CLEVELAND, Ohio — Prospects Nolan Jones and Tyler Freeman are not ready to play in spring training games for the Cleveland Guardians as they recover from injuries early in camp.
Jones, an outfielder and third baseman, is the club’s former No. 1 prospect who is recovering from offseason ankle surgery. He also tweaked his back while running in Arizona during the lockout, according to manager Terry Francona.
Jones has started a gradual return to throwing, hitting and running, but there is no definitive time frame for his return.
“We’re trying to make sure he’s 100 percent before we get him going into baseball activities,” Francona said.
Freeman, a shortstop and the team’s current top prospect per MLB Pipeline, had a “little setback” with his surgically-repaired shoulder. He is currently cleared for all throwing and defensive work and expected to resume a hitting progression this week. There is no set time frame for his return to play, either.
Francona said the team will wait until Freeman is ready to go before he sees game action.
“Those guys will be behind the other guys,” Francona said.
Per the team, Jones, Freeman, Josh Naylor (ankle) and Carlos Vargas (elbow surgery) are the only players in big league camp who are not available for exhibition games.
Civale ‘right on schedule’
Another player that was slightly behind at the beginning of camp is starting pitcher Aaron Civale, who served as Cleveland’s representative to the Major League Baseball Players’ Association during its recent contract negotiations with Major League Baseball.
Francona said because Civale was so active in the negotiations, he flew in to Arizona on Sunday and didn’t have a chance to throw his first bullpen session until Tuesday.
Civale, who went 12-5 with a 3.84 ERA in 21 starts for Cleveland last year, might be a day or two behind the other pitchers in camp, Francona said.
“Other than that, he’s right on schedule,” Francona said of Civale. “He looks good.”
Mercado bulked up
Oscar Mercado, who started in left field in Friday’s exhibition opener against Cincinnati, came to camp after bulking up to the tune of 20 pounds in the offseason.
“By all accounts, doing the testing, he hasn’t lost any agility,” Francona said. “So that’s good.”
Mercado, who hit .224 with six home runs and 19 RBI in 214 at-bats last year, has plenty of bat speed, according to Francona. But adding muscle will help him drive the ball better, Francona said.
“If you’re stronger and bigger and the ball is coming off his bat better,” Francona said. “But he can still move, that’s really good.”
Mercado’s challenge is to find consistency at the plate.
“Being able to lay off pitches that he doesn’t want to hit — breaking balls away, breaking balls out of the zone,” Francona said. “He’s just gonna have to find a way to be more consistent at swinging at strikes and balls he can handle.”
Expectations for Stephan
Francona weighed in on Trevor Stephan, the Rule 5 pick who remained on Cleveland’s 26-man roster for the entire season last year pitching in a variety of roles out of the bullpen. As last season wore on and Stephan grew more comfortable, Francona was able to find more high-leverage innings for him to pitch as opposed to just finding innings where the game’s out of control and pitching him to stay sharp.
This year, the expectations for Stephan have changed.
“We told him this spring, hey, the gloves are off and you’re competing now to try to show that you belong not only in our bullpen, but maybe innings with more leverage,” Francona said. “He understands that. He has a good concept of that.”
With the compressed spring training, it’s not clear whether or not the Guardians can get Stephan built up to three innings, but Francona said the goal is to get him out to 45-50 pitches by the opener, knowing that when games start, Cleveland is going to need to get some length in its bullpen.
Time flies
Francona was asked prior to Friday’s game whether or not it felt like 230 days since the last time he managed a major league club from the dugout.
The 62-year-old skipper said he hadn’t thought of it that way, but added that training camp appears to be moving pretty fast. It wasn’t exactly clear whether Francona thought that was a good thing or not.
“Seems like we’ve been in spring training for four days, that’s what it feels like,” Francona said. “Feels quick.”
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