Today's Game
These Indians look A LOT like last year's Indians. That's a good thing, actually. This weekend will tell more but they may actually have a chance if they can somehow manufacture enough timely hitting. With the holes in the lineup (Bauers, Hedges, Gamel), the questionable hitters who may be OK over a full season (Gimenez, Naylor) they may still have enough punch to score some runs when Hernandez and Reyes start hitting, assuming Rosario and Jose Ramirez have typical years for them and Roberto Perez stays healthy and reverts to his 2019 form.
Minor Trades, DFA pickups/losses, Non-tenders, Rule 5 losses
I just don't get it. I really don't. Seeing Naquin's 4 HRs and .316 BA so far I thought I would look at who we lost in these minor transactions. Some of the guys below have 'made it', some are fringe major leaguers, but all have played in the majors.
C - Eric Haase (cash)
1B - Jesus Aguilar (DFA)
2B - Joey Wendle (Brandon Moss)
SS - Mark Mathias (Andres Melendez)
3B - Gio Urshela (DFA)
LF - Yandy Diaz (Jake Bauers)
CF - Tyler Naquin (Non-tendered)
RF - Anthony Santander (Rule 5)
DH - Ka'ai Tom (Rule 5)
Relief pitcher - Luis Oviedo (Rule 5)
Closer - Julian Merryweather (Josh Donaldson)
How is it that all we got back from these guys were rentals of Moss and Donaldson and then Bauers and Melendez? Plus, how is it possible that Aguilar, Wendle, Urshela, Diaz, Santander and, now, Naquin are doing so well once they leave Cleveland? Shades of Brandon Phillips! Is it possible that this organization, that is so great at developing pitches is so pathetic at developing hitters that guys only flourish when they LEAVE Cleveland?
Not saying that the lineup above is better than what Cleveland is fielding now but I will say it is closer than it should be.
Makeup of current 40-man roster
Seeing the list above I wanted to see what we have done in these kinds of moves to build our roster. So let's look at our current 40 man roster:
Draft/International signing - Bieber, Civale, Hentges, Hill, Karinchak, McKenzie, Mejia, Morgan, Nelson, Plesac, Vargas, Roberto Perez, Bradley, Chang, Clement, Jones, J. Ramirez, Zimmer
Large trades: Logan Allen (Bauer), Clase (Kluber), Moss (Bauer), Quantrill (Clevinger), Hedges (Clevinger), Arias (Clevinger), Gimenez (Lindor/Carrasco), A. Rosario (Lindor/Carrasco), Naylor (Clevinger), Reyes (Bauer).
Free agents: O. Perez, B. Shaw, Hernandez, E. Rosario, Gamel
Minor deals : Daniel Johnson (Gomes), Harold Ramirez (cash), Oscar Mercado (Jhon Torres (Cards #19 prospect), Conner Capel (Cards minor league prospect)), Jordan Luplow (Erik Gonzalez), Wittgren (Jordan Milbrath), Stephan (Rule 5), Maton (cash), Bauers (Y. Diaz)
Compare that to the list above:
Eric Haase (cash), Jesus Aguilar (DFA), Joey Wendle (Brandon Moss), Mark Mathias (Andres Melendez), Gio Urshela (DFA), Yandy Diaz (Jake Bauers), Tyler Naquin (Non-tendered), Anthony Santander (Rule 5), Ka'ai Tom (Rule 5), Luis Oviedo Rule 5), Julian Merryweather (Josh Donaldson)
This is the worst part, actually. Our current 26-man roster is being helped by Wittgren, Maton and Stephan from this list (not counting Bauers, which I never do!). While Wittgren has been solid, Luplow and Maton have been OK and Stephan has promise, how does it compare to the guys we let go essentially for nothing? The truth is it doesn't. We wasted all the assets above in red and now, in an attempt to make sure we don't do it again, we play Bauers while, by the way, we appear to have done it again with Naquin. This is crazy and pathetic and infuriating when payroll is being slashed.
When you have limited resources like the Indians do you cannot afford to have a ledger sheet that looks like this for these kinds of players. The Indians have screwed up this part of their player development and impacted their performance in the past, now, and likely in the future.
We just need to do better...and not make any stupid moves like this in the future.
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