Winter League results for Indians players

Earlier this month, the Caribbean Series ended with Mexico claiming its third championship in four years by beating Puerto Rico 7-1 in the finale. Here is a brief recap of how Indians prospects fared in the warmth.

Hitters

Someone named Ben Shorto played five games in the Australian League and had a 489 OPS in just 7 at-bats. I can't find evidence he's ever played in the states. Former Tribe catcher farmhand Mitch Nilsson also had 1 at bat in Australia this winter. Australian baseball... who knew?

Of all of the players who got 100 at bats or more, Jesus Aguilar easily outperformed his fellow Indians. He had a nice even 1000 OPS with 18 home runs and 50 RBI. He even had 27 walks to balance out his 43 strikeouts. Hopefully he can continue this upward trend in Columbus during his age 24 season.

Second best was probably Erik Gonzalez with an OPS of 795. His slugging got a boost from his 6 doubles and 6 triples, not his 1 home run. After a very promising 2013 regular season, Carlos Moncrief did not play all that well. The numbers for Ciriaco, a recent minor league signing, exceed all of his minor league seasons to date. He will be 27 this year.

And as discussed before, Carlos Santana was down there to work on his third base defense. His batting eye was in fine form during his limited regular-season action (the numbers above do not include the DWL's postseason, in which Santana played more games, and posted an even better walk rate, but a lower batting average).

Pitchers

Tyler Surdevant missed all of 2013, so the levels information is from his 2012 season. He also pitched in the Arizona Fall League with Shawn Armstrong, Trey Haley and Will Roberts.

Most of the pitchers saw very little action in the Winter Leagues, with just six of them throwing 10+ innings. Of those six, Joseph Colon had the best overall numbers. Bryan Price, the last piece of the Victor Martinez deal, had a very nice winter. But he is going to be 27 this year. If something has clicked, he could make a few bullpen appearances.

Paolo Espino is the only player listed who got into any of the Caribbean Series games. He got the win in relief in one of his two appearances, with a total of three scoreless innings as a member of the Venezuelan club in the Series. Sadly, the Indians recently had to put him on waivers, due to the amount of time he'd been in their system, and the Cubs claimed him.

Jesus Aguilar was the big performer, and if he can carry that kind of production back with him to Akron and/or Columbus this year, he could be ready to help the Indians in 2015.