Myles Straw, Esteven Florial Competing For Center Field Job
10 months agoCleveland Guardians hitting coach Chris Valaika said this week that outfielder Myles Straw is competing for the center field job this spring, and The Athletic's Jason Lloyd gets the sense that the team would love to see Estevan Florial claim the job in spring training. Ramon Laureano has plenty of experience in center field, but Florial is the one that manager Stephen Vogt called "a specimen." Florial, 26, had no logical path to playing time with the Yankees. He hit 28 home runs at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2023 but has never had more than 71 plate appearances in a big-league season. Straw offers Cleveland Gold Glove-caliber defense, but he hasn't hit much. Florial strikes out too much, but there's no debating that he offers a much higher offensive ceiling in center field than Straw does.
Source: The Athletic - Jason Lloyd
Source: The Athletic - Jason Lloyd