MLB News: Johnny Damon says he is an Indian, would like to wear number 22
April 12, 2012While We’re Waiting… Here’s Johnny!
April 13, 2012First they tried Josh Willingham. Then they tried to snag Carlos Beltran. They swung and missed on Carlos Pena. They ended up with Casey Kotchman, but that really wasn’t a move that was going to move the offensive needle. With the uninspiring Spring from everyone in the left field derby and the struggles of Michael Brantley, the Indians were allegedly very close to trading for 38-year old outfielder Bobby Abreu to be a part of a left field platoon with the winner of the job, Shelley Duncan. For reasons still unknown, the deal fell apart at the 11th hour and the Tribe opened the season with Duncan as the regular left fielder and Aaron Cunningham as the fourth outfielder.
While Duncan has done a decent enough job in left (.294 with a home run), the offensive struggles as a team have been the talk of Wahooland. It has only been five games, but the same thing we saw all Spring has continued. The Tribe has been unable to come up with the big inning or the clutch hit. They’ve only been able to put together three consecutive hits once in the first five games, and that was in yesterday’s 10-6 loss. Their team batting average is .174. Take away the home run ball, and the Tribe has been really unable to scratch anything across.
So desperate times call for desperate measures.
Last night, just after midnight, reports from Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports and Jon Heyman of CBS Sports had the Indians very close to signing former All-Star OF Johnny Damon, who has spent this spring looking for the right job. Damon, who is a Scott Boras client, has spent most of the last two seasons as a DH in Detroit and Tampa Bay. He can still hit and runs the bases well, but as a defensive outfielder, to say he is a butcher is putting it mildly. Even in the final two years of his Yankees contract (2008-2009), teams ran on him every single chance they got. Remember the now infamous Aaron Cunningham “pop-gun” throw in the ninth inning of the opening day loss? That’s a regular Johnny Damon throw from three years ago. For those who think Brantley and Grady Sizemore have weak arms, just wait until you see Damon’s “cannon.”
As for how quickly he can be ready to play, Damon texted Heyman “3 days of shagging and hitting, but they probably want at least a week.” Even before the deal became official, he told Heyman “Cleveland has always been good to me and I’m looking forward to reuniting with a few (old) teammates.”
[Related: Johnny Damon says he’s an Indian, would like to wear #22]
I for one give the Indians credit for trying anything they can to improve the team, especially offensively. Duncan rakes left-handed pitching and is best as the first guy off the bench and getting starts against those lefties (he had two hits including a two-run homer yesterday off of lefties John Danks and Will Ohman). Cunningham should not be on this roster. Brantley has started the season 1-18 and they have no realistic options in AA or AAA to come up and get regular PT. Yes, I know Matt LaPorta has four homers in his first six games in Columbus, but haven’t we seen this bit before? LaPorta kills AAA pitching and has for the last three plus seasons when he’s been on the I-71 shuttle. It just has never translated to the big league level. I am sure at some point we will see him in the bigs, but he still cannot be trusted.
It has been said so many times but it bears repeating – the lack of real high minors talent, especially at the outfield positions, has really hampered the organizational progress.
Bringing in Damon at least gives the lineup a veteran bat who can still do the job and add some speed to an extremely slow lineup. He hit .261/.326/.743 with 16 homers ,73 RBIs, and 19 steals in 150 games last year as Tampa’s regular DH. Would you take a repeat of those stats if he played an average left field? I would.
The 17-year veteran is extremely durable, having played over 141 games in each of the last 16 seasons. But it remains to be seen how much of a defensive liability Damon will be. They can’t use him in the DH spot because they already have a guy there who cannot play the field, Travis Hafner. And you aren’t going to sit Hafner for the 38-year old Damon.
Another interesting aspect of this deal is his out-clause. It has been reported by Rosenthal that his contract will have a stipulation that if so he chooses, Damon can essentially leave Cleveland free and clear after a specific date, which will be built around the timetable of Grady Sizemore’s alleged return of back surgery. (Please, I beg you, don’t let me bring up the fact that the reason we are in this situation in the first place is because the Indians made the foolish decision to bring Sizemore back for a guaranteed $5 million.) Only Scott Boras would have this put into a Major League deal and get away with it. But what if Sizemore comes back, Damon decides to leave for greener pastures and two weeks later Sizemore hurts himself again (which we all know is very possible). Then they are back to square one.
The real question is why Antonetti waited so long to go after Damon once he knew the Abreu trade was dead? At this point, aren’t they essentially the same guy? Nevertheless, Damon will add a quality veteran bat to the struggling Tribe attack, as well as a strong clubhouse presence. This could all go terribly wrong if Damon can’t be half-way decent in the field and his bat isn’t there, but at this point, the Tribe doesn’t have any other recourse to make this team better.
30 Comments
Square peg; Round hole; Make fans happy happy; Buy ticket plz 😐
It is a pretty sizeable round hole, though. A square peg might still fit.
“You May Also Like” has been way too accurate for my tastes lately
Sorry mg, there was a change in widgets. They may actually be accurate now.
“They can’t use him in the DH spot because they already have a guy there who cannot play the field, Travis Hafner.”
