Indians move forward with Carlos Santana's transition to 3B

Indians manager Terry Francona has been impressed with the work of catcher Carlos Santana at third base this spring, and the team will move forward with his transition to the hot corner, MLB.com reports.

"Carlos looks fine," Francona said Friday. "If he is the third baseman, you're not going to know how he handles it until he's asked to handle it. How many balls have been hit to him? Four? That's just not a fair sample size. You almost hope people hit balls to him. But then, if he makes an error in Goodyear, do you say, 'Oh, he can't be our third baseman?' I think we go more on his daily work and things like that. That's all been really good."

Francona will have to figure out how to properly divide playing time at the position between Santana and Lonnie Chisenhall moving forward. The manager left the door open for Santana playing both positions on a regular basis during the season.

"I would say in the next three or four days, we're going to sit down and talk through it," Francona said. "It's a little bit of uncharted waters. You don't see anybody playing third and catching in the big leagues, but if he's able to do it, it opens up a lot of different things. The first thing we're going to do is sit and talk."

Santana is just 2 for 11 at the plate this spring.