Cleveland Indians: 3 Potential Breakout Candidates to Watch in Spring Training

In 2014, the Cleveland Indians saw a number of breakout performances en route to a decent but disappointing finish to the season.

Players like Michael Brantley, Corey Kluber, Cody Allen and Lonnie Chisenhall all took steps forward and helped lead the Indians to their 85-77 record. Here in 2015, the team is looking like a division-title contender, and it'll need those same players to keep up their performance while also relying on a new crop of breakout players in order to fulfill its goals for the year.

Fortunately, there are several players in the Tribe's spring training camp who could take big steps forward this year.

In this piece, we'll look at three such players and analyze why you should care about them. Hint: They are candidates to "break out" in 2015.

Along the way, we'll visit in on a would-be rookie, a familiar face and a guy I just can't quit on. Let's get started.

Jesus Aguilar

Jesus Aguilar is the type of prospect who can boom or bust in the blink of an eye. 

The 24-year-old has raw power for days, but it's tough to tell exactly how much of it will appear in games. As a minor leaguer, Aguilar averaged just over 16 home runs per season while averaging just 114 games played.

Unfortunately, Aguilar is his own worst enemy at the plate, and he averaged a 19.7 percent strikeout rate over his seven minor league seasons. Beyond the obvious statistical flaw, Aguilar possesses a choppy swing plane that causes far more swings and misses than he should make.

That issue was on full display in 2014 when he made his big league debut, striking out at a whopping 34.2 percent rate. In his brief showing, Aguilar's issues at the plate resulted in a .121/.211/.121 slash line with just four hits and three RBI.

Not a great showing for a guy with Aguilar's upside.

When Aguilar does connect, the results can be devastating. Even so, Aguilar's power potential won't be enough to win him a spot on the Indians' 25-man roster out of spring training, and it will be an uphill climb to gain at-bats at the big league level before September call-ups.

He'll bide his time in the minors this season, but Aguilar can force the hand of the front office with a solid showing in Columbus.

Because of all this, Aguilar remains a candidate to put up a breakout effort in 2015.

Carlos Carrasco

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

For several years (2007, 2008 and 2009), Carlos Carrasco was considered one of the top prospects in all of baseball.

Like Trevor Bauer, Carrasco's potential has struggled to actualize over prolonged periods of time. At least until last year, anyway, when Carrasco had his best year as a professional.

In 40 appearances (14 starts) with the big league club, Carrasco allowed just a 2.55 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP. On top of that, Carrasco logged career-best marks in innings pitched (134), strikeouts per nine innings (9.4), walks per nine innings (1.9) and strikeouts per walk (4.83).

One might say that this was his breakout season, and truthfully, it probably was. However, Carrasco spent most of his time in the bullpen last season, and I'm looking for him to break out and be a solid mid-rotation starter.

One thing to look out for when assessing Carrasco's breakout potential is his having reinvented himself over the course of the year. The idea of Carrasco's "reinvention" was developed well by FanGraphs.com's Eno Sarris, but let's build on that a bit. 

First, Carrasco saw an uptick across the board in his average velocity. In addition to that, the 27-year-old relied a lot less heavily on his fastball (50.61 percent in 2014, down from 56.08 percent in 2013) and more on his slider (21.77 percent usage in 2014, up from 7.80 percent in 2013), per BrooksBaseball.net.

Carrasco and the coaching staff must have realized that there was an opportunity in furthering the use of his slider, as the pitch generated its highest whiff rate (29.23 percent) to date.

Carrasco also did an effective job of working down in the strike zone, generating a high percentage of ground balls per ball in play, per BrooksBaseball.net. Carrasco's assault on the bottom of the strike zone is represented well by this chart, which shows that Carrasco threw a whopping 48.23 percent of his pitches in the bottom 40 percent of the pitch-tracking zone.

All of that resulted in a whopping 1.16 ground ball-to-fly ball ratio and, unsurprisingly, his best season to date. If he keeps it up, Carrasco is going to have a great impact on the Indians' starting rotation.

Trevor Bauer

Jim Mone/Associated Press

I'm going to write Trevor Bauer into this space every single time I talk about the Indians' breakout candidates, even if it kills me (I did it once last year and once already this year).

But, alas, here we are again.

Bauer has every bit of the potential necessary to become a dominant option atop a starting rotation. Unfortunately, to this point, that potential has not actualized over a full season.

However, last year, we saw glimpses of what Bauer can become. Over two separate periods of time in 2014, Bauer flashed at least mid-rotation potential.

Over five starts between July 2 and July 23, Bauer pitched to a 3.16 ERA, a 1.28 WHIP and averages of 8.6 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and 3.00 K/BB. The second instance came in a six-start span from Aug. 3 to Aug. 30 where Bauer allowed a 3.34 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP while working to averages of 9.0 K/9, 5.1 BB/9 and 1.75 K/BB.

The sheer number of walks he allowed in the second streak is not ideal, but it's impressive that Bauer was able to keep most of his measurables in check while allowing BABIPs of .322 and .286 in those two spans, respectively, per Baseball-Reference.com.

Bauer logged quality starts in 50 percent of his assignments last season, and given his increased average fastball velocity last season, there's room to believe that this improvement will lead to a more consistent pitcher in 2015.

Should he come to spring training having worked on his command and control—I'm sure he did, as Bauer is noted for his nearly constant tinkering—then the 24-year-old should take another step forward in 2015.

Possibly a big one.

All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.