Cubs-Indians World Series: Carlos Santana may play left field at Wrigley Field
The Indians don't want to lose his big bat in the non-DH games
By
Mike Axisa
•
2 min read
CLEVELAND -- When the 2016 World Series begins Tuesday night, the Cubs will have slugger Kyle Schwarber at designated hitter. He missed basically the entire season with a torn ACL, but is apparently healthy enough to hit and run the bases, so the Cubs will use him.
Once the series shifts to Wrigley Field for Games 3-5, the Indians will have a DH dilemma of their own. The team will have to sit either Carlos Santana or Mike Napoli, who have spent the season sharing time at first and and DH. Obviously, they don't want to lose either of this guys:
Santana: .259/.366/.498 (121 OPS+) with 34 homers and 87 RBI
Napoli: .239/.335/.465 (104 OPS+) with 34 homers and 101 RBI
Santana and Napoli are Cleveland's two best power hitters, and if they're going to beat the Cubs in the World Series, they need those two guys in the lineup as often as possible. The Indians may have come up with a creative solution:
#Indians considering Carlos Santana in LF for games at Wrigley. Worked him out at that position yesterday.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) October 25, 2016
Santana, an ex-catcher turned first baseman, had made one big league appearance in the outfield. That came back in 2012, when he played left field for four innings at the end of a blowout loss. Santana did play some outfield in the minors, but that was a very long time ago. We're talking 2005-07.
The Indians did have Santana work out in the outfield during spring training this year in an effort to increase his versatility, though he never actually played a Cactus League game out there. All he did was take fly balls and things like that during drills and batting practice.
Another way to get Santana into the lineup at Wrigley Field would be at third base. The Indians moved Santana to the hot corner in 2014, though that experiment only lasted about a month before it was clear his defense was unplayable. Still, he has more recent experience there than in left. The Indians could play Santana at third and move Jose Ramirez back to left field.
The problem with Santana at third base is you know the Cubs will test him. They'll lay down some bunts and force him to field the baseball, which might not be pretty. At least in left field they'd have a chance to hide him. Their starting pitchers do generally get a lot of strikeouts and ground balls, which means fly balls to left may be limited.
The Indians have not yet confirmed Santana will play left field during the Wrigley Field portion of the World Series and I'm guessing they won't anytime soon. They'll continue working him Santana out in left field to see if this makes sense. If not, they'll either have to find another way to get him in the lineup, or just play without him.
