Have Patience with Tyler Freeman

2024 has been an arduous journey for the 24 year-old, and he’s taking it in stride

It’s been a unique, winding road for Tyler Freeman. Drafted out of high school by Cleveland in the second round of 2017, the soon-to-be 25 year old has finally found a sticking spot after years of grinding his way up the ranks within the organization, but not where he ever anticipated.

Tyler Freeman has played in 38 games this season for the Guardians, who are 27-17 overall, and 36 of them have come in the same position for the career middle infielder: center field.

Coming into the 2024 season, centerfield had been a sore spot within the Guardians’ organization for years. In fact, since 2018, it has been the primary spot of underwhelming results within the team. Since 2018, Guardians centerfielders rank 29th in fWAR (6.0), 29th in wRC+ (77), and last in home runs (63). Not surprising to those who have watched this team for many years, but seeing it put into words is painful nonetheless. That brings me to Tyler Freeman. Tyler Freeman had never played a professional inning of baseball in center field coming into 2024, but Stephen Vogt saw something in Freeman that even he may not have.

Enter Spring Training, and the battle for shortstop was a two horse race. It was either going to be Brayan Rocchio or Gabriel Arias, and that left Freeman without a real position option to get consistent playing time. However, there was another unspoken guarantee: Myles Straw was not going to start in center again, but who would? A Spring crash course commenced for Freeman, and we even saw other prospects like Angel Martinez take reps in center field, just to see what they had out there. Sure enough, Opening Day rolled around, and Tyler Freeman was starting in center, and he’s been there since so far.

APPROACH ADJUSTMENT

As it turns out, it wasn’t just a positional change Tyler Freeman would undertake; his whole approach at the plate would also be shifting. With Terry Francona retiring, first-time manager Stephen Vogt took the reins, and with him came a more modern hitting approach: pull the ball and do it in the air.

The Guardians’s 34.7% flyball rate ranked 28th in 2023, and they were pulling the ball just 38.4% of the time, ranking 29th. Despite very little roster change this season from last, the Guardians now rank 15th in flyball rate at 37.5%, and their pull rate is sixth in baseball at 42.0%. A huge shift no doubt, and no one embodies it quite like Tyler Freeman.

From last season to this season, Freeman’s batted ball data has shifted tremendously. From a sub-30% flyball rate in 2023, Freeman has upped that to 42%, and his groundball rate has gone down to 44% from 47.5%. With a concerted effort to lift the ball more, one may think his pop-up rate would increase, but that’s not happened either. In fact, he’s nearly cut it in half (17.6% down to 9.5%).

Naturally, he had a very slow start. Adjusting your approach while facing big league pitching while also learning a new position on the fly is a tremendous ask of anyone, and the growing pains came as expected. From the start of the season through April 15th, 50 plate appearances into the season, Freeman was walking just 4.1% of the time while hitting .159 with a 40 wRC+ and sub-par defense.

Since then, with a near 100 plate appearance sample, 96 to be exact, Freeman has been one of the better hitters on the team. Posting a 119 wRC+ in that span while slashing .215/.347/.392 with three home runs and a 10.4% walk rate, Freeman’s molding into this new hitting profile was taking place. Freeman is running a 7.6% barrel rate in this span, third best on the team, behind only Josh Naylor and Estevan Florial who both sit at 10+%, and his xwOBA is .324, just behind Jose Ramirez’s .325.

On a substantially less analytical note, it’s fun to watch Freeman play baseball as he figures everything out for multiple reasons. He does everything at 100 miles per hour. Nothing is done with a lack of self confidence, even on flyballs he overruns or misjudges in center. We expect these things to happen, and the defense has done nothing but gradually improve from the start. Freeman was at -2 defensive runs saved around the midway point of April. That number is back up to 0 overall. Freeman has tremendous grit that works in his favor. He’s been fighting the odds since day one in the organization, and it never stopped him from getting to this point.

His series in Texas perfectly embodies everything he’s about. The collision with Brayan Rocchio should have been enough to pull him out of a game the Guardians were winning. He got popped in the jaw among other areas, but he stayed out there. The very next half inning, he wears a pitch on the back then comes around to score. The half inning after that? He makes a diving catch in center. That, to me, encapsulates everything Freeman represents. He’s a Tito-type player through and through who is adapting to what Stephen Vogt has asked of him at every turn, and not only is it making him a better hitter, but that confidence on the field is still shining through and only growing. Don’t give up on him after a rough start because, as we talked about, all he’s done is improve, and he will continue to get better.