Cleveland Indians: Yan Gomes in danger of losing his starting job

Cleveland Indians catcher Yan Gomes has had an awful start to the year on offense, and must turn things around soon to keep his starting job.

The Cleveland Indians lit up Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers on Saturday. Things got so crazy that Michael Martinez, now a stud reliever, hit a double and set his average at 1.000 on the season.

Martinez was one of nine Indians hitters to record a hit on Saturday. Yan Gomes was not one of the nine.

Gomes went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts, keeping his hit total at two after 30 plate appearances on the season.

Gomes is in Sunday’s lineup once again, and must do something to produce out of the ninth spot in the order.

It is too early for Gomes to permanently lose his starting role to Roberto Perez, who only has one hit in four games, but he must start producing soon before Terry Francona is left with no choice. He cannot keep putting a player in the lineup who can’t get on base.

No one is rooting against Gomes, but it is hard to see him keep going out there and fail to get hits. It may mean he needs a stint in Columbus to figure things out, yet it looks like the plan is to let him work things out on his own with the Indians.

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That is an alright strategy if he does turn things around, but he has become an easy out in the lineup.

He may not own that starting job if Perez was an offensive threat, and his struggles make it clear why the Indians were ready to give up the farm to acquire Jonathan Lucroy in 2016. Yet the situation is still tricky because Gomes is under contract through 2020, so the only option may be to hope he can work things out on his own.

30 plate appearances is too small of a sample size to declare Gomes to be incapable of being in the lineup. However, if the trend continues he could easily be put in the backup role until he proves he can provide consistent offense for this lineup filled with dominant hitters.

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Roberto Perez must prove that he is deserving of a full-time role, which may be why he hasn’t won the job from Gomes just yet. Also, Francona knows that a slow start can turn into a solid season so he likely isn’t panicking about Gomes the same way fans are.