Commentary: Injury aside, Chase DeLauter will be worth the wait

Don't get discouraged. Imagine how bad it would have been if Babe DeLauter wasn't the Guardians' new Sultan of Swat. No, seriously. Can the Fighting Vogters ever catch a baseball break? Does at least one member, one KEY member, from the Guardians' opening day Baseball Boneyard HAVE to get injured almost before the season even begins? Who is in charge here? If I had a personal assistant, I would ask him to call Commissioner Rob Manfred and demand an explanation. The Los Angeles Dodgers have sluggers galore, Hollywood girlfriends galore, more money, and galore, than they can count, pitchers from Japan who also hit home runs, and more backyard swimming pools and state-of-the-art automobiles that haven't even been invented yet. The Guardians? Well, they've got Daniel Schneemann. PLAY BALL! Is it any wonder that the Guardians haven't won a World Series since the Truman administration? Nope. That just falls into the same, old woe-is-us baseball pity party kettle drum that always seems to strike a gruesome chord when the Guardians — bless their nearly 80-year World Series championship drought — go home empty-handed again. It's a tradition like no other. We know this, generally, of course. But every so often, those of us from a certain "are we getting older, or is it just us?" generation are confronted by diehards waiting for a World Series championship that may, or may never, come their way. It is another one of nature's cruelest gambits, delivered to the unwanted by the cruelly unwelcomed. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you debonair slugger Chase DeLauter, who deserves more, much more, than he has been given in this, the beginning of a Major League Baseball career that, it says here, will be worth waiting for. DeLauter, his employers and many of those from baseball circles are confident that the left-handed-hitting slugger is all but certain to evolve into the kind of a hammer who sits in the middle of the lineup and slugs. Slugs a lot. What happened in the second game in the series with the Dodgers on Tuesday was an all-too-memorable head-slapping moment, in which DeLauter, who is having a devil of a time getting into a major league lineup and staying there, never got out of the first inning in Los Angeles. He fouled a ball of his foot and hobbled off the field. He was diagnosed with a bruise and X-rays were negative. He wasn't scheduled to play Wednesday, and it was uncertain if he'd miss any time. There will, of course, be other first innings for DeLauter, and DeLauter's bat will undoubtedly take advantage of most of them. In the meantime, The Chase Race is on, meaning how long it will take DeLauter to camp out in the run-scoring portion of the Guardians lineup, to the point where opposing pitchers will simply choose not to pitch to him. Based on DeLauter's history, and his rousing debut vs. the Mariners in Seattle at the start of the Guardians' trip, there is plenty to be excited about. Some young players reach the big leagues and the jury has to wait before drawing any conclusions. DeLauter isn't one of them. Unfortunately, however, DeLauter's history is one that features a hitter who can hit the long ball, but also a hitter who, for whatever reason, has been victimized by major injuries. The Guardians, of course, are one of the most desperate long ball-hitting shoppers in the big leagues. DeLauter's bombs away debut in Seattle did nothing but whet the appetite of Cleveland fans. Unfortunately, for now, at least, DeLauter is a happening waiting to happen. He was on the verge of it in Seattle, before another injury slammed on the brakes. He has a track record for the long ball, but also for long rehabs following injuries. If the former can conquer the latter, the present — meaning DeLauter himself — will take care of the rest. Certainly, the Guards need what the Guards thought they had going into the Seattle series, which was a left-handed slugger who knows how to slug. So DeLauter slugged. Guards fans everywhere want to see it and see him. Who doesn't like home runs, right? Who has a long history of not hitting home runs? That's right, the Guardians. Frustratingly so. Never has a team been more in need of a slugger than this Guardians team, which, with the exception of Jose Ramirez, has no dependable sluggers. All that could change this year, but only if the new kid stays healthy enough to hit enough home runs so the rest of the lineup can follow suit. Home runs don't come easy, nor do home run hitters. The Guardians feel they have one in DeLauter. If they are right, that changes everything. Big time. If they are wrong, well, it wouldn't be the first time. To this point, DeLauter is a happening waiting to happen. One way or another, it will be worth the wait. Contact Jim Ingraham at jingraham4@gmail.com.