It turns out that the Cleveland Indians unloaded all of their veteran players at the trading deadline, outside of Travis Hafner, whose contract, bad shoulder, and lack of a defensive spot make his large contract untradable.
The team is taking heat for some people in the local media, but in this case, that criticism is unfounded. The Tribe front office did the correct thing, because they need to look at young players.
Outside of Jake Westbrook, who is still an average starting pitcher, what did the Indians give up in the past week? No one wanted Jhonny Peralta and his .250 batting average and seemingly indifferent attitude in Cleveland any more.
Austin Kearns did a good job while he was here, but after an excellent April, he has put together very pedestrian numbers over the last three months. Kerry Wood was injured a lot of the time he was here, and couldn’t find the plate consistently when he was available.
Westbrook was overpaid when he signed his latest deal before blowing out his elbow in early 2008, and although he took his turn every time this season, you know exactly what he is, a #3 or #4 starter on a contender, which is what he will be in St. Louis.
Please, don’t equate his departure with those of C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee. Westbrook is a class act, but as a pitcher, he’s not anywhere near those two guys.
Still, there are more moves to be made by the front office to get ready for 2011.
They have to find a third baseman to bridge the gap until Lonnie Chisenhall is ready. That’s why Jared Goedert should be called up right away, because if he can do the job, that’s another spot for next year that is filled. The early returns on Jayson Nix playing there do not look good, as Nix is another all of nothing hitter, and has struggled defensively at the hot corner.
Another guy on the current roster we’ve seen enough of is Chris Gimenez, although he has done a good job with Josh Tomlin in his two starts. Gimenez simply can’t hit at the big league level, having fanned 10 times in 17 at bats this year, after batting just .144 in over 100 at bats last season.
Yes, he’s versatile, and we know the team doesn’t want to call up Lou Marson to sit behind Carlos Santana, but why not bring back Wyatt Toregas to take another look at him.
On the pitching side, the Indians need to get another look at both David Huff and Carlos Carrasco. Huff won 10 games a year ago, but struggled early this year. Carrasco got hammered in a September call up a year ago, but has pitched over 300 innings at the AAA level. He needs to show what he can do in the majors, but he has been sidelined recently with some soreness in his right forearm.
They need to know what people should be in their plans heading into 2011, because the young talent is coming soon. Notice that Columbus is 20 games over .500 in the International League, and there are really no minor league veterans contributing on a nightly basis.
There may be some players around 25, who would be with the big club in other organizations, but there is no former big leaguers looking for another shot.
While we can argue about bringing those guys up sooner, you should be optimistic about the Tribe being competitive in their division, a weak one, as early as next season. They didn’t give up anything of consequence at the trading deadline, but another year of making these types of moves will not be tolerated.
KM
Cleveland Sports Perspective 