I've always seen the potential of this lineup especially with Lewis leading it. That's why I was against going out & acquiring new players, we had the players to light things up inhouse. The new acquisitions took up our young player's playing time & roster spot.
In the beginning of the offseason, I had faith in Miranda, Kiriloff & Julien to take care of 1B/ DH the positions where they'd really thrive at, 1B with Santana we are 28th, with our trio we can be much higher. Due to pitcher's adjustment on Julien's swing style & the Julien's added focus of being overstretched at 2B contributed to Julien's high regression. A reset at AAA is in order for Julien so he can adjust his swing & have him focused on 1B where his long term future is at.
Margot is our black hole that trade should not have happened. Our young OFs need that playing time & Keirsey needs his roster spot. We have to see what Keirsey can do at the MLB level & Emma needs to get promoted to AAA to get him one step closer to the show.
Lewis can carry this team even with the old hitting philosophy but now with a better hitting philosophy, we are a better team. So in a way, his injury has been a blessing in disguise, in that we could see the great hole in that old hitting philosophy sooner & change it. Resetting for Wallner & Julien might take a while but at least they're on the right track.
Lewis will be great when he returns, Correa, Miranda, Castro, Jeffers & Kepler have been steadily good, Buxton has been streaky but can be very explosive, Larnach, Kiriloff & Martin have shown signs of being very good but appears something is holding them back at times. Vazquez & Farmer have been terrible but we still need their defense off the bench.