“With Amed, it was kind of working from ground zero.”

Indians outfield coach Kyle Hudson was dealt the task of helping shortstop Amed Rosario transition to center field. With Oscar Mercado and Bradley Zimmer in the Minors, the Tribe was left in an unusual position this spring, having to unexpectedly find a starting center fielder.

Ben Gamel and Jordan Luplow will get most of the reps in center for now, but the club wants to find a way to get Rosario’s bat in the lineup since Andrés Giménez locked up the shortstop job. Rosario may be starting from square one, having played just a few innings in the outfield in his career, but the Indians are sticking with the plan of moving him to center.

“Him playing shortstop helps out a little bit,” Hudson said. “You've got to react a little faster on the infield than you do in the outfield. He might be moving too quick at times in terms of that reaction to make the right read. The athletic ability is there; his ability to go back, his ability to come in.”

The natural athleticism certainly helps when trying to take on a position like center field. However, Rosario needed to learn everything about playing the outfield, starting with the basic fundamentals.

“It's been a really cool project,” Hudson said, “because once guys get to this level, they're usually pretty locked in on the fundamental aspects and it's more of a maintenance thing for guys every day. With Amed, we had to go from ground zero and work through the fundamental aspects and get him as many game-like reads and reps as possible, because he's starting from behind in that aspect, because he hasn't had much time out there.”

Most of the fundamentals will just require Rosario to get as many repetitions under his belt as possible for them to become more natural. The one thing that may take some more time -- and a more physical toll -- will be stretching his arm out to make longer throws more consistently from the outfield rather than from a shorter distance at shortstop.

“That’s gonna be a continuous process throughout the season to be able to try to lengthen that thing out and get more backspin carry from that center field position,” Hudson said. “There’s some improvement there, but it’s definitely gonna be a process, because it’s definitely a change from what he’s experienced at shortstop in terms of that arm slot.”

Players usually report to camp early in the mornings each day to get their practice and workouts in. Games get underway in the afternoon, and players leave for the night after they are pulled. But Rosario has been staying later into the evenings to get some extra work in the outfield with Hudson.

“I can't say enough about the attitude and the work that he's put in out there,” Hudson said. “He's doing almost twice as much as every other guy out there right now. … That's why you've seen him improve tremendously over the first game up until now.”

His first game on March 16 didn’t go as well as Rosario would’ve hoped. He misplayed two fly balls and threw a ball away to account for a hat trick of errors in his first Cactus League appearance in center.

“We just wanted to make sure that he understood that we weren’t gonna base our decisions off that single game,” Hudson said, “and we just wanted him to go out there, continue to learn, have fun, and he’s done a tremendous job of coming back from that. … Then he came in and got two hits on the offensive side. I think that’s a testament to him and understand that he’s not gonna ride those ups and downs. He’s pretty mentally tough in that aspect.”

Rosario has been working in the outfield for about two weeks. With just five days remaining until Opening Day, the Indians will probably want him to get some more practice in the grass before he mans center field in a regular-season game, but he’s working his way to proving he’s ready for the challenge.

“It’d be nice to have a little bit more time,” Hudson said. “But we’ve seen the progression. We’ve seen the improvements. And he’s only going to continue to get better.”