The 2022 Cleveland Utility Guys: Where Are They Now?

 I was doing a post the other day on the Reds, and I brought up Will Benson, who's been having a really nice year for the Reds, and was a role-player for Cleveland last year before he was let loose. And then I looked around and...realized how many young pieces of last year's Guardians team are strewn all around the league right now. 

And then...you know, with the Guardians a ton less contact-friendly this year, it makes sense. Cause all these guys were contact hitters and now they're contact hitting in other places.

I look at Nolan Jones especially, and he was a nice backup choice for third and first last year, and the team clearly didn't have a use for him after signing Josh Bell. So he wound up on the Rockies, and while he's playing a similar utility role this year, Jones is still doing really well, hitting .289 with 35 hits in 37 games. He's also one of the best contact pieces on the team, which figures considering they're still without Brendan Rodgers. But I do think after C.J. Cron phases into another role, they'll get more uses out of Jones in a corner infield spot.

And then you look at Owen Miller and he's in a similar role in Milwaukee, as a utility/bench infield guy, and he's hitting .285 with 11 steals and 70 hits in 74 games. So it's, like, a trend. Multiple former Guardians extraneous utility guys are helping out on other teams than the Guardians. Will Benson's hitting .291 and might be a starting outfield option for the Reds going forward. Alex Call has become a trusted lineup option for the Nationals. Both Oscar Mercado and Richie Palacios are in the Cardinals system, and Mercado's hitting .290 in St. Louis. EVEN ERNIE CLEMENT IS HITTING .429 WITH 11 GAMES FOR THE JAYS. This is a genuinely hysterical trend that you really can't notice til you squint at the league for a bit.

Literally one of the only ones that hasn't done anything in a bench role for another team this year is Yu Chang, who's in Boston...but honestly, I don't doubt that he could spring to life at any moment over there.

All of this happening while the Guardians struggle to contact-hit like they did before is very ironic, and does prove that some of their tactics to improve the team by signing older power-hitters in favor of younger contact hitters may not be their best plan of action. Not that too many of those other teams are absolutely killing it, as the Rockies, Brewers, Nationals, Cardinals and Sox aren't doing much better than the Guardians right now, but it lets them know what could have been.

I don't know if Jones will segue towards a fuller role on the Rockies, but if he keeps the contact hitting up, they may value him in ways the Guardians may never have.

Coming Tomorrow- At long last, a healthy season from one of the most oft-injured pitchers in the bigs.