Cleveland Guardians Demote Slumping October Hero Oscar Gonzalez

In 2022, outfielder Oscar Gonzalez was a Cinderella story within the Cleveland Guardians’ Cinderella season.

One month into the 2023 season Oscar Gonzalez is a Columbus Clipper.

The 25-year-old would-be slugger slugged two of Cleveland’s most dramatic hits during the 2022 season, both coming in postseason games. The first was a walk-off solo home run that ended the Guardians’ 15-inning, nearly five-hour 1-0 victory over Tampa Bay in the deciding game of the American League Wildcard series.

The second was a two-run walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving the Guardians a 6-5 victory over the Yankees in Game 3 of the Division Series.

Gonzalez was called up from Triple-A Columbus on May 26, and set a Cleveland club record by collecting 25 hits in his first 15 major league games. In 362 regular-season at bats after his callup from Columbus, Gonzalez hit .296, with 27 doubles, 11 home runs and 43 RBI. He quickly became one of the most popular players on the team.

But then came 2023, and last year’s hero quickly played his way back to Columbus. It only took 25 games. In those games, Gonzalez hit .192, with a .213 on-base percentage, and a .288 slugging percentage. In 75 plate appearances he hit one home run, had two walks and 15 strikeouts.

Guardians manager Terry Francona said team officials felt that reducing the slumping Gonzalez’s playing time might not be the answer. “We might be doing Oscar a disservice by playing him sparingly,” Francona said. “Last year we called him up and he had a lot of at bats under his belt, and felt really good about himself. So we’re going to hopefully get him going again (at Columbus), as opposed to playing him every so often (with the Guardians).”

Gonzalez’s downfall is a familiar one for many young sluggers: his inability to make consistent contact. The more times he swung and missed, the more he chased pitches out of the strike zone.

Francona suggested that the cold weather in Cleveland in April was a factor in Gonzalez’s slow start. “It can be a tough month, and he made it tougher by chasing so much,” Francona said. “We’re not asking him to walk. We just want him to swing at pitches he can handle, because we think he’ll do some damage.”

Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said the hope is that by going to Columbus Gonzalez “can get everyday at bats to hopefully restore his confidence. We never expected Oscar to lead the league in walks. But we do want him to have a more disciplined approach, where he understands which pitches he can do damage to, and put in play hard, vs. which pitches he may not be able to put in play or do damage.”

Gonzalez’s plight is not an uncommon one for young hitters getting their first taste of the big leagues. Getting to the big leagues is hard, but staying there can be even harder.

“There are lots of guys who have initial success in their first major league opportunity, and then have to make adjustments,” Antonetti said. “That often means going back to the minors to figure those things out. I’m hoping that Oscar can do that, and find his way back here and have a similar impact as last year.”

Even when Gonzalez was hitting, Cleveland has still struggled to score runs this season. The Guardians rank 14^th in the American League and 28^th in the majors in runs scored this year, which helps explain their minus-18 run differential, fifth worst in the American League.

“Most of our answers have to come from within because it’s not a time for high transactions throughout the league,” Antonetti said. “Also, there’s only so much we can do. So our primary emphasis is how do we understand what’s happening with each player and how can we help them work to be the best version of themselves.”

Getting Gonzalez back on track at Columbus would go a long way toward bolstering a Cleveland lineup that has struggled to score runs and win games this season.

“We continue to believe in the guys that are here,” said Antonetti. “It’s the same group that proved to be an effective unit last year in finding ways to score runs. One of our hallmarks was our ability to generate runs once we’re on the bases, but we haven’t gotten on base as consistently as we want. Once we get better at getting on base we’ll be better at generating runs.”

One of the keys for that would be getting Gonzalez hitting again, and back in Cleveland, sooner rather than later.