This Is Why The Guardians Decided To Option Oscar Gonzalez

The Cleveland Guardians send Oscar Gonzalez to Triple-A and recall Tyler Freeman.

The Cleveland Guardians' offense has been stumbling over the last month. One player who has especially struggled early on in the season is Oscar Gonzalez.

Gonzalez was the team's postseason hero in 2022 hitting multiple walk-off hits in Cleveland's playoff run. However, 2023 has not been the same story.

The right fielder currently has a batting average of .192 and an OPS of .501. He only has 14 hits in 73 plate appearances highlighting his struggles. Gonzalez has always been an ultra-aggressive hitter which worked well for him last year, but not so much this season.

Terry Francona touched on this when explaining why the organization felt it was time for him to have a change of scenery. 

"Last season when we called him up, he had a lot of at-bats under his belt and he felt really good about himself. But we're going to hopefully get him going again as opposed to playing him every so often ... He made it tougher by chasing so much. We tried to tell him, we were not asking him to walk. We just want you to swing at pitches you can handle."

Gonzalez has a K% of 20.4 which ranks in the 62nd percentile and a BB% of 3.5 which is in the third percentile, via Fangraphs and Baseball Savant.

Sending Oscar down to the minors isn't saying that he won't be called back up. Once he can do that, it won't be shocking to see him back up with the Major League team. 

Tito also said they want Oscar playing every day which is something he'll get to do in Columbus. 

----

Read More:

Steven Kwan Seals The Deal For The Guardians In Win Over The Twins

Guardians Grab A Much-Needed Win Over The Twins, 4-3

Guardians Standing Firm With Their Roster, Don't Appear Ready To Call Up Any More Prospects

Peyton Battenfield Proves Guardians Made Right Choice With Starting Rotation

Same Struggles For The Guardians As They Fall To The Twins

Be sure to stay locked into Cleveland Baseball Insider all the time:

SUBSCRIBE to the CBI YouTube channel

Follow Cleveland Baseball Insider on Twitter: @CBI_FanNation

Photo Credit © Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports