Some Targets For Tribe To Aim At.

The World Series has ended and the Hot Stove season has begun for baseball fans. Hopefully, the Cleveland Indians will have a more (or less, depending on perspective) newsworthy off-season than a year ago.

MLB Trade Rumors ranked the top 50 free agents this winter with their projections on where the players would sign. They had the Indians signing no one from this list, which isn’t surprising given the front office’s payroll cuts last off-season.

In looking at the current list of free agents, there could be more coming when the deadline for offering arbitration gets nearer, here is a list of people we would be interested in and wouldn’t cost a great deal of money.

The first player is someone who wore a Cleveland uniform for part of 2019, Yasiel Puig. The right-handed hitter will be 29 years old next season, and still has a career 823 OPS. We would think he would hit for more power than he did after coming over from Cincinnati last season, and his on base percentage (.377) was very good.

We wouldn’t spend huge money here or go more than two years, so maybe this is one of those signings that happens right before spring training starts.

Didi Gregorius is another intriguing player to fill the Indians need at either 2B or 3B. Gregorius is the rare Yankee hitter whose numbers are not inflated by their hitter friendly ballpark (766 OPS on the road vs. 718 at home). And he has a 941 OPS in 80 career plate appearances at Progressive Field.

He had Tommy John surgery last off-season, so he should be stronger coming into the 2020 season.

Gregorius would be a little pricey, but should provide good bang for the buck.

Mike Moustakas would be someone who can play the hot corner, and he’s a player who played in a small park in Milwaukee, and was better on the road. Plus he has plenty of playoff experience (161 career at bats).

He won’t turn 32 until September and maybe a guy who you could get on a 2-3 year deal at modest money, since he’s played on one year deals each of the last two seasons.

And he’s belted at least 28 home runs in each of the last three seasons. He’s also a left handed hitter (so is Gregorius) which is something Cleveland badly needs.

Starlin Castro would be another candidate to play second base. He will be 30 years old next season, and is a career .280 hitter (736 OPS). Castro should prosper getting out of the big part in Miami, and hit .286 with a 768 OPS on the road last season.

His drawback is he’s a free swinger, rarely walking, but he doesn’t whiff excessively either.

Corey Dickerson is someone who could provide some pop in the outfield, particularly if the Indians want to continue to platoon there with Jordan Luplow.

Dickerson, another left handed bat, has a lifetime .866 OPS vs. right-handed pitching and he has belted 5 homers in 44 at bats in Cleveland during his career.

He doesn’t walk much, but doesn’t strikeout a ton either, and he won a Gold Glove in 2018 with the Pirates. His lifetime slugging percentage is .504.

Adding one of these players would help the Indians’ batting order a great deal, and it definitely needs to add some length.

We also think these players would be in the front office’s price range, meaning they will not likely command huge dollars to sign.

Getting back on top in the AL Central should be the goal entering this winter.

Hot Stove Season Opens For Tribe

Now that the World Series has ended, the Hot Stove season has started for major league baseball teams, and initially there are a lot of procedural things that must be done.

The first is making decisions on the contract options for many players. The Indians historically don’t offer many (if any) player options, they like to be the one making the decisions on an extra year for a player in question.

Both decisions made yesterday by the front office were no brainers, in our opinion.

The Tribe picked up the option on Carlos Carrasco, one of the best starting pitchers in the sport. Carrasco has won 35 games over the past two seasons, striking out at least 200 hitters in each year.

They passed on outfielder Brandon Guyer, saving $2.75 million. Guyer is a platoon player who feasted on left-handed pitching when he came over from Tampa in 2016, but in the subsequent years, he’s had injury issues and his production, while still good, isn’t at an elite level versus southpaws anymore.

Next on the agenda are making qualifying offers to the prospective free agents. We are sure such a deal will be offered to Michael Brantley, but the real questions would be Andrew Miller and Cody Allen.

If you make the offer, you have to be prepared the player will accept, and that’s why we would extend the deal to Miller only. If he’s healthy, which he hasn’t been since the middle of last season, he’s still a dominant reliever.

Allen has declined in performance in 2018, perhaps due to the wear and tear of making a lot of appearance over his seven years in Cleveland. It’s a tough decision and a tough business because Cody Allen has been a loyal player, willing to do whatever Terry Francona wanted him to do.

To improve the roster for the 2019 season, the Indians will need to gain some financial relief, meaning it would behoove the front office to look at highly paid players, who aren’t producing to the level of their contracts.

The chief players to look at here are Edwin Encarnacion, Jason Kipnis, and Yonder Alonso. It is doubtful Encarnacion can be moved, because being a DH limits him to American League teams.

