The Browns paid for Jamie Collins by releasing Tramon Williams and Josh McCown
February 8, 20172017 Cleveland Indians Positional Previews: Shortstop
February 8, 2017In 2016, the Cleveland Indians were just one win away from bringing the second major sports championship to The Land in under four months, a city that was without one for 52 years. With their core group returning in 2017 (and beyond), the Indians have plenty of hope heading into the upcoming season. Those high hopes became even more apparent when the team signed both power hitter Edwin Encarnacion and reliever Boone Logan this offseason to strengthen their lineup and bullpen.
Not many people, especially Cleveland fans, thought the Indians could afford to sign one of those players, let alone both. The top two names on the team’s wish list heading into the offseason, not even general manager Chris Antonetti thought the Indians were going to be able to sign one of the top free agents this winter. Although he knew he wanted to, he didn’t think ownership could afford to open their wallets that much.
Here’s what he had to say on Tuesday about the signings, according to cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes.
“At the start of the off-season, I didn’t think we had any chance to sign Edwin and Boone. Based on how well they’d performed and the price range they’d be in.
“It demonstrates ownership’s continued support and faith in our ballclub. … One of the things we sought to do this off-season was to find some balance for our bullpen – especially from the left side. We wanted to provide Tito (manager Terry Francona) with another option to match up with some tough left-handed hitters late in the game.”
Over the years, the owners of the franchise, the Dolan family, have been very reluctant to spend a lot of money, especially on free agents who weren’t already on the team. Whether you, as a fan agree with it or not, the Indians tended to sign (and acquire) players who were under market value and tried to get the best out of them. For some reason, 2017 was different. They saw the potential the team could have just by added two key pieces, knowing just how close they were this past November. Antonetti not only realizes that, but took full advantage of the Dolan’s decision to open the wallet a bit wider this winter.
With the addition of Encarnacion and Logan, the Indians now have one of the best lineups, rotations, and bullpens in baseball. Will it be enough to push them over the top?
12 Comments
“…one run away…”
Fixed 🙁
This is so huge- has me so pumped. Also, knowing they;ll be players at the trade deadline.
The Indians are going all in. They started it last season by trading for Miller and almost getting Lucroy. Love this aggressive approach.
I think MIL is going to be kicking themselves on that Lucroy thing. I know Lucroy may have personally nixed it, but Mejia is going to be a contributor in the near future.
Yeah, I’m wondering if his value is a lot higher this July.
Depending on how Gomes and Perez perform at the plate, his value to the Indians may jump a bit as well.
I assume that aside from having some extra cash from the playoff run, they’re projecting higher revenue over the next couple of years based on increased attendance. I wouldn’t be surprised if their projections got adjusted up during the course of free agency as they continued to see much better than expected season ticket and other package sales.
I am thinking this may be a key piece to have. He doesn’t have a lot of power, but he makes good contact with the ball and can obviously get on base safely (49 game hit streak)
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