Cleveland Indians: Jason Kipnis is the odd man out in 2018

The Cleveland Indians utility man, Jason Kipnis, may be the odd man out in 2018.

The Cleveland Indians are attempting to re-sign free agent slugger Carlos Santana, but have a fallback option such as Matt Adams, Mitch Moreland, and Lucas Duda according to Winter Meetings interviews. Ultimately, they have positional clogs at the other spots due to the rise of their young stars Yandy Diaz and Jose Ramirez.

Jose Ramirez took over second base towards the end of last year, while Yandy Diaz replaced Ramirez talents at third base. With that, Jason Kipnis patrolled center field. However, with a going-to-be healthy Bradley Zimmer, who they look to put back in center field, does that move Kipnis to left?

Well, not so fast. Michael Brantley will also be healthy, or at least that is what the reports are saying, at the start of the year. Manager Terry Francona mentioned in the article, “…I think right now, he’s an outfielder [talking about Brantley].”

If that is the case, where does that leave Kipnis? One can only speculate, but he seems to be the guy who is the odd man out, for now.

Jason Kipnis had a down year last year, and according to Predator Projections for 2018, he is trending down. Never a good sign for a 30-year-old player trying to find a position on a 100+ win team.

Last season was his first season actually to be a worse than the average player. Of course, he was hurt for part of the season, which does play a factor, but he cost the Indians -0.41 wins compared to an average player according to my stats. Compare that to Michael Brantley, who was a positive in the win column as a player, contributing +0.47 wins compared to the average player.

What should they do?