The Cleveland Indians signed 36 year old Juan Uribe as a bridge to 24 year old Giovanny Urshela, due to the fact there was some question about Urshela's bat. Urshela has put up very nice offensive numbers throughout his minor league career (.268 with 56 HR across 623 games), but in his 81 game big league stint in 2015 his bat was not quite as strong. While he was held back a bit by nagging injuries, Urshela managed to hit just .225 to go along with 6 homeruns and 21 RBI, but did show flashes of being a solid hitter. His stellar defense is not a question, but with the Indians lineup in the shape that it is they cannot afford to trade the great defense for a bat with as much question behind it that Urshela has. Cleveland signed Uribe and expected to let Urshela develop his bat more in AAA for a good chunk of the 2016 season while Uribe manned third base in the big leagues. While that is still the plan, early on in the Spring Urshela seems to be figuring things out a bit quicker than expected. While yes, a few Spring games mean next to nothing, Urshela is absolutely raking in game action, and ripped his 4th homerun of the Spring today. As of right now (game still in progress), Urshela is hitting .346 with 4 homeruns and 10 RBI. While it still looks like Uribe will be the starting third baseman with Urshela in AAA, he is making his case for the Opening Day roster very well known.
No comments:
Post a Comment