Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona is widely regarded as one of the best tactical skippers in baseball. With the World Series set to kick off on Tuesday night at Progressive Field, Francona is already thinking up creative ways to get his best bats into the lineup for the remainder of the series.
Ahead of Game 1 against the Chicago Cubs, Francona said that he could play designated hitter/first baseman Carlos Santana in left field once the series shifts back to Wrigley Field for Games 3, 4, and 5, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com.
Francona: Santana *might* play LF in Wrigley with no DH. Santana willing to do it. Tito still not sure if he'll go through with it, though.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) October 25, 2016
Francona won’t have to make a final decision for a couple days with Cleveland having home-field advantage thanks to the American League winning the 2016 All-Star Game. But the problem becomes how to get both Santana and fellow DH/1B Mike Napoli (himself also a slugging ex-catcher) into the lineup without the luxury of a DH in a National League ballpark.
With Roberto Perez virtually set in stone as the starting catcher thanks to his superior defense and game-calling, Francona will have some maneuvering to do. But playing Santana, a minus defender who has played in the outfield only once in his career, in left poses some risk, particularly at Wrigley, which has the deepest left field line of any park in the league.
The allure of starting both Santana (34 home runs and 87 RBIs during the regular season) and Napoli (34 HRs and 101 RBIs) goes without saying. But it looks like Francona may be forced to lose some outfield defense (rather than a tooth) to make it happen in the middle games of the World Series.
H/T Rotoworld
