NFL News: Cleveland Browns reportedly sign Caleb Hanie
December 3, 2013Tuesday Tribe Notes
December 3, 2013Though acquiring arms at a rapid pace, it appears that the Oakland Athletics are looking to trade starting pitcher Brett Anderson. Per ESPN’s Buster Olney, the Cleveland Indians are reportedly one of the few teams interested in acquiring the 25-year-old southpaw.
Oakland is said to be working through Brett Anderson trade possibilities; Seattle and Cleveland are among the interested teams.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) December 3, 2013
In his five years in the big leagues, Anderson has a record of 26-29 but has been considerably limited by injuries over the last two seasons. In 2010, Anderson was one of the league’s best pitchers as measured by ERA, allowing an average of just 2.80 over the course of 111 innings. Unfortunately, he has appeared in just 54 games over the course of the last four seasons.
Under contract for $8 million in 2014, with a $12 million club option for 2015, Anderson could prove to be a gamble in the way the left-handed Scott Kazmir was a season ago. Excercising Anderson’s option in November, the Athletics recently signed Kazmir to a two-year deal worth a reported $22 million.
[Related: Indians to close three of four remaining team shops per report]
18 Comments
So Oakland wants to swap us Anderson for Kazmir? Okay then.
I am ok with that, as long as we don’t have to give up too much. Lot of cash for a dude that hasn’t pitched much last few yrs.
Agreed… if there is a silver lining, it’s that at least we know that even if Anderson’s contract is a guaranteed major league deal, Antonetti & Tito have shown that they are okay with sitting that guy on the DL in favor of a better pitcher on a minor league deal. I’d still rather not see the team have to waste several million as they did w/ Brett Myers, though.
Myers had an era of 3.1, 4.4 and 3.3 the 3 years before coming to CLE averaging 33.5 games as a SP and year before CLE pitched 70 games in relief. Anderson would be more of a roll of the dice. No one thought Myers would be that bad, but at the price Anderson would be coming at, we would need him to be slightly better than decent.
Anderson would be a good fit for the Tribe. Look at how Callaway the pitching coach turned around Kazmir and Jimenez. If we get him, then there’s no way he can look like Koufax against us right?
I thought Myers would be that bad. He had plenty of warning signs.
Anderson would be a complete roll of the dice much like Kazmir last season. To take that type of gamble AND give up prospects, Oakland better be eating part of that gamble (I would guess 1/2 his 2014 salary – $4mil).
so, it’s still a much bigger gamble in what we are investing, but Brett is younger and I really liked him before his injuries. He’s a high ratio (SO:BB) and low WHIP guy. Really like those types of pitchers.
I would have liked Myers more if he was brought in as a reliever… his splits between starter and reliever were pretty frightening considering how the Indians wanted to use him.
Hasn’t pitched 100+ innings since 2010? Ugh… I don’t like it.
Yeah, I imagine this would either be basically a giveaway of salary or include a prospect with a bag of cash in return.
We have to take chances.
Yup. ‘Tis the market.
This isn’t the right guy to take a chance on. there are others out there somewhere. I wouldn’t like it if the Tribe gave anything up for this DL mainstay. I don’t expect Anderson to pitch more than 60 innings, personally.
All chances are not created equally.
It sure seems like these are the types of chances that never really work for us. If it were just a matter of rolling the dice on $8M in salary, I might be for it. But giving up a prospect AND paying $8M? No thank you.
I wish we would stop taking these types of chances, as these 1-2 year deals for inflated money rarely help the team.
The chances that we should be taking are on minor league FA’s or very small contracts: Raburn, Aviles, Giambi, Kazmir, Matsuzaka, Capps, Orlando Cabrera, Carl Pavano, Jamey Carrol, Hannahan, Elarton, Michaels. All of these guys made under $2 million/year.
The chances that we shouldn’t be taking are high priced one to two year deals on reclamation projects and average veterans: Reynolds, Myers, Sizemore, Lowe, Kotchman(not a terrible deal), Wood, Dellucci, Millwood, Byrd, Borowski. If you add Anderson (excluding option) and Murphy, that is a total of $110-$115 million spent on bums. Millwood is the only one to have a good year among those guys.
I really believe that our philosophy on these short term overpaid deals has to change. I would much rather sign a Joe Smith to a 3 year probably $13 million deal or extend Masterson and Jimenez.
Also, let’s see if Carrasco can finally put it together. He was magical in the pen last year and sprinkled in some great starts. I would much rather spend $500 k to see if he can harness his talent, than spend $8 million to see if Anderson can stay healthy.
Sizemore should not be lumped in there as he was not a free agent and was productive when signed. And the Kotchman deal was terrible. Even at $3M. And Joe Smith has already signed with LAA for 3yrs/$17.5M.
Agree, you could have had the same salary/injury odds by just signing Josh Johnson.
If Billy Beane is willing to take a AA loogy for Anderson then this is a risk worth taking. If the Tribe has to give up anything of value I think they’ll pass. At least I hope so. Also disappointed that we didn’t re-sign Kazmir, that contract seems reasonable to me.