Richie Palacios Set To Make MLB Debut Tonight vs. Angels
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Another day, another Cleveland Guardian set to make his MLB debut.
The youngest team in baseball this year, the Cleveland Guardians have routinely put players on the field that have never competed at the Major League level - and the group has been pretty impressive so far, considering they are just one game under .500 after the first couple weeks of the season.
This evening, Richie Palacios is set to become the sixth different Cleveland player to debut in the big leagues. He is batting ninth and playing left field as the Guardians open a 4-game series against the Los Angeles Angels.
Steven Kwan, Palacios' counter-part who has taken the big leagues by storm after his hot start, was removed from Sunday's game in New York for precautionary purposes after he felt tightness in his right hamstring. Terry Francona told reporters postgame that they were anticipating handling Kwan's injury on a day-to-day basis.
Palacios is the No. 18-ranked prospect in the Guardians farm system according to MLBPipeline.com, but our own Todd Paquette thinks a little more highly of him. Todd ranked him as the No. 12 prospect in our Cleveland Baseball Insider rankings before the season.
He's already gotten off to a nice start this season. Through the first 14 games he's played for Columbus, Palacios has five double, a triple, a home run and 15 RBI. He's struck out 16 times, but he's also drawn nine walks.
Palacios is on the 40-man roster already. He was drafted in the third round in 2018 and has performed well when he's been healthy. But he's dealt with a shoulder injury that required surgery.
After it cost him the entire 2019 season (and the 2020 season was canceled because of the pandemic), he split time between Double-A Akron and Triple-A Columbus last year, hitting .297 with a .875 OPS. He's floated between the outfield and second base and the team has been happy with his added strength post-surgery. He's also known for his great eye at the plate.
With rosters set for 28 players through the rest of the week before they must go back to the normal 26 on May 1, teams have a little more flexibility than usual this time of year. The team has not put out any update on Kwan's injury, so I'm not sure yet how long he'll be out. But Palacios will take his spot in the lineup tonight in the meantime.
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