Spring training is around the corner and I am getting antsy.
No, not for baseball to start. After watching the Cavs and Indians the last two years the regular season is only the prelude with both teams having enough talent to easily make the playoffs. Doesn't mean it will happen but the Indians have enough talent if they stay healthy and productive.
I am getting antsy because the Indians have done essentially NOTHING to fix their two problems: the losses caused by losing hitters (Carlos Santana and Jay Bruce) and relief pitchers (Bryan Shaw, Joe Smith and Shawn Armstrong).
Let's start with the hitters. I woke up yesterday with a great idea: what if we sign JD Martinez to an outrageous one year deal, say $30 million, to bridge him through this year where he can't seem to get the multiyear deal he wants. Yes, it blows our budget for this year but there is no long term commitment there. Then I read the same thing on the internet. Great minds think alike, I guess. But, yes, that appears to be a novel and unique way to get the superstar you want without the long term commitment. Martinez gets more money than any player probably deserves in a year and we get a guy who is a great hitter without having to pay him through his declining years. I know this is just monopoly money to me but REAL money to the owners of the Indians but it is a way to make this team instantly better, better to the point where it might be able to suffer an injury to our big 3 (Ramirez, Lindor, Encarnacion) and still not be devastated. Right now, if one of those guys go down we are screwed as we have no guys in the minors or majors who are likely to be able to take up the slack for such an injury.
So, likely this won't happen but it is a way to make this team instantly better and not destroy the long term budget or set us up with untradeable superstars if we want to blow it up next year.
Now the relievers. Look, fans, we are in a desperate situation here! We need relievers. Here is the projected Indians pitching staff in 2018:
Corey Kluber SP
Carlos Carrasco SP
Trevor Bauer SP
Mike Clevinger SP/RP
Josh Tomlin SP/RP
Danny Salazar SP/RP
Ryan Merritt SP/RP
Cody Allen RP
Andrew Miller RP
Dan Otero RP
Nick Goody RP
Tyler Olsen RP
Zach McAllister RP
That's 13 guys. That's 5 starters and a Francona bullpen (8 guys). And, to even make this happen, two of the starters would have to take on full-time bullpen roles, something they have NEVER done in their life and NO ONE could get hurt!
There is no margin for error here and, frankly, I am already pretty sure there is something wrong with Corey Kluber.
After those 13 guys we have Adam Plutko, Julian Merryweather and Shawn Morimando on the 40 man roster and NONE of the pitchers we signed to minor league deals has ANY success in the majors as a reliever.
We have lots of relief arms in the minors but none of them look like they are ready now for the majors and, given the nascent stuff that those guys have, it is questionable if they will ever be ready to take over a significant role in the majors, let alone this year.
Basically, we're screwed if ANYONE in the top 13 gets hurt. Plus, even if everyone stays healthy we are still looking at having to add a reliever or two at the deadline to help us down the stretch and into the playoffs. Given what we had to give up for Joe Smith last year (Pannone and Taylor) our farm system can't really afford to make many, if any, more trades like that for relievers who we could have had for pennies in free agency.
And this is where I get ticked off. Even if you eliminate relievers who have gotten multiple year deals, the following relievers (with what they signed for) seem like the type we could have easily fit in our payroll.
Jeff Manship - minor league deal
Sergion Romo - $2 million
Dustin McGowan - minors
Frankie Rodriguez - minors
Seung Hwan Oh - $2.75 million
Blaine Boyer - minors
Bruce Rondon - minors
Jeanmar Gomez - minors
Tom Koehler - $2 million
Travis Wood - minors
Given what these guys signed for, we could have signed a couple or three as insurance. Now, you can say that given our roster, these guys might have seen the Indians as not needing anyone. However, these are all seasoned major leaguers with agents. They, even more than us fans, know that with injuries you need more than 8 relievers to get through a season. In fact, I would say that the Indians, as a winning team, would have been attractive to a number of these guys, if they saw that our depth in the bullpen was non-existent, if not a real weakness of this team. Maybe I could be wrong, don't know.
So, where does that leave us? There are still plenty of guys out there but, frankly, I would rather have 2 or three of the guys above rather than any one of them.
Matt Belisle
Trevor Cahill
Tyler Clippard
Jason Grilli
Greg Holland
Francisco Liriano
Jason Motte
Eric O'Flarherty
Oliver Perez
Zach Putnam
Robbie Ross
Trevor Rosenthal
Kevin Segrist
Koji Uehara
Tony Watson
There is still time but a lot of these guys above will take more money than we can spend and the rest may be done as far as being effective major league relievers either due to age or injury. Still, we need to do something because we are flirting with disaster that could make us lose our almost guaranteed playoff spot just because we wouldn't invest a couple of million dollars and a couple of minor league invites to help out our $100+ million payroll achieve what it should achieve.
I am telling you, we are screwed if we don't sign a reliever or two from this list as we will soon be putting out on the mound guys cut after spring training or minor leaguers of questionable talent if we don't do something. That is not what the preemptive favorite in the AL Central should be doing.
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