What's it going to take for the Indians to keep Yandy Diaz up in the Majors? I think the bottom third of the order could really use his bat. Any chance at all that the Indians would stick him at third, shift Jose Ramirez to second and bump Jason Kipnis to the outfield?
-- Patrick H., Youngstown, Ohio
I get it. There is a lot to like about Diaz, whose numbers are bulging just about as much as his biceps right now. In fact, let's have a little fun with his statistics before we get into the meat of your question.
Diaz is sporting a .524/.524/.667 slash line in his seven games (21 plate appearances) with the Indians this season. If you set the cut-off at a minimum of 21 PAs, Diaz has the highest batting average in a single season in franchise history! His 1.190 OPS would be third on that all-time list behind Indians legends Sam Horn (1.321 OPS in 36 PAs in 1993) and Walt Bond (1.226 OPS in 54 PAs in '62).
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All kidding aside, it's easy to dream on Diaz, especially when he can unleash an 109.3-mph laser off the left-field wall like he did on Monday night in Cincinnati. Over the 2017-18 seasons combined, Diaz has an average exit velocity of 92.2 mph in the Majors. Among batters with at least 100 results in that span, Diaz ranks ninth in MLB in exit velocity, per Statcast™. Here are the first eight: Aaron Judge, Nelson Cruz, Joey Gallo, Giancarlo Stanton, Matt Olson, Khris Davis, Shohei Ohtani and J.D. Martinez.
And, really, Diaz has nothing left to prove in the Minor Leagues. He boasts a .311/.413/.414 slash line in his career in the Minors and has been even better (.319/.415/.432) in his 1,000-plus at-bats at Triple-A Columbus. This year, Diaz has posted a .293/.403/.388 slash line in his games with the Clippers.

"He's a guy that, at some point, is probably going to hit in the middle of our lineup," Indians manager Terry Francona said earlier this week. "It might not be this year, but he's a polished hitter and he's going to get better."
Diaz is up with the Tribe right now while Edwin Encarnacion recovers from right hand and biceps issues on the disabled list. If Encarnacion's issue lingers, then Diaz will stick around. If Cleveland's regular designated hitter is back early next week, then Diaz will likely be the odd man out again. The Indians have no plans of trying him in the outfield (that experiment went poorly last year), and he's blocked at third (Ramirez), first (Yonder Alonso) and DH (Encarnacion).
So as Patrick points out here, the only real scenario in which Diaz fits into the positional picture would be if he handled third, Ramirez went to second and Kipnis moved to the outfield. We saw the Indians do that exact alignment down the stretch last season. Last month, Kipnis expressed a willingness to move if it helped the team's search for reinforcements via trade.
Cleveland acquired center fielder Leonys Martin on July 31, but he is now on the disabled list with a lot of unknowns surrounding his situation. Martin is at the Cleveland Clinic recovering from a serious bacterial infection. Francona was asked Wednesday if the Kipnis-to-center scenario might be back in play in light of the development with Martin.
"We talked about it," Francona said. "But I just think that, no, we're just going to keep him right where he is. I mean last year was so different. He was coming back off of an injury. We had our infield set. We didn't have an outfielder. So it's different circumstances."

It is time for Indians fans to come to terms with this fact: Cleveland does not have a closer. It doesn't do fantasy teams any favors, but what the Indians have are three late-inning options that will be leveraged based on situations and matchups. Cody Allen, Brad Hand and Andrew Miller will be mixed and matched, and any of them could wind up with the save. The latest example came on Wednesday in Cincinnati, where Allen logged two innings leading up to Hand covering the ninth. If it makes more sense to use Hand as the bridge, Francona won't hesitate to summon him in the seventh or eighth. The same goes with Miller, who is still sorting through his mechanics and trying to get on a roll.

Acquiring Bryce Harper from the Nationals before the non-waiver July 31 Trade Deadline seemed farfetched, but the Indians at least gave it a shot. Now? It's much more complicated and extremely unlikely. Harper would have to go unclaimed via waivers by every National League team and then the American League teams with records worse than Cleveland in order to fall to the Tribe. I don't see that happening.

The Indians will keep monitoring the waiver wire for possibilities -- they added Coco Crisp (2016) and Jay Bruce ('17) that way in recent years -- but what you see might be what you get this season. There is a chance that Lonnie Chisenhall is able to come off the disabled list in September. Tyler Naquin also has an outside shot at an '18 return, but he is behind Chisenhall, who is throwing, hitting and doing light running in his comeback from calf issues.

Heading into Thursday, Ramirez ranked second among qualified MLB third basemen in UZR/150 (10.4) and third in Defensive Runs Saved (plus-seven). Only the outstanding play of Oakland's Matt Chapman (14.8 UZR/150 and 24 DRS) is likely to get in the way of Ramirez taking home a Gold Glove Award. His defense is far too valuable in the infield to even consider that kind of switch. If Ramirez moves, it'd be to second (his natural position).
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I guess that's one way to look at it, but the goal of the Indians' approach with Brady Aiken this season is based on rebuilding arm strength. In 132 innings for Class A Lake County last year, the lefty had 101 walks and displayed diminished velocity. When Cleveland took Aiken in the first round of the 2014 MLB Draft, it knew he'd be a project given that he was returning from Tommy John surgery on his left elbow.
The word from within the Indians' front office is that there has not been a specific injury keeping Aiken out of Minor League games this year. Due to the extent of his struggles last year, the team felt it was best to give him as much time as he required to go through strength training at its complex in Arizona. Aiken, 22, has thrown off a mound, but the team has held him out of games to this point.