Indians 2008 Recap Part II – Must Be the Money

This is the second of a three-part series that aims to recap the season that was 2008 for the Cleveland Indians.  Dan dropped some serious documentation of the two-halved season that we all experienced. My goal this time around is to discuss how much the Indians spent, what it got us, and ultimately decide if it’s worth doling out for that big free agent or if we’re on the right track after all.

To start things off, let’s talk total team salary. The entire 25-man roster at the beginning of the season, per Sports City, was just under $80 million – a total that is just over the combined salaries paid to Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi and Derek Jeter

Off of the top, this number does not include the $1.5 million obligation that the team had for picking up the option of Aaron Fultz. Remember him?  Yes, I wouldn’t blame you if you said “no.”

The remainder of the players on the Indians roster, we will categorize in one of two ways: Great value and below value; the rest will be grouped on their own. You’ll find that some of the guys in the second area could be classified all on their own as “what were we thinking?” But let’s take a look…

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Great value

Here, you’ll find many contracts that were simply purchased from Buffalo as the team needed some warm bodies quickly thanks to plenty of early season injuries.  Obviously, your list may differ a bit from mine, but I think we could all agree that the players listed below provided plenty of bang for their buck.

Shin-Soo Choo

We’ll start from the bottom up, just to get him out of the way. The lowest paid player on our opening day roster, at a whopping $390,400 was outfielder Shin-Soo Choo. Choo’s slugging percentage and OPS were the best on the team. He drove in 66 runs and had 45 extra base hits in only 317 at-bats. The downside? He only played in 94 games after starting the season off on the disabled list. I would say that he more than made up for lost time.

Jensen Lewis

Though having a tough start, J-Lew came on strong at the end of the season (like a lot of the guys you’ll see in this list) to wind up leading the team in saves. While it’s a sad day when 13 saves is team-leading, he did only have 14 chances. Lewis was ninth on the list in innings pitched, had an ERA under four, and only cost the team $393,000.

Aaron Laffey

While things did not end up as well as they started, can you believe that Laffey through the sixth most innings out of any pitcher on the Tribe? He was fifth in wins, and seemed to be at his best at a time when the team just was not playing well. Late season elbow issues aside, Laffey looks like a guy that we can keep around for a few years, and this year’s tryout at the big league level cost the team $393,000, the same as Lewis.

Kelly Shoppach

Are there any more words that I can say about this guy? He cost the Indians $404,000 this season and put up better numbers than most of the 40-man roster. Oh, and he’s a back-up catcher that many thought would never amount to much of anything. He wound up coming in third on the team in OPS and managed to hit over 20 home runs in only 352 at-bats, easily topping the list in long balls per AB.

Rafael Perez

He may not have been handed the closers role in the second half, but Perez had the second lowest WHIP on the team among those that tossed at least 50 innings. He struck out more than 10 batters per nine innings, and was actually third on the team in Ks while pitching almost half as many innings as Fausto Carmona, Paul Byrd and Jeremy Sowers. Given that he was paid less than $407,000 this year, I’ll take it.

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Below Value

Whether shear under performance or just being overpaid, these guys cost the Tribe plenty of dollars this season and failed to justify their paychecks.

Jake Westbrook

Unfair or not, I refuse to give him the benefit of the doubt as Jake raked in a mean $10 million this year and managed to appear in only five games. Five, which he managed to win one of them. That’s a $10 million win right there. He underwent two surgeries this year and may not be back until the All-Star break of next season; one where he will make another $10 million. Now, not saying that this could have helped pay C.C. Sabathia … Okay, maybe I am. Speaking of…

C.C. Sabathia

Holler all you want. We wound up shelling out nearly $7 million for Sabathia this year, and he left us with a record of 6-8. There was a point in the season where his ERA was double figures and he was giving up home runs that made Paul Byrd look twice. Thankfully, his perceived value was more correct than he was leading us to believe early on and we were able to land ourselves a few prospects. But in reference to the rest of this team, I’d say that we didn’t get our money’s worth before the big man left.

