Fresh off hearing that the Twins were calling up the top remaining player in the minors, the Cleveland Indians have joined the party in calling up shortstop Francisco Lindor. Let's take a quick look, five things style.
1. We're being spoiled
In this day and age of prospect hype, the 2015 season has been especially fun for those who closely follow the best players who haven't yet exhausted their rookie status. Lists vary by publication, but many are similar and -- of the overall top 15 -- here are the players from Baseball America's preseason top 100 prospects to have been called to the majors so far:
1. Kris Bryant; 2. Byron Buxton; 3. Addison Russell; 4. Carlos Correa; 6. Joey Gallo; 8. Joc Pederson; 9. Francisco Lindor; 11. Noah Syndergaard; 12. Jorge Soler; 15. Carlos Rodon
That's 10 of the top 15 before June 15 and a lot of the rest of the list has seen time in the bigs as well. Fun times.
2. Lindor's a better real prospect than fantasy prospect
Unlike with Bryant, Gallo and Correa -- just to grab a few -- Lindor isn't immediately the type of player to be sending every fantasy baseballer rushing to our CBS Sports Fantasy app to pick him up before any other league-mate does. I mean, he's probably worth a speculative pick up in most leagues, but a lot of his value doesn't help in fantasy baseball: Defense.
Lindor has long been hailed as a superb shortstop with smooth hands, a good arm and big-time range. More on that in a second.
As for the fantasy value, Lindor was hitting .279/.346/.398 with 11 doubles, five triples, two homers, 22 RBI and 26 runs in 57 games for Triple-A Columbus upon getting the call. He can run a bit, as the eight stolen bases and five triples shows, but he's also been caught stealing seven times. He has 25 walks against 37 strikeouts this season, so in points leagues he's not bad on that front.
A switch-hitting 21-year-old that weighs only 190 pounds, though, Lindor might not show big-league power for a few years.
3. Lindor gets the call amidst a hot streak
On the flip side, what's encouraging about the timing of Lindor's call -- and surely there's a little bit of Super Two involved from the Cleveland front office perspective -- is that he's swinging a very hot bat right now. He's hit safely in 17 of his last 19 games, a stretch in which he's hitting .347/.400/.486 with three doubles, two triples and a homer. He has 25 total hits in that stretch, thanks to six multi-hit games in his last 12 overall.
In June, Lindor is hitting .404/.431/.596.
4. He marks a huge upgrade for Cleveland with the glove and maybe the bat
Even if Lindor doesn't make a huge offensive impact immediately, he's still likely an upgrade over what the Indians have gotten from the position. Through 61 games this season, the Indians have gotten the following slash line from the shortstop position: .201/.263/.260. Gross. The league average at shortstop is .247/.294/.342, so even if Lindor can be a ".250 hitter" he'll be above league average for the position and a huge upgrade for the Indians.
Again, though, the defense is where this is going to matter. The Indians were the worst defensive team in baseball last season and it wasn't particularly close. They are pretty bad this year, too, checking in at 14th in the AL in defensive efficiency and either last or near the bottom in measures like total zone, range factor or defensive runs saved.
Shortstop has been a problem, too. Indians shortstops have a terrible .950 fielding percentage (13th in AL), rank toward the middle with exactly zero defensive runs saved and show very poorly in range measures like UZR, giving them a -1.2 defensive WAR, good for 13th in the AL.
If Lindor is as advertised, one of the most important defensive positions goes from a minus to a plus, which will in turn make the Tribe pitching staff look a lot better.
5. The AL Central is the proverbial place to be
From the first-place Royals to last-place White Sox, the spread is only 6 1/2 games. Those Sox and the these Indians are both definitely within striking range of contention and each has reasons to believe there's still a decent shot at getting it done. The second-place Twins just called up arguably baseball's best prospect while the third-place Tigers just got Justin Verlander back. The Indians are bringing up Lindor. And on and on we could go. This might be baseball's best and most competitive division (though the mediocre AL East could stake a claim to most competitive), chock full of elite veteran talent and plenty of prospect hype as well. Flyover country? Screw that. This is a must-watch division.
