To Schneemann or Not To Schneemann, That is the Question

When will the 27 year old crack the Guardians roster? Should he?

Guardians fans online are clamoring for Daniel Schneemann to be promoted to Cleveland. Are they right to do so?

I have been a Daniel Schneemann skeptic. Not because I don’t like Schneemann; how can you not?

No, it’s just because I have seen too many players pass 25 years old in the minors, find a second gear at which they hammer Triple-A pitching, only to wash out quickly when facing big league pitching. At some point, even a major league replacement level hitter will solve the quandries provided by most Triple-A pitching. The question becomes: which players are experiencing a late career breakout and which are showing themselves to be Quad-A guys?

I have reminded folks that, prior to this season, Schneemann was a 90 wRC+ hitter in the minors. I have remarked that after a strong start in 2023, he ended up around league average, overall. But, conversely, folks could point out to me that if you look at April-June 2023 Schneemann and April-May 2024 Schneemann, that’s an 155 wRC+ hitter. Who knows if Schneemann was dealing with a nagging injury or simply going through some natural growing pains as a hitter, but this is a solid period of excellence, anyway you look at it. Maybe Schneemann deserves an extra look.

It’s so important to remember that as a 27 year old player, Schneemann SHOULD be dominating Triple-A. But, doing what he SHOULD do isn’t a bad thing. It means he probably needs to be challenged by major league pitching to see if his numbers are just telling us that he is better than Triple-A or if they are telling us he is good enough for MLB.

There are some numbers under the surface this season that are encouraging. In 2024, so far, Schneeman has an average exit velocity of 91.4 mph, he has a 9.4% barrel rate (Josh Naylor has 11% for comparison), and his hard-hit rate is at 53.8%. He has lowered his groundball rate by over 12% from last year and seen small gains in fly ball rate and modest gains in line-drive rate. He’s not a pull hitter, but instead a guy who hits to all fields about an equal amount. Personally, pull hitters are what I look for in hitting prospects, especially for a lefty trying to hit it in that short right-field porch in Cleveland, but, if a guy can get to the barrel consistently, it doesn’t matter as much where he is hitting the ball. Schneeman’s 11.5% swinging strike rate and 21/14 K/BB% indicate that there is some chase/whiff to his game, but not a particularly worrisome amount if he can maintain some level of consistency in hitting the ball hard when he connects as he makes the transition to the bigs.

One additional concern is that over the past three seasons, Schneemann has only a .327 wOBA vs. LHP and a .398 wOBA vs. RHP. For comparison, Tyler Freeman has a the seventh best wOBA for the Guardians vs LHP this year at .337 wOBA, but Cleveland has only a .297 wOBA against LHP, overall, since opening day 2023. So, I don’t think Schneemann should be seen as hopeless against LHP, but he probably also would see most of his bench days when southpaws are on the mound while breaking into playing time on the Guardians.

It is impossible to glean any information about Schneemann as a fielder from the fielding numbers publicly available at Triple-A. Over the past two seasons, Schneemann has started 17 games at second-base, 74 games at third base, 45 games at shortstop, and 13 games in the outfield, and 3 games at DH. So, out of 152 starts, Schneemann has had less than a third of those starts at shortstop. For me, that would indicate the team does not see his primary value as a defensive asset at shortstop. That doesn’t mean Schneemann wouldn’t be able to play there, just that he’s probably not a player you bring up to be a defensive plus in the middle infield. For comparison, Jose Tena has had 15 starts at second base, 11 starts at third base, 29 starts at shortstop, and 2 starts at DH, over 50% of his starts coming at short and over 66% of his starts coming at either second base or short.

When you look at Tena, you can see the team believes he is a middle-infielder, whereas Schneemann’s value is primarily being indicated to be in versatility in multiple positions. This, combined with observation, leads me to conclude the team may not see Schneemann as a simple upgrade over Gabriel Arias for the position of utility infielder. I have no inside knowledge on this, however’ I’m making a conclusion based on the evidence that I have at my disposal and what my eyes are able to offer as amateur analysis.

With the designating of Ramon Laureano for assignment and the promotion of Johnathan Rodriguez, who was already on the 40-man, I think there is roster space right now to add Schneemann to the 40-man without limiting the team in needed flexibility for the future. I continue to wonder if the team sees a player who is likely not a weapon against left-handed pitching and may not be seen as a plus defensively in the middle-infield positions as a good substitute for the role in which they have placed Gabriel Arias (whether or not Arias, himself, is fit for that role), so I am interested to see if the Guardians may view Schneemann as a better fit for the role Estevan Florial currently plays on the team. Continued opportunities in the outfield at Columbus will be a tell-tale indication to me that the Schneemann-for-Florial musings are likely true.

I don’t think the Guardians will move on from Florial unless they have a trade for a lower level prospect in place for the big outfielder with another team. It wouldn’t surprise me to see a deal like that take place in the coming couple weeks, and Schneemann take that fifth outfielder spot with the additional value of having some utility on the infield coming with him. However, I also would not be shocked (or disappointed) if the leash on Arias is short and Schneemann replaces Arias in a simple demotion-promotion move. The presence of David Fry and Johnathan Rodriguez ensures that the team still has some thump against left-handed pitching in this event.

From the moment that Stephen Vogt went out of his way to praise Daniel Schneemann in Spring Training and mention him as a player who can help the team in 2024, I’ve been convinced that we will see Schneemann’s debut this season.

You can also see, if you watch clips from 2023 and see Schneemann now that he has added significant muscle mass, so he’s clearly worked hard to put himself in this position. I believe the roster churn is reaching the point where that debut is nigh, and Schneemann’s performance has been screaming someone who, regardless of age, deserves a chance to prove he belongs in the big leagues. I am ready to join Schneeman’s Demons and root for him to be the next late bloomer to help Cleveland compete for a division title in 2024.