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March 22, 2016With the season less than two weeks away, the Cleveland Indians are still in search of more depth in their outfield. According to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, the team is not only not comfortable with their availability in the outfield, but also want to upgrade from a talent standpoint as well.
The Indians’ position is essentially no different than it was during the offseason, when the team resisted a series of offers for right-handers Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar.
The only twist now is that the Indians are even less likely to move Carrasco, Salazar or righty Corey Kluber, preferring to trade a lesser rotation candidate or pitching prospect instead.
Rosenthal believes there are five pitchers that could be dealt for an outfielder if the deal is right: Right-handers Trevor Bauer, Josh Tomlin, Cody Anderson and Michael Clevinger along with lefty TJ House.
Obviously, if the club didn’t trade one of their starting arms all offseason, the chances of them trading one with the regular season set to begin in 13 days is slim to none, unless they get blown away by an offer, which is most likely won’t happen as well.
For reasons that are not known, Cleveland passed on signing Austin Jackson, who would have provided an upgrade in their outfield, but that argument is for another day. They instead opted to sign Marlon Byrd, who—if he makes the 25-man squad—is expected to split time between the outfield and designated hitter spot.
While a deal for an outfielder is not likely, with Brantley’s smooth return to the lineup this past Saturday and so many signings in the outfield this offseason, the fact that the Indians are still looking to acquire another outfielder is interesting to say the least. Even with Brantley’s return and former first-round pick Tyler Naquin’s breakout spring, it’s obvious that manager Terry Francona and company are still uncomfortable with their outfield right now.
One of the reasons the outfield depth could still be in question? Abraham Almonte. Expected to be a starter, Almonte is suspended the first 80 games of the season for PEDs.
19 Comments
You have to wonder if there’s something they know that the rest of the baseball world doesn’t. The Byrd signing and return of Michael Brantley to the lineup last week seemed to remove any needs for an immediate upgrade to the outfield. Are they panicking about Chisenhall’s lousy offensive spring? Do they think Tyler Naquin is a total mirage? Was Marlon Byrd an even longer shot to make the team than we expect? Are the Cowgills, Joey Butlers, and Will Venables in camp total non-options?
I believe it is more of the high risk OF they have assembled.
Definite starters: Michael Brantely (and he’s a star assuming healthy)
Needs a platoon or timeshare, but good enough to do it: Rajai, Byrd
Maybe good enough to start, but big risk in it: Cowgill, Chisenhall, Butler, Naquin
Spring Filler: Venable
Suspended but not like he’s a star: Abe “the half” Almonte
If only there was a serviceable veteran outfielder on the market who the Indians could have signed to a completely reasonable deal…Then the Indians could have signed that guy and cured some of these issues.
…Ah well, a guy can dream.
… that actually wanted to play in Cleveland.
You believe your reality, I’ll believe mine.
I guess I’m not sure even what you’re trying to suggest. We know that people, not just athletes, aren’t particularly fond of Cleveland, and don’t particularly want to come here. And we’re supposed to believe that the Indians valued Jackson at $5M as a good deal, but $6M was completely out of the question?
“And we’re supposed to believe that the Indians valued Jackson at $5M as a good deal, but $6M was completely out of the question?”
Yes.
They’re going to burn at least twice that much figuring out which fliers they’re going to take on OFers this spring. If $1M was actually the difference between having a serviceable OF (which Jackson may not be anyway) or not, it would have happened.
You keep reiterating this “he didn’t want to play in cleveland thing” but I don’t know where you’re getting it from.
Hoynes.
It didn’t sound like it was a “he hates Cleveland” thing. More like he had options and picked the best for him. Based on what was reported, playing CF exclusively was a big deal to Jackson. Knowing how we roll, I don’t think we could promise him that.
http://www.southsidesox.com/2016/3/7/11171618/austin-jackson-reinforces-white-sox-outfield-at-least-defensively
exploring = answering the phone and saying no to
They can’t be thrilled with the spring performances turned in by a number of those guys, so I assume they’re just open to upgrade options in general due to OF performance anxiety. That they signed up Byrd is certainly a showing of that. I know everybody wants to say they passed on Jackson because “Dolanz R Cheep” but at this point it has to be clear that the Indians were still scouring for options and that deal wasn’t desired by one camp or the other on the basis of merit rather than money.
That said, I feel like this may be a case of “we’re always looking to improve the team” rather than panic that will lead to anything dramatic. (because nothing dramatic will be available)
I read somewhere that he really liked the idea of staying in Chicago, as he played for the Cubs last year. Let’s not pretend like Cleveland is a desirable FA destination anyway.
Yeah, Cowgill has spit the bit much like his counterparts. But, hard to justify giving him a spot and sending Naquin down and I don’t think it’ll even come down to those two.
Me either. Davis is really the only other CF option as far as I can tell, and even though they spent $5.25M on him, it would really be hard to send Naquin down at this point unless he slumps REALLY hard to finish the spring. I mean he’s no 5-star prospect, but he’s about to turn 25, he’s had a successful year at AAA, he’s an above average defender, and he’s got an OPS of .1090 for the spring so far. Unless there is a rigid philosophy of not starting rookies in April in place, I just can’t see him not making the roster.
No, was stating I actually don’t think either will make the initial 25-man roster. I have it mostly written and it’ll come out later this week. But, the Indians philosophy has been to not take too much stock into spring stats and rely on what they know about the guys (more tiebreaker). I think Naquin is first man up, but initially in Columbus.
Clippers are going to be a real treat to watch this year for anyone living in Columbus.
Ah, I see. I agree that has been the past tendency and you may be right, but I guess it seems like the gap is so big between him and a few of the other guys that their renewed focus on April may shift their thinking a little. I know nobody would like to see a flat start from guys like Davis, Byrd, and Uribe while Naquin, Butler, and Urshela are just a couple of hours down the road. However, Tito does have a long history of being very careful with young players.
That’s for sure about the Clippers. Their starting rotation could be Anderson, House, Clevinger, Merritt, and Plutko. They’re going to have to actually jettison a few guys to clear pitching logjams. It will be interesting to see how some of the newer young guys perform on the other side of the ball. A lot of their offense last year was provided by guys like Sands, Holt, JRam, Lindor, etc. I suppose Urshela may be back there for a while, though.