CLEVELAND -- When the Indians first acquired shortstops Amed Rosario and Andrés Giménez in the trade that shipped Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco to the Mets, the hope was that Giménez would lock up the vacancy left at short for the foreseeable future. But Rosario is making a convincing case to return to that position in 2022.
Maybe the goal is still to have Giménez be the long-term solution, but in the meantime, Rosario has earned the opportunity to see more time at short. His defense can be hit or miss at times, but his bat has been the one constant in Cleveland’s struggling offense this season. That proved to be the case again on Tuesday night, when he picked up a hit in his 10th consecutive game in a 7-3 loss to the Rangers at Progressive Field.
Cleveland failed to reach its first four-game winning streak since June 14-17, but it sat back and watched Rosario continue to stay hot at the plate. He set a career high with his 10-game hitting streak (his previous best was nine straight games in 2019), logging one of Cleveland’s six hits in the series opener. In his last 21 games, Rosario is hitting .400 (36-for-90) with 16 RBIs, including going 1-for-3 with a walk and a run scored on Franmil Reyes’ sacrifice fly against Texas.
“He's had an interesting year, in a sense,” acting manager DeMarlo Hale said over the weekend. “I think once he got comfortable, [Terry Francona] put him in that two-slot and just left him there. I think he's gotten comfortable. He's played the game for a number of years at this level. It's nothing surprising to me.”
Rosario’s success is far from a new storyline this year. Although most of his offensive metrics (like barrel percentage, chase rate and average exit velocity) don’t rank favorably among Major League hitters, according to Baseball Savant, he’s still managed to find a way to consistently get on base. But with a dramatic improvement in his hard-hit rate, which went from 33 to 42.6 from 2020 to ‘21, and a decrease in his strikeout percentage, Rosario has been rewarded for putting the ball in play.
“I think the key is sticking to my routines,” Rosario said through team interpreter Agustin Rivero on Saturday. “Month after month being able to stick to my routines is what has enabled me to perform the way I have.”
Rosario’s offensive numbers have surged over the past month, and the addition of outfielder Myles Straw at the top of the order may have played a decent role in that climb. Straw was acquired at the Trade Deadline from Houston and entered Tuesday ranked fourth in contact percentage (88.7%) among all qualified hitters in the Majors. And with his bat right in front of Rosario in the order, the Indians’ No. 2 hitter has watched his batting average go from .261 to .289.
“Without a doubt it's very helpful to have somebody with a lot of contact like he does,” Rosario said. “Personally, I think he also helps me when it comes down to RBIs because I feel like most of my base hits or doubles turn out to be an RBI.”
Rosario’s production will be hard to ignore when looking ahead to 2022. The Indians will have a difficult puzzle to put together this offseason, especially in the middle infield. Aside from Rosario and Giménez, the club has middle infielders Owen Miller, Ernie Clement and Gabriel Arias already on the 40-man roster, with Tyler Freeman, Richie Palacios (who will likely be more of an outfielder in the big leagues) and Brayan Rocchio to protect from the Rule 5 Draft.
But Rosario has put together a strong showing of what he can be when he gets consistent playing time at a position he’s comfortable in. And for the rest of this season, he’ll continue to work to prove he can earn this spot once again next year.
“I just think he's comfortable and he's playing the game at a certain level that we expect,” Hale said. “And that's what we try to preach to this team. You're expected to play at a certain level. And it's good to see that he's having this type of year.”