One down, one to go

Besides the obvious Napoli or Napoli replacement, the Indians absolutely needed to do two things this offseason, in my opnion:

1. Sign a LOOGY.

2. Sign a reliable RH setup guy who can close, if necessary.

Both of these moves are designed to save Miller, Allen and Shaw over the course of a season. 

We are now halfway there if Boone Logan signs as expected.   Again, as expected, his salary will be about $6 million, counting the buyout for next year.  That's pretty much the cost of a good, non-closer reliever in free agency this year.

It is costly but it is only for one year if we want to limit the spending for 2018.

Is this a good signing?  Who knows.   Back in the day relievers would go through cycles of a couple of good years, a bad year, a good year, a bad year and two good years, etc.   So, you are hoping you are getting Logan in a good year but, really, who knows.   It is as good a signing as you could have for what you were looking for.  I like it...as much as I could like a signing like this.

Now, to the setup man.   With Greg Holland gone (along with a lot of other RH relievers with closing experience) my next target is some like (not necessarily exactly) Joe Blanton.  

As I have said, probably ad nauseum to regular readers of this blog, we need a reliable setup man, someone who is a significant upgrade over Jeff Manship, someone who can even give us good innings if we make the post-season.   Someone who doesn't make us so scared that we won't use him in the post-season in anything but mop-up/inning eating situations.  

Again, I can not say this strongly enough.   Having another setup man who can close is NOT a luxury.   It is a necessity for this team to save our bullpen.  Yes, we might be able to make the playoffs with one or two of the big three not available.  However, in the playoffs, it would be like LeBron trying to beat Golden State all by himself...and we know how that went two years ago!

So, we are batting .667.   However, to make this offseason successful, we need to bat 1.000.

Then, in July, we need to get another bat, either at 3B or in the OF.   But that is a discussion for a MUCH later date.