Rocchio is Guardians’ youngest option
Brayan Rocchio is 23 years old, and
the least experienced in the majors. He also has the highest ceiling.
The odds are pretty high that, at some point, Rocchio will eventually overtake the other two as the team’s primary shortstop. It might even happen by the end of spring training this year.
Rocchio was just ranked by Keith Law as the No. 13 prospect in all of baseball. He’s a legitimate switch-hitter who, as Law noted, “has become extremely difficult to strike out” while displaying a level of power (33 home runs in the minors the last two years) and improving his defensive skillset along the way.
As one of the team’s top prospects, the organization will want him to receive everyday at-bats.
So if he isn’t deemed ready to take over the shortstop position just yet, he might be better suited to play in Triple-a for a bit.
Bonus: Gimenez
It’s possible the Guardians could move Andres Gimenez, last year’s Platinum Glove winner at second base, to shortstop, putting the Guardians’ best defensive player at the diamond’s most important position.
“We’ve talked about it,” said manager Stephen Vogt. “We haven’t completely ruled it out, but it’s hard to move a Platinum Glove winner off of second base when he plays the position at such an elite level.”