The Cleveland Guardians lost the series finale against the New York Yankees on Wednesday and are no longer leaders in the AL Central (Detroit is up by half a game), but they have been much improved in comparison to the team that went 3-6 to open the year.
Their recent surge has taken place without much help from one of their top offseason acquisitions: Carlos Santana.
The veteran was more valuable than Josh Naylor in terms of WAR last year (3.0 to 2.3) and was a comparable hitter (118 wRC+ for the current Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman, 114 for Santana), so essentially, the theory behind the acquisition was sound.
At the plate, however, Santana hasn’t met expectations so far.
The season is still very young and we could see a hot streak improve his stats, but right now, he is in the middle of an ugly slump.
After going hitless in his last five games, his batting average is down to .204 with a .562 OPS.
In those five games, Santana is 0-for-20 with six strikeouts.
He has been so bad that he isn’t even walking, which is something in which he has excelled during his entire career.
He hasn’t taken a base on balls since April 18th in Pittsburgh.
There is an important thing to keep in mind: Santana is, after all, 39 years old.
That’s not an insignificant detail.
He was bound to decline at some point and we might finally be witnessing it.
Again, there is still a lot of time to make adjustments and improve if he is able.
But fans are losing their patience and understandably want results.
NEXT: Executive Reveals Guardians' Plans To Develop Travis Bazzana
