Rajai Davis and other thoughts

I am not upset we didn't sign Davis.   I would rather sign or trade for (now or in July) a third baseman  with power and an OK glove and free up Jose Ramirez for another outfielder AND utility duty and to fill a starting OF slot, if necessary.   We would also eliminate the need for a Michael Martinez or even Erik Gonzalez (both of whom could be used in trade(s)) as utility guys and, hopefully, give us more power in our lineup.  I don't think Martinez and Gonzalez add much offensively although they are great 25th men who sit there and don't gripe if they don't play.   I would rather give Tito a bunch of guys who are about equal which is what happens if Ramirez takes over that utility role.   Now you position your yourself to play all 25 guys (assuming the bullpen gets in order) without much drop in ability.   Thus you have mostly the same chance to win every night and still keep guys fresh.

Don't know who I would target in trades but it doesn't look like there is a free agent I would break the bank for.   Again, Chernoff, Antonetti and Francona are the veterans but their summer trades (Miller, Guyer and Crisp) have worked out better than their bargain basement free agent signings (Napoli and Davis on the plus side but Marlon Byrd and Jose Uribe on the down side)

As I said, right now I would rather focus on finding a lockdown right hander and a good LOOGY who can get the occasional RH batter out.   Drew Storen just signed with the Reds for $3 million.   Not saying Storen was a guy I targeted but one year deals for Storen and Holland would look really good to me right now for $9 million.

Still relievers out there and I trust the Indians and Tito to find the right ones.   Still, if they plan to go into the season with the current relievers they will be playing right into Tito's tendency to overuse his star relievers.  You have to give Francona weapons or he will likely default to having his best record by overusing the stud relievers and underusing the rest...as has been his pattern in the past few years. 

Hey, I have ultimate trust that Tito is the guy who will make us win.   I just think we need to give him more veteran weapons in the bullpen so he feels more at ease giving Miller, Allen and Shaw, in that order, the rest they need.   He also needs to have enough good position players that if he needs to give one rest or fill a need if a guy goes on the DL, he already has that player on his roster and any guy he brings up from the minors isn't pressed into playing full-time and can operate, at the beginning, as that 25th man.