The Indians have had perhaps the quietest offseason in baseball so far, their biggest move being the December 1st Kelly Shoppach–Mitch Talbot swap. Mark Shapiro's only big league free agent contract went to backup catcher Mike Redmond for $850K. The inactivity seems to fit with their rebuilding plan – if the Indians wanted to contend in 2010, they probably wouldn't have traded Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez.
The Tribe's inactivity also stems from a lack of cash, based on a report from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Rosenthal says the Indians "explored the idea of trading right-hander Fausto Carmona to clear money for free-agent second baseman Orlando Hudson, but the possibility is unlikely to come to fruition."
The implication is that the Indians don't have $4-5MM in the 2010 budget for Hudson, despite shedding the $16.7MM that would've been owed to Martinez and Lee. They do have a handful of increasing salaries for '10, Carmona's included. Carmona has two years and $11MM remaining; his contract is a rare example of a regrettable arbitration buyout deal. In terms of dumping contracts, the Indians would benefit greatly from big first halves from Jake Westbrook, Kerry Wood, and Jhonny Peralta.
Why would your trade a pitcher to sign a second baseman when your top priority this offseason is to sign pitching? More than likely, you are going to have to send cash with Carmona for the deal to happen, so how is that helping matters?
I agree. Hudson is a nice player but Indians need pitching and need Carmona to have a comeback more than they need Hudson.
I really don’t see why they would trade Carmona. They have NO starting pitching. The last thing they need to do is trade one of their starters. I’d love to see Hudson in Cleveland, but not if it means giving up one of their few starters.
By the way, does anyone else think that the Indians could actually compete if they had a decent rotation? The rest of the team really doesn’t look bad. I’m so mad that they traded Lee last year. You have no idea. They could have at least held onto him for the first half of this season, and traded him if they got off to a horrible start. They didn’t even give themselves a chance this year. Ugh.
Why trade Fausto now?.. It doesn’t make any sense.. He has a team friendly contract (2 years $ 11 MM) and is under team control, at the minimum, for the 2010 & 2011 season, with the club holding two additional option years, 2012 & 2013. Fausto’s last few starts of the 2009 season and results from winter ball were more than encouraging. His trade value can only be realized by staying at this time..
Why replace Luis Valbuena now? It doesn’t make any sense.. This is a kid who has yet to show his true potential, but is off to a “reasonable” major league career & is under team control for the next four or five years. His glove work and “power” are just emerging.
This article by Ken Rosenthal sounds more like a precursor to the time when either of both these players become free agents.. Not now.. it just doesn’t make any sense.
Is it really team friendly though? $11MM for a guy who (as of now) has absolutely no business pitching in the major leagues?
Considering that in 2006, Fausto was one of the best set up men (followed by abject failure for 10 days as a closer) and third in Cy Young voting in 2007, this is a good contract. The hindsight correctors cannot change those results.. BTW.. I would expect Fausto to be closer to 2007 results in 2010 than to the guy who was all over the place in 2009…
The mention of the Indians trading Fausto makes no sense. Fausto’s last few starts for 2009 and his winter ball results have been encouraging. Tim Belcher will have a hand in resurrecting the Fausto of 2007. Trading a starter from an already thin starting staff?. Nonsense…
Luis Valbuena’s playing time will only increase.. He will not be displaced by an expensive vet.. The acquisition of the O-dawg makes no sense…
The Indians appear to have the pieces in place to become a contender in the ‘weak” AL Central division, perhaps not in 2010, but certainly in 2011. This club, sans a healthy Travis Hafner, was in the top half of run scored.. It’s time for more than just PRONK to step up to the plate.. and there are plenty of potential to achieve this end.
I’d like to see the Mets give him a chance. He might recover 2007 form in the NL.
With zero control, he won’t succeed in the NL either. At least until he fixes those problems.
5-12, 6.32 ERA, 1.76 WHIP
Yeah Cleveland, I can see why you’re clamoring to keep that guy
Trading a young pitcher with a huge up-side, just to free up money for an expensive veteran free agent that won’t put you over the top. A move like that does not seem to make any sense for the Indians.
Player 1 in a certain season had an FIP of 3.94, a K/9 of 5.73, a K/BB of 2.25, and an opponent batting average of .247
Player 2 in a certain season had an FIP of 4.02, a K/9 of 8.76, a K/BB of 1.80, and an opponent batting average of .240
Similar right? Well player 1 is Carmona in 2007, player 2 is Daniel Cabrera in 2005. While I know I’m cherry picking stats (let’s face it, we all do it to make our point sound more valid), I personally think the upside that is Carmona has already run it’s course. He’s that guy that maybe only Dave Duncan can fix.
I agree, this doesn’t make sense at all. The One thing that they could of been thinking is to flip Orlando at the trade deadline for more prospects, and then Luis Valbuena would slide into second. Though, we need (major League ready) pitching and this wouldn’t help matters.
Westbrook, Masterson, Laffey, Huff, Sowers, Rondon, Carrasco, Gomez… How much major league ready pitching do they need? MLB ready isn’t the problem it’s the lack of established veterans in the rotation.
Add Talbot to that list. We are packed with 4th and 5th starters!! Losing one of them that gets paid more than the others isn’t a terrible move but I just don’t want Hudson!
If only Jhonny could actually field at SS we could slide ACab back to 2B and let Marte have a shot at 3rd.
Actually, Rondon isn’t major league ready and neither is Gomez. Both will start in the Minors, and have little to no chance of making the rotation.
Does no one remember how badly Cliff Lee stunk it up before his Cy Young season? Does no one remember how good the ’07 Carmona was?
Lee was injured that year. Check his stats before that. 3 years in a row of 14+ wins, one of which was an 18-5 year. I don’t think “stunk it up” accurately describes his performance over those years.
Carmona is horrid if they are doing this it is because they feel he is too much a mental case to rebound.
Carmona’s contract is one of Shapiro’s biggest mistakes to date.
And lets not make the mistake of saying it was the same with Hatner as it is with Carmona because it’s not. Hafner is a injury problem and you hope at some point he will rebound. But Carmona is a mental situation and with that you just don’t know.
Lets see think of it like rick ankiel or does anybody remember the great Roger Moret he had the 100 MPH fastball in the 70’s and he would find it and lose it and find it again and lose it again. This is the guy Carmona reminds me of.
This would have been a terrible idea
This is all false according to Indians Prospect Insider. Yeah, I agree Mick