Last week, the Cleveland Indians organization were celebrating the end of Snow Days at Progressive Field with an outdoor hockey game between Ohio State and Michigan.
Little did they know it was just the beginning of a very eventful seven days.
The biggest news was the revelation that one of their starting pitchers, the artist formerly known as Fausto Carmona, was not who he said he was. It turns out that Carmona’s real name is Roberto Hernandez Heredia, and he is 31 years old, not 28 as previously thought.
Despite a lot of opinions that the Indians should void the pitcher’s contract, they won’t, and what’s more they shouldn’t. We advocated dealing the righty over the winter, since at this point of his career, he should be more consistent. Still, his legal problem isn’t reason enough to release him.
Carmona/Heredia’s deal is only good for this year, with club options for both the 2013 and 2014 seasons. So, if he doesn’t pitch well (assuming he pitches at all), the Tribe management can walk away after this season anyway.
The bigger question is the one just stated. Will the right-hander be able to get out of the Dominican Republic at all this year?
If he doesn’t, Cleveland doesn’t give him the money, and sources say there is only a 10% chance Fausto/Roberto will take the mound for the Indians in 2012.
That’s why GM Chris Antonetti got on the phone with one of his favorite trading partners, the Colorado Rockies, and pried RHP Kevin Slowey from them in return for relief pitcher Zach Putnam, who had a cup of coffee with the Tribe last season.
Slowey suffered through a terrible season in ’11 with Minnesota, who dealt him to the Rockies earlier this off-season. He went 0-8 with a 6.67 ERA and gave up a whopping 78 hits in 59 innings. He does have good control, walking just five batters.
His best season was his first full year in the bigs, 2008, when he went 12-11 with a 3.99 ERA. Since then, his ERA is in the mid fours, and his hits to innings pitched ration has steadily risen, and his strikeouts per nine innings was just 5.2 last year, compared to a career mark of 6.7.
The question is whether Slowey is a better alternative than David Huff, Jeanmar Gomez, or Zach McAllister, the other contenders for the now vacant fifth spot in the rotation behind Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jimenez, Derek Lowe, and Josh Tomlin.
Antonetti may have been better served giving his farm system the first shot at filling the opening, but Slowey is a low-cost option, and Cleveland got $1.25 million in the transaction to help pay the veteran righty.
The rest of the week was more mundane, with the Indians signing several more players to minor league contracts to build up organizational depth.
They inked right-handed hitting OF Ryan Spilborghs, who played with the Rockies last year and hit .210 with 3 HR and 22 RBI. He is 32, and has a history of success against lefties (.273 BA and 799 OPS). However, he has a poor record outside of Coors Field (.239 BA and 679 OPS).
They also signed veteran left-handed hitting OF Fred Lewis, 31, who spent last season in Cincinnati. Lewis is a lifetime .267 hitter with a 751 OPS. He hit .230 with a 638 OPS in 2011 playing in a hitter’s paradise in the Queen City.
Also signing was minor league infielder Gregorio Petit, who played 25 games in the majors in 2008-09 with Oakland, and RH reliever Jeremy Accardo, pitched in 31 games with Baltimore in ’11 (3-3, 5.73 ERA) and saved 31 games for Toronto in 2007.
You can never have enough pitching depth, but it is curious that Antonetti has brought in so many outfielders. Besides his projected starting trio of Shin-Soo Choo, Grady Sizemore, and Michael Brantley, and Shelley Duncan, who had a solid year last season, the Indians have brought in Aaron Cunningham, Felix Pie, Spilborghs, and Lewis.
Granted, Cleveland doesn’t have a lot of depth in the upper minors right now (they still have Thomas Neal, Tim Fedroff, and Ezequiel Carrera), but right now the OF looks very crowded.
One has to wonder if Antonetti is working on a deal and using an OF as bait.
With spring training less than a month away, and the Indians still needing another proven hitter, it will be interesting to see if there is a greater plan in place here.
KM
Cleveland Sports Perspective 