As baseball’s Winter Meetings came to an end, it appeared the busy week we all expected for the Cleveland Indians was not coming to fruition.
Then, in the next two days, Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff took the first steps in what we figured the organization wanted to do this off-season, reallocating the payroll in an effort to make the 2019 Indians better.
The first step was dealing Edwin Encarnacion to Seattle, and thus returning Carlos Santana to Cleveland. That saved (depending on where you get your information) an estimated $5 million on the ’19 payroll.
The other half of the deal sent Yandy Diaz, who it seemed the Indians were loathe to play, to Tampa Bay for 1B Jake Bauers, a top 100 prospect, who hit .201 with 104 strikeouts in 384 plate appearance for the Rays last season.
However, looking at the left-handed hitting minor league numbers, he didn’t have a profile of an all or nothing hitter.
We don’t understand the lack of gusto for Diaz, who’s high on base percentage (.361 in the majors, .415 in AAA) was never taken advantage of by the Tribe. We are disappointed in the lack of opportunity for a player whose only problem hitting was not getting the ball in the air.
Friday night, the front office cleared a spot for Bauers by dealing Yonder Alonso, another over 30 player whose hitting seemed in decline, to the White Sox for a minor leaguer, clearing another $8 million off the books.
This gives the Tribe a decent chunk of change to upgrade the roster and still keep the payroll where it was a year ago. And that figure might be the highest the ownership feels comfortable with, whether the fans like it or not, or they believe it.
If the organization doesn’t spend the saved money, then they deserve all of the criticism they will get. We don’t believe that will be the case though.
However, they still have a lot of holes. We believe to have a solid batting order, you need seven reliable hitters. Right now, the Indians have three: Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, and Santana.
That leaves them four short, and we don’t think they can fill them all in free agency. And don’t forget, they still need to address the bullpen too.
They need to either move Jason Kipnis in a deal similar to the Alonso transaction to free up more money, or continue to explore trading Corey Kluber or Trevor Bauer to fill two or perhaps three pieces.
Then you may be able to put a solid batting order out there every day.
We may be considered insane for saying this, but even if the Indians had the financial wherewithal to sign either Bryce Harper or Manny Machado, it really wouldn’t solve their problem.
It would simply make their top heavy batting order more top heavy.
We like what Jordan Luplow may bring, but he hasn’t proven it at the big league level. Same with Jake Bauers. Adding one or two players with some success in the majors, or a top hitting prospect (like Alex Verdugo of the Dodgers), would seem to be more helpful, and help the Tribe have the kind of attack which give pitchers nightmares up and down the order.
These two deals were a great first step for the front office, but now the real work has begun. Adding players who can help next season.
And don’t be fooled by people claiming they won’t have to trade a starting pitcher. They still do in order to reshape the team they want next season.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 