The Cleveland Guardians have hit a bit of a skid over the past week, dropping five out of six games to the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers as the offense continues to sputter at times. Now just 0.5 games up in the AL Central, they’ll turn to Parker Messick on Wednesday in hopes of holding on to first place and avoiding a sweep at the hands of the Yankees.
One of the reasons the offense has been stuck in neutral of late is rookie outfielder and No. 3 hitter Chase DeLauter, who has cooled down considerably since his torrid start to the season. He has just a .373 OPS in June and hasn’t hit a homer since May 17th, but Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes isn’t concerned about the star rookie. In a recent article, Hoynes pushed back on the concerns surrounding DeLauter and pointed out some positives he has exhibited all year.
He noted that his batting average is still better than the league average and pointed to his outstanding plate discipline as well.
“[Chase DeLauter] is still in a league where the projected batting average for a player is .240. He’s still hitting .254, still got a .728 OPS, still showing really good plate discipline with 35 strikeouts, 26 walks,” Hoynes said.
The season-long stats are still impressive, but pointing to those stats to distract from the recent downturn doesn’t change the fact that DeLauter has been struggling mightily. Yes, he has shown great plate discipline as a rookie, but he has still struck out in eight of his last nine games and has a 13:2 K:BB ratio since May 24th.
A power outage combined with an uptick in strikeouts represents a disturbing trend no matter what stats you try to lean on to gloss over that fact. If you look back even further, DeLauter has a .479 OPS and 37 wRC+ over his last 28 games, so there are valid reasons for people to be concerned, especially since he is hitting third in the lineup. It’s expected for rookies to hit a wall at some point, and DeLauter has hit that wall.
The question now is how he will adjust and respond to start producing again, because this team needs him if it plans on winning the division again.
NEXT: Steven Kwan Highlights Crucial Role Of Guardians' Veterans