The other two would be in play, but there is no question in our mind that Cleveland would have to eat some money to make any deal happen.

Moving both would lop about $22 million off the team’s projected salaries, minus whatever the team would have to pay to make it work.

Although they will be the favorites to win the AL Central for the 4th consecutive season, it would be hard to take them seriously as a World Series contender with an outfield of Kipnis in LF, Tyler Naquin in RF, and a platoon of Leonys Martin and Greg Allen in CF.

There is also the matter of rebuilding the bullpen, which with Miller and Allen’s likely departure has just Brad Hand as a proven, reliable option.

It appears the organization has high hopes for Jon Edwards, but it would be nice to have another proven arm in the ‘pen going into spring training. The cost for relief help would seem to be less than that of a solid big league hitter.

In a few days, we will know who is available in the free agent market and can examine some possible low cost options who could help.

The Indians have the stars, now they need to surround them with better secondary players.

Tribe Should Live A Little With Extra Cash

This past week, Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal wrote that even though the Cleveland Indians received a windfall from their post-season appearance that culminated in a World Series berth that went the distance, the Tribe front office was not going to change the way they do business.

We agree that the Indians should not go hog wild spending huge dollars on players on the decline. They learned a valuable lesson when they inked Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn after the 2012 season.

However, that cash should be looked at as found money. So, why don’t the Indians live a little?

Think about if you won the lottery, or won some money at the casino, would you use all that windfall on bills or put in all in the bank? Probably not all of it.

You would spend some on yourself, buy yourself something you normally wouldn’t get because it is better to spend it on necessities.

Live a little. Splurge on something fun and cool.

Or in baseball terms, sign a free agent or make a deal where you can take on some salary, taking advantage of a less successful small market team.

Obviously, the name that stands out is Edwin Encarnacion, who has been one of the game’s premier sluggers for five years running, and would be an upgrade over Mike Napoli, whether you want to admit it or not.

Besides adding production to the lineup, the added benefit would be with the ticket buying public. A big signing would continue the momentum the Indians received with their playoff run.

Right now, the inactivity is causing them to be an afterthought in the media right now.

There is no question that the front office has the faith of baseball fans throughout the area, based on last season’s success. But there is nothing wrong with getting more talent to improve your margin for error.

This isn’t to say the Indians can’t win the division again next season if they re-sign Napoli and Rajai Davis. However, the odds that they will have similar seasons to 2016 at their respective ages is slim. So, the team has to make up for that.

And as much as we want to talk about Michael Brantley’s return, the truth is he’s had just 39 at bats since the end of the 2015 season, and we don’t know if he will be productive, and if he’s productive, how many games will he be healthy enough to play in in 2017.

You also have to wonder if Carlos Santana can hit as many home runs as he did in 2016, when he set a career best.

Our point is the Indians probably need to upgrade the offense, because even though they were second in the AL in runs scored, a lot of things went their way to allow them to achieve that spot.

You can’t bank on those things again.

Our message to Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff is to have some fun with your windfall. Don’t go crazy. Don’t act like the Red Sox or Dodgers, but go out and buy yourself something nice. You deserve it after getting the Tribe to the seventh game of the World Series.

A New Era For The Tribe?

Are we looking at a new era on the corner of Ontario and Carnegie?

Rumors out of baseball’s annual winter meetings have the Cleveland Indians talking to the agents of free agent slugger Edwin Encarnacion about coming to the Tribe on a multi-year contract.

Encarnacion is one of the game’s premier sluggers. He led the American League in runs batted in last season, and his OPS hasn’t been below 886 since 2011. His lowest home run total over the last five years was 34.

In short, he is an upgrade, at least on the field, from the player who filled his position in 2016.

According to reports, the Indians are one of three teams considered favorites to sign him, along with Boston and Texas, so it should still be considered a long shot for him to join the American League champions.

It has been reported that the Tribe paid a very handsome profit from last season’s playoff run, and remember that John Sherman was brought in as vice chairman and minority owner last summer, so it is very possible that Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff have some extra cash to spend this winter.

And obviously, if you lose the World Series in game seven, and in extra innings, you are in win now mode.

If ever there was a time to throw a little caution to the wind and “go for it”, it is the 2017 season.

Especially when it appears that your competition in the AL Central are in flux. The White Sox look to be in sell mode. The Tigers are aging and have been said to be interested in lowering payroll. The Royals have several key players eligible for free agency after the ’17 season. The Twins lost 100 games a year ago, and shouldn’t be a factor next season.

That doesn’t mean the Indians’ front office will go crazy, handing out huge amounts of cash on long term deals to players decidedly on the downside of their careers.

