The Indians are spending the month of September playing the role of spoiler and evaluating some of the players they have added to the roster for the last month of the season.

However, everyone has seen enough of the players who have been here for a while, so we can start rating those players right now.

First, the infielders…

People who read this blog on a regular basis know we felt the signing of Casey Kotchman was a bad idea.  Yes, he’s a great glove man at first base, but he’s not a good hitter.  Last year’s .300 batting average with Tampa was an aberration.

Kotchman will not be back next season.

2B Jason Kipnis is a keeper, but he’s not having as good of a season as people may think.

The average OPS in the American League is 732, and four Indians with over 300 at bats have figures higher than average.  Kipnis isn’t one of them.

As the season went on, Kipnis stopped driving the baseball, so he’s become a singles hitter.  That’s fine, but he should be doing better than that.  Since this is his first full season in the big leagues, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, but he needs to improve in 2013.

At shortstop, Asdrubal Cabrera made the All-Star team for the second consecutive year.  However, he’s faded in each of the last two seasons, and apparently needs to stay in better shape.  His defense has slipped as well.

Several people have talked about dealing Cabrera, but the Tribe has no one in the wings to replace him.  Cabrera would seem to benefit from a manager who is more demanding of him.  He should be at short on Opening Day 2013.

As for Jack Hannahan, apparently the Indians front office thought his career year in 2011 would be the norm going forward, which was not the case.

This is another spot where the Tribe needs an upgrade, and Lonnie Chisenhall should be the ’13 Cleveland starting 3B barring a spring training in which he hits .050 or he gets hurt.

As for the reserves, the season began with Jason Donald being the utility infielder. It is hard to judge him offensively because of inconsistent at bats, which comes with the job.  He seems to hit left-handers, but looks to have a big swing.

Defensively, he’s not the answer.  He has developed the “yips” with his throwing and the front office started looking at him as a super sub, being able to play both infield and outfield.

His best position looks like 2B, a problem because of Kipnis at the big league level and Cord Phelps at AAA.

Brent Lillibridge has done okay since coming over from Boston, and his ability to play all four infield spots could give him the job going into next season.

As for Phelps, he should get a good look in September to determine if he can play everyday somewhere on the field or be used as trade bait over the off-season.

Phelps had his second straight OPS over 800 at Columbus, so he can hit, and he’s only had 80 big league at bats.

At first base, it would have been nice to see Russ Canzler and/or Matt LaPorta get regular at bats throughout August and September to see if they can be part of the solution at first base.

We will look at the outfield and catching spots as well as the pitching staff later this month.

As for the infield, trying to replace half of your starters is never a good thing.  However, the front office didn’t realize the options put in place weren’t going to work going into 2012.

KM