Cleveland Indians first baseman Jake Bauers awake and ready to help win games

DETROIT — There are no good guys or bad guys here. Competition, in the purest sense of the word, was a factor, but not the deciding one.

It was simply about who the people in charge felt was the best fit at the moment for their baseball team. On March 26, four days before the final exhibition game of spring training, the Indians picked Jake Bauers over Bobby Bradley to be their first baseman when the regular season started.

The stats said they got it wrong. Bradley, 24, hit .303 (10-for-33) with two homers and 11 RBI in 13 games. He struck out seven times, walked once and posted at .951 OPS.

Bauers, 25, hit .211 (8-for-38) with one homer and two RBI in 17 games. He struck out 16 times, drew 10 walks and posted a .768 OPS.

The contract status of both players figured into the decision. Bradley has one minor-league option left. Bauers has none, meaning if he didn’t make the club, the Indians could have lost him on waivers.

The Indians said that wasn’t the only reason they picked Bauers. Manager Terry Francona and Chris Antonetti, president of baseball operations, said they feel there is a good player inside of Bauers waiting to emerge.

Is some part of management still trying to make the 2018 winter meetings trade that brought Bauers to Cleveland from Tampa Bay look good? Perhaps. Yandy Diaz has become a productive, if fragile, hitter for the Rays. But this is an organization built on patience. How many chances did they give Carlos Carrasco until he become a legitimate front-line starter?

The Bauers vs. Bradley competition was the main event of the spring. When Bauers finally found out the job was his, he realized how all consuming it had been.

“I was exhausted that day after they told me,” he said. “I kind of felt like I needed a nap.”

He wasn’t kidding. A few hours after being told he’d made the club, Bauers, a good fielding first baseman, made two errors in a game against the Rockies. It took him a while to relax. In the final two exhibition games, he collected his first RBI and homer of camp.

“I couldn’t feel better as far as physically, mentally in the clubhouse, with my teammates,” said Bauers. “I feel like I’m in a really good spot. The team as a whole is in a really good spot. I know we’re all excited to get it going.”

Bauers didn’t start in Thursday’s season opener as Yu Chang, a right-handed hitter, played first against Detroit left-hander Matthew Boyd. He pinch hit for Chang with two out in the sixth and popped up to the shortstop to end the inning.

Options can drive players to distraction. A player gets three in his career or he’s on the 40-man roster. One option lasts one year, meaning you can be bounced between the big leagues and minors as many times as the organization feels you’re needed in those three seasons. Some players are happy when the third option expires and the organization has to make a decision to keep them or let them go. Others find it nerve wracking.

“It’s easy to get wrapped up in that,” said Bauers. “It’s easy to think about it. But the tougher thing to do, which is what I’m trying to do, is keep the focus on today. … If you just focus on that coming in (to the ballpark) every day, everything else is going to take care of itself. At the end of the day that’s something I have zero control over.

“My only goal right now is to help the Cleveland Indians win baseball games. I hope to help the Cleveland Indians win many baseball games over the course of the next 5-6 years. Whatever it is.”

Bauers hit .226 (84-for-372) with 12 homers and 43 RBI in 2019. He played almost every day for the first four months of the season. He was sent to Class AAA Columbus on Aug. 1 when the Indians acquired Yasiel Puig from Cincinnati and Franmil Reyes from San Diego in the Trevor Bauer deal.

Last year Bauers did not appear in a big-league game. He spent the season at the team’s alternate site at Classic Park in Eastlake.

He is a tinkerer when it comes to hitting. If something doesn’t feel right, he makes a change here or there. Francona message to him this spring was to stay the course when things don’t go well at the plate. Stick with the program.

If Bauers is looking for a good start to the season, he’s in the right place. On June 14, 2019, he collected the ninth cycle in team history when he went 4-for-5 with four RBI at Comerica Park.

“We were just talking about that in BP,” said Bauers before Thursday’s season opener. “Good memories. I would like to make some more here, no doubt.”

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