If the team is able to strike a deal with Encarnacion, we would image a two or three year deal, as he will turn 34 years old in January. Mike Napoli is a year older, and hasn’t shown the consistency in his career as Encarnacion.

Also, the reason Cleveland can even think about this is the low amount of money committed to their starting pitching staff, which is a sink hole for most other major league teams.

Heck, the Dodgers yesterday gave Rich Hill, who was pitching in an independent league in 2015, $48 million over three years. The Tribe doesn’t have to commit that kind of cash to their rotation.

Even if the Indians don’t reach an agreement with Encarnacion, this sends a signal that the front office is ready to spend money on the right player and in the right situation. That’s all fans want, and it should keep the momentum from last October going for the local baseball team.

So, the Indians may make a big splash this off-season, something not thought possible a week ago. Getting this close to a World Series title for fueled this.

It could also mean that the Antonetti led front office is more aggressive than the Mark Shapiro led one. There could have been many reasons for Shapiro’s conservativism, but we doubt he makes the Andrew Miller trade, and it doesn’t seem signing a big time free agent is something he would have done either.

Right now, circumstances have the Cleveland Indians in a win now situation. It’s been 20 years since we could say that.

Tribe Trade Miller? We Say No Way

Since the World Series ended, there have been several national baseball writers who have speculated that the Indians might try to move their post-season star, Andrew Miller, during the off-season.

We feel this should be filed under the same grouping as writers saying the Cavaliers are going to move Kevin Love, and the Browns will fire all of their coaches again this winter. Meaning, it’s a reflex move for writers, low hanging fruit, if you will.

Look, anyone can be traded. We love when Tribe fans will say to us things like the team will never trade Jason Kipnis or Jose Ramirez. Our response is always, if the Angels called and offered Mike Trout, a deal would be reached pretty quickly.

When Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff acquired Miller from the Yankees at the trading deadline last July, one of the reasons he was so appealing, besides that he may very well be the best reliever in the game, was he was under contract for two more years.

That’s the biggest reason the Indians were willing to move two of their top ten prospects.

The national media speculates in this way because they can’t believe the Tribe would be willing to pay $9 million for the next two seasons on a relief pitcher, and combine with a likely $6-7 million payday for Cody Allen, there is certainly no way Cleveland, little small market Cleveland, would spend close to $20 million on their bullpen.

They forget that the Indians are in a win now mode. Most of their key players are in their prime, and they have a very good starting rotation that is paid well below market value compared to their ability.

And yes, we have been critical of the franchise’s spending habits over the years, but with post-season ticket revenue and an expanded season ticket base, we think the front office won’t be as frugal this winter.

When you get to the seventh game of the World Series, your organization has to think they can win the world championship the next season.

Also, the Indians’ farm system is in pretty good shape right now.

When they made the deal with the Yankees, they had two top outfield prospects in Bradley Zimmer and Clint Frazier. They still have Zimmer poised to be in Cleveland by the end of the 2017 season, and Greg Allen keeps getting better and better too.

They also moved Justus Sheffield, a top starting pitching prospect. Mike Clevinger is the next man up if an injury occurs next season, and the organization has Ryan Merritt and Adam Plutko in the upper levels of the system, and Triston McKenzie, Juan Hillman and others in the lower levels.

So, Miller will be an Indian on Opening Day, 2017 in Texas unless the front office is absolutely blown away by a trade offer, which we doubt will happen.

The Indians intend to get back to the post-season next fall, and if they do, what better weapon to have than the guy who was this fall’s ultimate weapon…Andrew Miller.

On the other hand, if something happens and the season goes south, Miller could be on the move in July, and then, and only then, will Antonetti and Chernoff consider making a deal and will command the same kind of haul Cleveland gave to New York.

That’s the only scenario where Miller gets moved.

Looking Ahead To Tribe Off-Season

It still stings.

Losing in extra innings in the seventh game of the World Series for the second time in the last 20 years will do that to hardcore fans.

Despite some people in the media telling fans they should feel good about losing to the Cubs in the Fall Classic, we still think about what might have been.

The Indians were this close to a World Championship, and fell just a bit short.

So, the best thing to do is to look forward. What can and will the Indians do this winter to prepare themselves to defend the American League Central Division and the American League championship?

Despite the injuries late in the season that curtailed the Tribe’s rotation, there is no doubt the strength of the Indians is the starting rotation, and the back end of the bullpen.

Remember, Cleveland finished second in the American League in ERA in 2016.

Led by staff ace Corey Kluber, the rotation which also consists of Carlos Carrasco, Danny Salazar, Trevor Bauer, and Josh Tomlin, and the tandem of Andrew Miller and Cody Allen at the back of the bullpen is the backbone of the team.

