The Indians signed right-handed reliever Robinson Tejeda to a minor league deal with a spring training invite, reports MLB.com's Jordan Bastian. The 29-year-old entered the 2011 season as the Royals' setup man, but quickly lost the job partly due to a shoulder injury. He was removed from the team's 40-man roster in June and elected free agency in October.
When healthy Tejeda spent most of the 2011 season at Triple-A, posting a 3.80 ERA, 8.6 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, and 1.60 HR/9 in 45 relief innings. Tejeda did some solid work for the Royals at times in 2009-10, with a 9.6 K/9 and an average fastball around 94 miles per hour. His heater was down to 90.2 in 2011, probably in relation to his injury. The Indians' press release says he finished the season healthy at Omaha.
The Indians' other non-roster invitees so far include Luke Carlin, Michel Hernandez, Matt Pagnozzi, Andy LaRoche, Jose Lopez, and Felix Pie.
As a Toledo Mud Hens fan and season ticket holder, I hate these signings!
Joke of a team. Just can’t bring themselves to acquire anybody relevant.
I feel like this is a prelude to trading out of the bullpen. They just wanted a little backup there. Give it time.
And they’re clearly willing to go after the right guy. They offered Beltran almost as much as the Cards did.
At least it wasnt Miguel Tejada :D
Take that Yankees!!!
Not THAT bad of a pickup.Everyone is overly negative sometimes on this board. I am no Indians fan but he posted a k/9 of 10.6 in 73 innings in ’09 and 8.3 in 61 innings in 2010 for the Royals. Last year was waste year but if he can get back on track this might be a good pick up for the Indians.
It’s not that it’s a “bad” pickup. It’s that the Indians are adding to an area of depth with this acquisition. Meanwhile their need for a right handed bat remains unaddressed.
Usually these kind of depth signings (Tejada, Laroche, Lopez) are for injury or trade. I can see the Indians moving one of the pieces from the bullpen to get a RH bat.
Maybe a Joe Smith or Rafael Perez for Mark Trumbo deal with the Angels?
Actually, I don’t know – that kind of undervalues Trumbo in hindsight.