Travis Hafner

I bet you were all waiting for this one. Our designated hitter took home over $8 million this year. He finished the season with an OPS of .628 in 57 games played. He had less than half as many home runs as David Dellucci and more strikeouts than Andy Marte (who had nearly 40 more at bats). The worst part? We still don’t know what his injury was. Okay, that’s not the worst. The worst is the fact that he’s under contract until 2013 and has next to no trade value. That’s a long ways away…

Joe Borowski

Oh, no chance I forget this guy. His entire $4 million salary was picked up by the Indians this season despite his ultimate performance. Eighteen games, a WHIP over 1.90 and an ERA just south of eight. And this guy was supposed to be our closer. Shoulder issues, mental issues, or just straight inability to pitch any longer issues. I don’t know what’s more unbelievable: the fact that he saved 45 games the year before, or the fact that we thought he could do it again.

Jason Michaels

When you get traded, your former team gets nothing in return and still has to pay your entire salary for the year; this is when you know you’re bad. Really, really bad. In total, J-Mike cost the team just under $1.7 million. Not a lot of money in relative terms, but I would have rather put seat cushions in the stadium or something with those funds. To pay them to someone like Michaels is outrageous.

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The rest of the guys either fell in the “too early to tell” range (Anthony Reyes, Michael Aubrey, Ben Francisco) or just not worth mentioning due to the cost to the team (Marte, Adam Miller, Zach Jackson).  Sure, Marte was awful, and we planned on him being the “future” at third, but he it was not like we were paying him Aaron Boone money – thankfully.

The middle of the road guys like Carmona, Victor Martinez and Jhonny Peralta get a lack of mention strictly because they make neither an absurd amount of money, nor were they a complete steal. In the case of Carmona and V-Mart, the injuries also didn’t help much. And don’t forget – it wasn’t that long ago that many of us were calling for the trade of Jhonny Peralta. All it took was a move to the four-hole and that whole lasik eye surgery really kicked in.

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And of course, Cliff Lee and Grady Sizemore. The guys deserves a section of their own.

Cliff Lee was amazing for the statistics he provided. He only made $5 million dollars.  Think of the cash being paid to guys like Mike Hampton, and then look at Lee.  But then considering that he was among the top ten in terms of payroll this season, I just couldn’t put him in the top group. Sure, find another pitcher that can give you a 22-3 Cy Young season for five million. I get that. If it makes you feel better, consider this recognition for the value which we received from the lefty. He was unreal, and I can’t wait to see if he can keep it going next year.   And for nearly half of the cost…Grady.

Something has to be said when a man making just over $3 million puts up a 30/30 season. Sure, I’d love to see him in the middle of the lineup, but when you have a player on your team that is second in the American League in VORP, you have something special. Not only was he an absolute steal for the money that he cost the team this season, we have him on this roster for at least the next four seasons (barring any crazy trades).

When you think of team leader, what names pop in to your head? No longer can we rely on the veterans like Casey Blake and Paul Byrd. Martinez is right there, but if I have to choose a guy to lead my team for the remainder of this decade, Grady is that guy. I can’t think of many other players I would want in my outfield at this point. Sure, Chicago has their Soriano, or the Dodgers with their Manny. They can keep them. I’m taking Grady.

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But what does all of this show us?

As we head in to the off-season, and the third part of this series, we must take a look at what this team needs to do to get back in to contention. We will not have this group of players getting paid just over $300,000 for this type of production for this long.

But is it worth dolling out for the big name free agents? Is it worth trading prospects that could ultimately wind up being Shin-Soo Choos, or even Grady Sizemores, for a shot at someone like Jason Bay – a player we almost dealt Cliff Lee for less than a season ago?

And while Mark Shapiro has said the key to building a solid team is locking up the key players long term, those extensions given to Westbrook and Hafner could haunt us for quite some time.

If we had to pay someone like Joe Borowski $4 million, imagine what it will cost for a top-flight closer going into next season. And second base? Josh Barfield? Only if he can produce while being paid $400,000. But where’s the threshold?

This is all an exercise that will have to be analyzed for the next few months. When you see the players that took home double-figure millions, and then compare them to the minor league contracts and early career deals that the Indians have paid this season, you can easily see the paradox that lies within baseball salaries; specifically to a middle-market team like the Indians.

But fear not. Come the third segment of this series, Dan and I will hopefully do what we can to pave the way for the rest of the off-season. Where do we go from here?

Only time will tell…