The Cleveland Guardians’ young revolution continues. Just a few days ago, the team decided to pull the plug on the Ramón Laureano experiment and brought up excellent outfield prospect Johnathan Rodríguez to take his place. That was a necessary move, since Rodríguez has a much higher chance of contributing than Laureano. However, there is more work to be done regarding the construction of the roster; and the next move should be calling up Daniel Schneemann.
The Guardians offense has some really talented players: José Ramírez and Josh Naylor are stars, while Steven Kwan is a perfect leadoff hitter and guys like Andrés Giménez, David Fry and Will Brennan are adequate hitters. But the unit is missing some upside, and with the addition of Rodríguez and the potential Schneemann call-up, the ceiling could increase.
Schneemann, as you probably know, is tearing up Triple-A pitching to the tune of a .316/.447/.605 line and nine home runs in 45 games. His wRC+ is an incredible 170, which is amazing considering it checked in at 102 last year at the same level.
The versatile Schneemann got off to a hot start last year only to fade as the season went on, but things feel different this time around. For starters, he has made gains in his line drive (33.9 percent) and fly ball (28.4 percent) at the expense of his groundball rate (37.6 percent, down from 48.9 percent last season in Triple-A).
According to Quincy Wheeler of Covering The Corner, Schneemann boasts a 9.4% barrel rate and a 53.8% hard-hit rate, both above-average and good indicative of his ability to hit the ball hard.
The fact Schneemann is already 27 raises enough red flags for a team with enough offensive firepower to carefully pick its spots with a guy like Schneemann. But the Guardians offense is not special and could definitely use a boost, so why not take a chance on a guy who can potentially raise the bar a bit?
There are plenty of guys on the roster that Schneeman could replace, batters who are just not performing enough to keep an MLB spot: Gabriel Arias and Estevan Florial come to mind. They are very talented in their own right, but with a .562 and a .643 OPS, respectively, they have become automatic outs.
The Guardians are recognizing this and have already started looking for internal solutions. They have already called up Kyle Manzardo and Rodríguez, but Schneemann (and then Jhonkensy Noel, who homered three times on Wednesday) should be next. His left-handed bat carries more than its fair share of potential and he can defend multiple positions such as second and third base, shortstop, and the outfield corners.
Worst-case scenario, the Guardians find out, after a few weeks, that Schneemann is more of a “Quad-A” player than a real MLB contributor and send him back to the minors. But a promotion here is long overdue: at the very least, the guy deserves a chance to prove his worth. He might be worth it.
