A look at the 40 man roster and September callups

OK, there is a lot of rehabbing going on in the Indians organization this week.   So let's take a look at the 40-man roster on how this will all impact our September callups.  

60 Day DL 

Right now Zimmer, Carrasco, Otero, Kluber, Christian Arroyo, Jefry Rodriguez and Cody Anderson are on this list.   As none of these guys count against the 40 man roster if they are added to the roster someone else has to be taken off the roster.

Likely to activated in September: Carrasco, Otero, Zimmer

Maybe activated in September: Kluber and Rodriguez

Likely not to be activated in September: Anderson and Arroyo

That means that we could have up to 5 guys added to the 40 man roster meaning we would have to remove 5 guys.

40 Man Roster

Looking at the Indians' 40 man roster for guys who could be removed or put on the 60 day DL in order to make room for these callups, here is what I see:

Candidates to be removed from the roster (designated for assignment):

Very likely: Jon Edwards, Phil Maton, Jordan Stephens.
Somewhat likely; Andrew Velazquez, Josh Smith, Cody Anderson, Christian Arroyo
Unlikely: Cody Anderson, Christian Arroyo, Jean Carlos Mejia, Sam Hentges, Jake Bauers, Bobby Bradley

So, looking at the guys coming off the 60 day DL it is likely that Edwards, Maton and Stephens will be DFA  for Carrasco, Otero and Zimmer.   If Kluber and Rodriguez are activated then Velazquez and Josh Smith are likely gone.

As far as Anderson and Arroyo, there is an advantage to keeping them on the 60-day DL as they afford the Indians the opportunity to bring up two guys from the minors not on the 40 man roster IF the Indians make the playoffs.

September Callups:

Called up from the minors:

Likely: Bauers, Haase
Somewhat likely: Bradley (but only after the IL playoffs and only if he starts hitting)


Activated from the 10 day DL

Likely: Salazar, Luplow
Maybe: Tyler Olson, AJ Cole,
Not likely: Jose Ramirez

Callups not currently on the 40-man roster

No one is likely to be called up in September due to the roster crunch.  

While all of us would like to see James Karinchak (I can already see the nicknames now: K-man, K-dog, James KKK, etc.) and Daniel Johnson called up, there won't be any expendable guys left on the 40-man roster who could be removed.   The only thing I could see is if the Indians would take a guy on the 10 day DL and move them to the 60 day DL, such as AJ Cole, Tyler Olson or even Jose Ramirez if they don't anticipate them helping the Indians in the playoffs, if we make it that far.   If the Indians are going to add players to the 60-day DL they would likely do it before September 1st to get Karinchak and Johnson up to the majors for the September run to see what they have AND to give the Indains more roster flexibility for the playoffs with the extra guys on the 60-day DL (See above regarding Arroyo and Anderson)..

Well, there you have it.   I would love to see guys like Cam Hill and other minor league relievers get their chance but it is unlikely Francona would trust them AND we don't want to add them if he isn't going to use them because it makes our situation for the 40-man roster over the winter even more difficult than it will be already.  Frankly, even with the free agents we have, it will still be a difficult winter as prospects may have to be removed from the 40 man, something we haven't seen in recent years.  So in a rebuilding organization some more guys might be called to the majors for the first time but, in the middle of a playoff race with guys returning from the DL, it's likely these minor leaguers will have to wait until at least next year to make the ML debuts.

Still, there should be a lot of movement on the roster after September 1st.   We'll just have to see how much with a lot of that dependent on how our DL players progress.