3:45pm: Venable has passed his physical, and GM Mike Chernoff has confirmed the deal, as MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian tweets. In his column below, Meisel notes that Venable and Chernoff were teammates in their college days at Princeton.
12:40pm: ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reports that Venable will receive a $1.5MM base salary and can earn up to $2MM worth of performance bonuses (Twitter link).
9:30am: Venable will take a physical with the Indians today, Jordan Bastian of MLB.com tweets. Via Zack Meisel of Cleveland.com, Venable will receive a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite.
7:46am: Outfielder Will Venable will be in camp with the Indians today, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports writes (Twitter links). That suggests that player and team have agreed to terms on a contract of some sort, although Rosenthal does not say that specifically. Venable is a client of Turner Gary Sports.
The Indians can use the outfield depth Venable will provide, particularly with Michael Brantley dealing with a shoulder injury. Brantley hopes to be ready in time for Opening Day, but if not, Venable could give the team a left-handed hitter to pair with Rajai Davis in left field until Brantley returns to the lineup.
The 33-year-old Venable hit .244/.320/.350 in 390 plate appearances in 2015, hitting passably in San Diego and then fading down the stretch after an August trade to the Rangers. His power output has faded since a 22-homer outburst with the Padres in 2013, although he maintains decent value due to his baserunning (he had 16 steals in 2015 while only being caught once) and his ability to play all three outfield positions. The longtime Padre has a career .251/.317/.406 line in parts of eight big-league seasons.
Wasn’t the story two days ago the Indians were done free agent shopping. Just goes to show nothing is confirmed until it’s done
Hopefully just a minor league deal. Wouldn’t count that as FA shopping
again the journalism this off season has been terrible. they’ve been wrong a lot this off season
Journalists report what they are informed of, if a team exec stated as such we should expect the journalist to report it.
It may be that AFTER they made the statement, MLB informed them of Almonte’s suspension. That changed things.
Venable is a good pick up for the Indians. Opening day bench should be Perez/Ramirez/Cowgill/Venable. With Davis in LF, Brantley opens on the DL.
Is somebody from the Browns making decisions for the Indians now? Get some stones and make a trade that will help. This pitching staff is going to be wasted!
This is a good move for them. Venable gives them security if Almonte struggles, although given your anger over a minor league signing, that probably doesn’t matter to you
Or if Almonte goes and takes steroids and gets himself suspended 80 games n then Venable is there as insurance.
Lol yeah. Not exactly what I meant by struggling, but that works
The Indians so far have been unwilling to trade Salazar/Carrasco/Bauer for a hitter (Baez/Soler rumors will persist after Fowler signed w/ Cubs). With the Indians payroll situation ( Dolan’s still can’t find an investor to increase payroll) being rough. The Indians options are to sign 1 free agent to a monster contract ( Upton/Cespedes), or fill team holes by signing Davis/Napoli/Hunter/Uribe. Swisher/Bourn/Johnson is receiving dead money from the Indians as well. To aquire a hitter the Indians would have to move prospects/starting pitching (Clevinger/Morimando/Sheffield/Bauer/Carrasco/Salazar/Zimmer/Frazier) for a controllable bat (Ozuna/Baez/Soler). The Indians are reluctant to trade prospects/starting pitching because payroll is 90-95mil. a year. Therefore the Indians have to develop/keep prospects, quick fixes ( expensive free agents/expensive international signees from Cuba/Korea) are not available for the Indians.
If the Pirates, Twins, and Orioles are signing the IFA; they should not be classified as expensive.
Twins/Pirates got Kang & Park because of the posting bidding system which is outdated (Should be an International draft). Orioles payroll is almost doubled what the Indians is. Twins/Pirates aren’t signing Cuban players. It’s always the Dodgers/Red Sox/Cubs etc. all the big market teams. Indians payroll is only comparable to the Padres/Marlins/Rays.
This is a depth signing for the Indians, but I really doubt he will make the team to be honest. Almonte if he can reproduce his numbers from last year for a whole year will have a better WAR than Dexter Fowler. Davis has always been solid player and also Cowgill and Chisenhall platoon in RF should actually be very solid since both have shown good numbers against the opposite arm pitcher. Also both have shown to be solid Outfielders
Almonte was just suspended for 80 games.
Off topic, but does anyone have the problem when writing a comment the app freezes but it still posts their comment?
Yes.
yes
Yes, wish they would fix because it is irritating.
I’ll try and post a comment but it’ll just load forever but when I check back later it’s posted. Pretty annoying at times.
Yes. Its happening right now…..(I’m assuming)
All these teams picking up outfielders on minor league deals and Angels are sitting at home just chillen trying to acquire guys like Saunders. ugh. so frustrating.
Abraham Almonte suspended for 80 games,
Well this makes a lot of sense now. Hopefully Almonte gets his head on straight unlike Mr. Mejia, hate to see great young talents go this route and disappear from the game.