And don’t forget Mike Clevinger and post-season hero Ryan Merritt to provide depth as well.

As we all saw, pitching rules the day in October, and the Cleveland pitching staff was outstanding in the playoffs.

But the odd thing about baseball is you have to score runs in the regular season to get into the post-season, and quite frankly a lot went right for the Tribe to rank second in the AL in runs scored this past season.

Mike Napoli and Carlos Santana has career years in terms of power, and one of that duo may not be with the team when Opening Day 2017 comes around.

Many will peg Jose Ramirez for regression next season, but we are not one of those people. Ramirez’ minor league numbers suggest he is a good hitter and at age 24, should still be getting better.

The same can be said for SS Francisco Lindor who will play ’17 at age 23. Lindor should only get better, and should provide a little more power, which could put him with around 20 home runs next season.

Jason Kipnis should be fine, and of course, the team is hopeful of getting its best hitter coming into 2016, Michael Brantley back and provide the professional at bats he is well known for.

What the front office does to make up for the loss or possible lost production from Napoli and perhaps Santana will go a long way toward making the post-season a year from now.

The outfield is still a huge question mark. Rajai Davis is also a free agent and will be 36 years old. Tyler Naquin slumped badly in the second half and has no track record. Lonnie Chisenhall and Brandon Guyer are solid players, but aren’t cornerstones. Don’t forget about Abraham Almonte too.

And will Brantley be healthy enough to contribute. Hopefully, rookie Yandy Diaz figures in somewhere too.

The front office can’t and shouldn’t go into the winter thinking older players like Napoli and Davis will repeat the numbers they put up in 2016. It’s just not logical.

So, president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff have to be creative in what they do in the hot stove league.

One thing is for sure. The Tribe should not stand pat. They need to continue to improve the roster even though they got to the seventh game of the World Series.

You can’t assume everything will be the same as this year.

Some Targets for the Tribe

Even though the World Series hasn’t even started, the hot stove league is already underway with a couple of deals, including one for Toronto manager John Farrell.

This impacts the Indians because the Blue Jays will likely hire Sandy Alomar Jr. to take over for Farrell.

Regardless, it is not too soon to start looking at the off-season news and rumors involving the Indians.

One of the early players said to be coming to the North Coast is 3B/1B Kevin Youkilis, who would be reunited with his skipper in Boston, Terry Francona.

Youkilis will be 34 next season, and has been in decline since his best years with the Red Sox (2008-10). He hit just .235 in 2012 with 19 HR and 60 RBIs.

He would be a fit in Cleveland because he can give Lonnie Chisenhall some time off against tough southpaws, and can play 1B or DH. And although his batting average has slipped, he still draws walks accounting for a better than league average 745 OPS.

That would still be an improvement over Casey Kotchman at first base, and the Indians need to get better wherever they can.

If they can sign Youk to a two or three-year deal at decent money, the Tribe front office should make the move. He’s still a .283 lifetime hitter.

GM Chris Antonetti also needs to upgrade the starting rotation, which ended the season full of question marks. Justin Masterson will probably be back, as Francona spoke well of him at his introductory press conference, and Zack McAllister and Carlos Carrasco, coming off Tommy John surgery will be starters as well.

That means the Indians should be looking at guys like Shawn Marcum, Joe Blanton, and Ryan Dempster to fill spots.

Marcum would be the best option, having pitched in the American League with Toronto from 2006-10. The soon to be 31-year-old righty has a lifetime record of 57-36 with a 3.76 ERA. For his career, he’s allowed fewer hits than innings pitched, and struck out more than twice as many as he’s walked.

Blanton, who will be 32 next season, has also pitched effectively in the American League with Oakland from 2005-08. He’s an innings eater, throwing at least 170 innings every year except one from 2005 through this season.

He also averages almost 8 strikeouts per nine innings pitched, although he gives up a lot of hits. He would be a middle of the rotation guy with a career ERA of 4.37, but his numbers are better than Ubaldo Jimenez’ since the latter joined the Indians.

Dempster is the oldest at 36 years old, and has only pitched in the AL this past season with the Rangers, compiling an ERA of over 5.00.

He’s a lifetime .500 pitcher at 124-124 with a 4.33 ERA. He would probably want to stay in the NL at this stage of his career, but would benefit pitching at Progressive Field, a good park for hurlers.

Neither of these pitchers would break the bank for the Indians, and they definitely need to add at least one solid starter before spring training starts, because it all starts with good pitching.

With the free agent market this year being what it is, and with the history of this franchise, Cleveland is not signing a high ticket player.

However, they can improve the roster incrementally with every move. The people mentioned here would help in this regard.

That would be a good start to the off-season.