Cleveland Indians Offseason News: Rule 5 Draft Results and Coaching Staff Finalized

Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

(The following is a look at the recent movement in the Cleveland Indians organization. This follows in line with my article about the first batch of offseason news for the Indians about three weeks ago. For other recent Tribe updates, check out Scott’s article on Adam Miller/Carlos Santana and TD’s take on the winter meetings from earlier this week.)

Hector Ambriz – It had been a while since the Indians selected a player in the Major League phase of the Rule 5 Draft, let alone a player with so much risk as this 25-year-old from the Diamondbacks organization. A fifth-round selection in the 2006 June draft, he showed tons of potential in his first few seasons out of UCLA. He has been a starter throughout his career and he was dominant early last season in Double-A before mixed results in Triple-A with Reno. In five starts for Mobile in the Southern League, he went 3-2 with a 2.17 ERA and 32 strikeouts. Moving up to the Pacific Coast League for the first time in his career, he then went 9-9 with a 5.57 ERA in 23 games and 127.2 innings pitched.

Those mixed results at the upper levels seem to remind me of another recent Indians acquisition in Carlos Carrasco. The better part about Ambriz however, is his continued success with strikeouts against walks. At every single level throughout his career, his totals show a strikeout per nine innings pitched rate over 7.0 and a BB/9 rate below 3.0. Those numbers are solid for a youngster and represent room for improvement in the future. “Our scouts like his stuff,” Indians Assistant General Manager and Director of Scouting John Mirabelli said to Tony Lastoria at Indians Prospect Insider. “He has power pitches and has a very good history going all the way back to college of being a good strike thrower.” The Indians will have to use him out of the bullpen in order to keep him in the roster before having to give him back to Arizona, and I give him about a 60% chance of actually sticking.

Chuck Lofgren – Tough to see Chuck leave after so many years with the Indians organization and his 2009 rejuvenation that saw him reach Triple-A for the first time in his career. He went just 6-10 in his 17 starts with the Clippers but his 3-1 record and 1.48 ERA in eight starts for Akron showed he was ready for the big spotlight. The Milwaukee Brewers selected him with the #13 selection in the Major League phase of the draft, meaning he will now have an opportunity to stick with a big league club. Ranked #11 in my offseason listing of starting pitchers in the organization, it was clear he had little shot to develop into being a productive component in Cleveland despite turning just 24 in January. Best of luck to Chuck with the Brew Crew and he is an all-around good guy that battled through a lot while spending the better part of three years with the Akron Aeros.

Anillins Martinez – Who in the world is this? Interesting enough that a 22-year-old Venezuela native was available in the Rule 5 Draft, especially considering he had not appeared at a level above Lake County yet in his career. The lanky left-hander might be in a similar mold to Kelvin De La Cruz however, albeit with less potential out of the bullpen. In 36 games out of the pen this season for the Captains, he went 2-3 with a 3.65 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 61.2 innings pitched. Left-handed relievers are hot commodities in the game of baseball, and best of luck to him in actually developing quickly. The Florida Marlins picked him up in the Triple-A phase since he is still so young, they will probably do whatever they can to keep him in their system. Projected 75% chance of sticking with the Marlins.

AP/David Zalubowski

Brian Horwitz – With their selection in the Triple-A phase, the Indians selected the “Rabbi of Swat” from the San Francisco Giants. In fact, check out this article here from J Weekly in the San Francisco area describing his unique nickname. At 27 years old, he will not strike fear in the hearts of many, but should be a quality pick-up for the depth at the upper levels. In 251 games with Fresno over the past four seasons, he hit .294 with a .777 OPS showing he has limited pop with limited speed, but is serviceable at the very least. “He is a right-handed hitting corner outfielder that provides some insurance and fills a need of ours with a lot of left-handed hitting outfielders,” Mirabelli told Tony Lastoria at Indians Prospect Insider. Not a major upside selection but there is probably a 100% chance he sticks with Columbus throughout the entire season.

Matt Meyer – Normally when the Indians lose a minor league reliever, I am one of the first people to start complaining and moaning about our system. Not here however, despite the fact Meyer is a 6’4” left-hander who still has the potential to be a serviceable specialist down the road. He showed nothing at all past Single-A this season and in 22.0 innings pitched with Akron, had an abysmal 7.36 ERA with 20 walks against 22 strikeouts. The St. Louis Cardinals picked him up in the Double-A phase of the Rule V Draft and I give him about a 50% chance of actually sticking with that team this season. The only reason he was on Akron’s roster so long was the injury to Vinnie Pestano and at almost 25 years old, I am not a huge fan of this Minnesota native.

Cleveland and Columbus Coaches – On the other side of the aisle, the Indians finalized their decisions in terms of the coaching staffs for the entire organization earlier in this week. Ross Atkins, Cleveland’s Director for Player Development, announced the moves Friday during the day although several other moves had been ongoing in the previous weeks. The biggest splash news had to be Charlie Nagy returning to the organization to be the pitching coach for the Columbus Clippers. As expected, the old Clippers hitting coach Jon Nunally moved up to Cleveland to become the new hitting coach for the Tribe. Former Aeros hitting coach Lee May Jr. was promoted up to Columbus to take his vacant position.

Akron and Single-A Coaches – Greg Hibbard and Jim Rickon each received promotions to join Joel Skinner’s staff with the Aeros in Double-A. Nobody from last years’ Eastern League Championship staff will return from this past season with Ruben Niebla moving up to be an instructor for the Indians. In other news, manager Aaron Holbert moved to Kinston after two years with Lake County and Ted Kubiak skipped Travis Fryman with the promotion to the Captains. Fryman chose to stay at short-season Mahoning Valley for a third consecutive season while the veteran Kubiak will lead the Captains to the Midwest League after spending last season with the Arizona Fall League Indians.