This continues to be the most maddening thing to me. I’ve said it before; might as well say it again: Without Hafner, this, and a bunch of other potential signings, makes sense. With him, it’s not at all clear. Damon’s more durable than Hafner, can at least play a position, and has batting numbers not too terribly dissimilar (I know, I know, I’ve offered no sabremetrics – but haven’t Dwight Schrute and Robert California sufficiently demonstrated that Sabre sucks?).
But you’re right, they’re not going to sit Hafner for Damon. I just wish they didn’t have to make that choice. As much as we all like Old Lego Foot (my family’s name for him), I think the Indians will be much better off when Hafner’s gone – at the very least in terms of the options that they’ll have for future signings.
Interesting… last year Damon had a higher batting average and higher OPS against lefties than righties. Seems like he’s still a guy you can play against both lefties and righties, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him not only hitting for Dunc-a-Dunc against righties but also giving Kotchman a break against lefties (with Duncan moving to 1B on those days). Or Hafner or Brantley or Choo.
No fair! I wanted beardy mullet Damon, not $70 hair cut that looks like I just got out of bed Damon. Its like fat/skinny Elvis you can only choose one.
That’s okay. We’ll come up with a new running joke. All good things must end and such.
TD – nice write up. To be fair to Antonetti, how do we know he didn’t pursue Damon after the Abreu thing fell through? It’s entirely possible he did but that Damon’s demands were too high.
Hafner is off to his 2nd best season EVER and you still bag on him 🙂
170 OPS+ so far this year.
No, sample size has nothing to do with it 🙂
Also, I should add that it’s absolutely mind boggling that the Indians haven’t hit on an outfield prospect in over a decade. I was discussing this with TD on Twitter earlier today. Who was the last homegrown Indians OF prospect that had success at the MLB level. I think it was Brian Giles who the Indians of course shipped out at the first chance. Then you’d have to go back to Manny I think… What a mess.
did he give Kenny Lofton a call?
Sure, they can throw a bunch of guys at the DH spot if they didn’t have a 125 OPS+ guy already there. What’s your point?
i do like damon. clutch. but… ANOTHER LEFT HANDED BAT??
also concerning the popgun arm… well… at least he can hit his cutoff man.* never mind that his cut off is the left fielder…
*this is an all-time favorite manny moment. must watch.
I mean I’m livid with the general state of the team, but I don’t see how this is a bad deal for the team. Well, at least, other than the potential havoc that bizarre opt-out clause could pose.
I already made my point. Leave your guns at home, Bill.
Which plugin do you use for the “You may also like”? If you dont mind me asking of course.
Besides Carlos, Pronk is the only hitter in this lineup that scares anybody. It aint saying much, but still…
Right, thus the difficult quandry. He consumes a roster spot by reason of one skill, when what we really need is line-up flexibility of multiple “tools.” I think a hitting-only DH is a luxury for excessive payroll teams.
I still don’t see it, or is it just whining that Hafner is still on the roster? Because that really adds to the discussion.
Or are you trying to point out that Hafner, despite the injuries, has been the more productive hitter, with 42 batting runs to Damon’s 33 over the last 3 years, so yeah, Hafner should definitely stay as the regular DH, but Damon is a good fill in?
It’s worth pointing out that Damon has almost no platoon split over the last three years – .274/.349/.431 vs L and .270/.348/.437 v R
And to be clear, what I mean is carrying a DH on the roster. DH is a line-up card slot, not a roster spot.
“strong clubhouse presence” = guy who no longer can contribute on a regular basis on the field. Anthony Parker is a “strong clubhouse presence.” Regardless, Damon played 16 games in the outfield last season and the rest of the time he was at DH. To expect meaningful contributions about that from him in the outfield this season is a fool’s errand.
I like the move but refuse to give the front office any credit for doing something good. If they had actually signed some bats that we needed they wouldn’t be in this position. The giant load of poo we spent $20 mill on this offseason was plenty of money to upgrade this offense and we have Casey Kotchman to show for it thus far.
Can’t box yourself up in that type of thinking. You need to find a way to add as many wins to the roster as you can afford. If the one skill guy can add 30 runs to your lineup, he’s more valuable than the speedy LF who adds 10 offensively and 10 defensively.
“I for one give the Indians credit for trying anything they can to improve the team, especially offensively”
3 months too late.
Admirable in the sense they’re doing SOMETHING. But to say they’re trying to do anything they can to improve the team is the overstatement of the year. If they were doing anything they could to improve the team they would have upped the offers for one of the four guys you mentioned in the first paragraph.
That said, keep up the good work. Fan of WFNY since the start.
He’s better than Aaron Cunningham so I’ll take it
Giles was drafted before Manny Ramirez actually. In fact, both were drafted when Hank Peters was still GM. Hart nor Shapiro hit on an OFer.
I dont see how this signing can’t be a plus…he’s obviously still got something left in the tank…I honestly think Duncan is a better hitter than Kotchman, so I could definitely see some righty lefty platooning with those two at 1st base as well
I got that, I just dont necessarily agree that we will be better off without him. It depends on who they are replacing him with I suppose. Even without a position Hafner still has value, there arent many guys on this team who hit for much power.