Well!
I was planning on waxing poetic for a while on how much Jose Ramirez means to this team, and that a continued failure to put legitimate offense pieces around him is a slap in the face to everything he’s done for this franchise. That’s still true, but there are now more pressing issues to discuss!
We’ll talk about Jose for a second, though, as a treat.
Okay… I lied. I can’t help myself, I have to complain about the front office. Jose is largely
the ONLY reason this team has been even remotely relevant since the Lindor trade. Obviously, Gimenez, Rosario, and the rotation in 2022 helped, but none of that would mean anything without Jose. Ignoring Jose, the other three hitters who came up after the bases were loaded ALL STRUCK OUT. You just simply cannot go into next year relying on reinforcements from AAA being the difference in their rookie season. You need to get a legitimate middle-of-the-order bat in the offseason, or you might as well just chalk up the rest of Jose’s prime.
You cannot have Angel Martinez taking meaningful at-bats against right-handed pitchers, and no serious organization would STILL have Carlos Santana taking those at-bats this late into the year. No serious organization would let a 5 WAR franchise cornerstone go almost completely unsupported for years after signing a massively team-friendly extension that almost every single franchise in baseball would be able to spend around.
Anyway, onto Cade Smith!
This team came back after being dominated by Nathan Eovaldi in the 8th, and ONLY because of Jose Ramirez did they take a 1-run lead. BECAUSE of the rest of this lineup, it was ONLY a 1-run lead. Do you see a problem here? Anyway, Cade Smith blew it in the ninth on 7 pitches.
I’m starting to get concerned about his ability to stay locked in as the team’s closer. Not really sure if that’s his true role for this team going forward, as I do think his value as a fireman/stopper is much more valuable, especially with the way he’s looked. If the team really wants to keep him in the closer role, whatever. This season is lost, anyway, so you might as well try to have him figure it out. Obviously, the risk is that further failure destroys his confidence to a point where it becomes impossible to use him in leverage in the future. Fun stuff.
George Valera hit for the cycle in Columbus today! Nolan Jones is 7-for-his-last-41. 5:13 BB:K, 0.472 OPS.
Goodnight!
