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December 16, 2015In response to the Chicago White Sox announcing the acquisition of Todd Frazier from the Cincinnati Reds in a three-team trade, the Cleveland Indians have reportedly signed veteran slugger Mike Napoli who spent the second half of the 2015 season with the Texas Rangers. FOXSports Ken Rosenthal was first to report the news.
Sources; Mike Napoli in agreement with #Indians on one-year contract, pending physical.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 16, 2015
Napoli’s deal will be a one year contract with a base compensation of seven million dollars with an additional three million dollars in possible incentives according to CBSSports Jon Heyman, similar to those given to the Mark Reynolds’s of offseasons past.
Napoli was a reported targets of the Indians throughout the offseason as WFNY’s Jacob Rosen noted earlier, and he noted the following about him:
Since the 2006 season, Napoli ranks 32nd in baseball with 204 home runs. Among players with at least 3,000 plate appearances, he ranks 37th with a 123 OPS+ and 31st with a 125 wRC+. He’s a clearly proven veteran bat.
The 34-year-old first baseman and designated hitter is coming off of the first sub-100 OPS+ (100 is MLB average) season of his career, but the right-handed batter went on a tear once he was traded from the Boston Red Sox to the Rangers (143 OPS+ in 34 games for Rangers). Napoli can provide the Indians a potential power-hitter from the right side of the plate, which is something they lacked in 2014 when Yan Gomes struggled with injuries. Also, as noted when evaluating the roster, the Indians needed a boost at the designated hitter slot.
Though Napoli was a catcher for the first seven years of his career, he has not played catcher since 2012. And, while he did play some extremely limited time in left field last season (50 innings), the expectation should be he and Carlos Santana will share the designated hitter and first base duties. Defensive metrics between baseball-reference and fangraphs do not exactly agree, but they demonstrate Napoli is still a passable defender at first base.
A one-year deal means the Indians are not expecting Napoli to be a long-term solution (nor should they at his age). There are some concerns his down year could be the signs of his aging, but he does provide the type of right-handed power bat that could prove to be useful in the late-middle of their lineup. The team still has work to do to fill out their team with obvious holes remaining at third base and center field, but Napoli is a valuable addition at a position of need.
38 Comments
Finally we will have a guy that can be considered a decent DH. Hated seeing bench/utility guys filling that role in previous years.
Carlos should never DH.
PS: I don’t consider 18 HR and a .224 BA to be a legit DH. That isn’t even Rayburn/Murphy platoon replacement. Brandon Moss level of meh-ness.
Someone to deal in July.
(I know, so cynical!)
Brandon Moss 2016 who was David Murphy 2015! I can’t wait to see what mediocre aging hitter the Indians sign next year!
“If you base your decision to come to the game on whether we win or lose, don’t come.”
Cleveland Indians Baseball: Catch the Meh!
http://mashkulture.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Facebook-Meh-Button.jpg
If he returns to his 2013 & 2014 stats, then he will be a legitimate middle-of-the-order weapon. If he stays at 2015 stats, then he is still an upgrade over needing both Murphy & Raburn on the roster to fill out one hitter-only position.
(also, I expect he’ll play more 1B and Santana more DH, but we’ll see)
If only # or HR’s and BA told the whole story of a player’s value!
There’s a lot of whining going on over a team that’s currently projected as the best in it’s division.
Great point! Please enlighten us ignorant unwashed plebs about what we should be looking for out of our new DH!
Last year we were projected to win the World Series.
One year deal is kind of interesting if there is no club option for year two…..
What are they trying to do with this signing? What was the goal and how does this make the team better? Really scratching my head over it.
Jeez, can’t anyone tell a joke around here?
Sorry been chewing on this news and it is pissing me off more and more in light of the Chisox getting Frazier. I think they overpaid but at the same time they took a step to make their team markedly better and to me this is just more of the same dumpster diving FA crap we’ve been seeing out of the Indians.
Well I guess that settles that then. There’s no way the projections that have been the best over the past few years could be right again.
Except they didn’t really make their team markedly better, or anyone near as good as the Indians.
https://twitter.com/NEIFIco
I like the signing. I think there’s better reason to ignore the first half of 2015 for Napoli than there is to throw out 2013, 2014, and the last half of 2015. If he is washed up, he sure had a funny way of showing it once he was traded to the Rangers. He hits most of his homers to left field, but clearly has power to all fields. And he’s better than the crap we’ve been trotting out at DH on most nights.
His beard lost all it’s luster when he was no longer a member of the Red Sox. But enjoy.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/mssd.gif
Wait,,,this isn’t a Browns discussion…screw it!
Also looking like a Rajai Davis signing is close! Let’s start printing those playoff tickets!
Who? What? When? Where?
Ssssssssssssshhhhh…that never happened!
White Sox can afford to do this Indians can’t. If you rank the central by wallet size Indians are probably last at least that’s what my analytics are telling me!
We have a 98 WAR, so after we submit our spreadsheet, the Commish is going to cut to the chase and just send us the division title.
DH was a black hole of black holes last year. Big negative compared to MLB average DH.
Santana was decent in the 2nd half at 1B-defense, but it was the first time it could be said of him (so, can we trust?).
Santana to DH (1.75 WAR compared to 0.65 WAR of 2015 DH)
and
Napoli to 1B (should be similar WAR to Santana but upside for more w/ defense)
https://waitingfornextyear.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2015-WAR-by-position-Indians-vs-MLB-avg.jpg
so if he magically gets 3 years younger, you can expect big things? Gotcha. Meh!
He was horrible in the first half of 2015 for Boston. He has been very good the rest of his career including the second half of 2015 for Texas.
If you believe the first half of 2015 is the new norm, then yeah, ouch. If you believe it was out of the norm, then it will be a good signing.
He walks good. Designated pitch watcher
This makes even less sense in light of Brantley’s injury. He’ll be DHing for at least a month, if not two after returning from surgery.
Ah yes, that team that didn’t make the playoffs. I remember them. They’re so good!
I haven’t noticed that making the playoffs the previous year is that great of a predictor as to who makes it the next, but I’ll let you prove that one.
Eh, would you rather have a team that is projected to win its division but didn’t make big moves, or one that did make big moves but was projected to finish 10-15 games out?
I hear you on the White Sox futility, but can I have a team that makes at least one big move (Frazier for a couple of prospects) and actually wins its division? I want that one.
Well those couple prospects would have been Zimmer/Frazier and someone else out of our top five – a ton for a small market to give up.
And that’s the thing – Frazier, or any other big signing doesn’t guarantee winning the division any more than the current projections having them at the top guarantee anything. Small market teams are going to win because they can develop Klubers, Carrascos, Salazars, Lindors, Brantleys, Kipnises, and not because they try to outbid bigger markets. This team is never going to be able to outbid the New Yorks, Bostons, Chicagos, LAs – they need to find other ways to win.
They’ve built a roster that is projected to win its division, like last year it may not happen, but it’s a lot better of a situation than the one the White Sox are in where they think Frazier is the difference maker, but they’re actually still likely to fall short of .500.