Indians GM Chris Antonetti told reporters today that the club was in on Carlos Santana until the very end (hat tip to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com). It seemed that Santana’s reps kept the Tribe informed through the entirety of Santana’s free agency, but in the end, things just didn’t work out for Cleveland. This news comes as another sign that Santana wanted to remain with the Indians if possible; the first baseman also wrote an emotional goodbye letter to Tribe fans in which he stated, “I cried once it sunk in that I would no longer be suiting up for and living in the City of Cleveland.” Ultimately, he signed a three-year, $60MM contract with the Phillies. Santana came to Cleveland in the Casey Blake trade prior to the 2008 trade deadline. Though the Dominican Republic native came up as a catcher through the minors, his most recent years have been spent as a first baseman. He hit .249/.365/.449 during his time with the Indians, and provided them with 23 fWAR. The club will now hope that new signee Yonder Alonso can replace his fantastic patience in their lineup.
More from the Indians’ camp on the day the Alonso signing was announced…
- Bastian also tweeted some words from Antonetti about the club’s spending plans for the remainder of the offseason. It seems as though the Alonso signing may be the Tribe’s most significant of the winter, though they’ll reportedly continue to explore their options. “We’ll continue to be active,” the Indians GM told reporters. “We had a certain amount of flexibility heading into the offseason that we had to use judicially, and this will represent the vast bulk of that flexibility. The cost of retaining the nucleus of our team is more expensive.” Indeed, the Indians have a number of expensive arbitration-eligible players. MLBTR projects that Trevor Bauer, Lonnie Chisenhall, Danny Salazar and Cody Allen alone will cost the club nearly $30MM, and there are still smaller salaries to account for within their arb-eligible group.
- Antonetti isn’t worried about Alonso’s ability to sustain a high level of production, Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal tweets. The Indians GM cites his control of the strike zone and escalating average exit velocity across the past three seasons as evidence of a “purposeful adjustment”. It’s worth noting that there’s a healthy amount of skepticism in the industry over whether the former top prospect’s .266/.365/.501 season was a true breakout or a career year. As Evan Davis of FanRag Sports writes in a detailed piece, there’s reason to believe certain adjustments could yield sustainable results over the long-term, including a 9.1-degree spike in average launch angle that led to a .385 xwOBA in the season’s first half. However, Davis also points out that his second half was far more pedestrian; Alonso’s xwOBA and wRC+ both plummeted to levels more indicative of his previous self.
- One of the remaining items on Antonetti’s docket is to speak with Jason Kipnis about a position plan, Bastian says in yet another tweet. Antonetti told reporters that it’s possible Kipnis could be a contingency plan for Michael Brantley in left field if the two-time All-Star isn’t ready for Opening Day. As Anthony DiComo of MLB.com notes, Antonetti’s words make it seem all the more likely that Kipnis will open the 2018 season in an Indians uniform.
Translation: we can’t find a taker for Kipnis, so we’re keeping him and his $15M/year contract which will essentially prevent us from making any additional significant free agent signings. Oh, and we still haven’t figured out where we’re gonna play Kipnis.
Real simple, him back at 2B and Ramirez at 3B.
The problem is that Ramirez is a better 2B than Kipnis at this point. And then where do Yandy and Urshela fit in?
“Yandy is not allowed to play, because he doesn’t hit HRs.”
~~Polish Hammer
Geo can stay at triple A! His fielding is good but his bat is very low A ball
Please no! It is no coincidence that the Tribe went on their tear only after Urshela became a regular at third base. His glove is elite and his stellar defense is key to supporting the staff. If he hits .240, he should play every day. At .220, he should still see the majority of time at third. Keep Jose at 2B.
Yeah because his bat helped in the postseason.
Here’s an idea. Diaz hits better against lefties and Kipnis hits better against righties so against a LHP have Diaz at 3B and Ramirez at 2B. Against a RHP have Ramirez at 3B and Kipnis at 2B. You can also use Kipnis in LF to cover for Brantley when he needs a day off.
As long as Ramirez doesn’t have a problem with switching between positions it could be the best of both worlds
If Alonso crashes the Phillies can ship Santana back there for Alonso’s contract and Nolan Jones.
I think Indians should get McCutchen and a minor leaguer for Mejia. OF of Brantley, Zimmer, and Cutch would be solid.
And before you pooh-pooh Cutch, check out his WAR last year compared to the current Indians OF. I know he is in last yr of contract, but he would make the lineup better. Dude deserves a winner.
In no way should the Indians deal one of the best prospects in baseball for one year of an OF in decline and some MiLB throw-in.
No way on Mejia for Cutch…SMH
Also agree that Mejia would be a huge over pay.
Stupid.
The Indians need a good third baseman. The simple in house solution would be playing Ramirez at 3B and Kipnis at 2B, or vice versa
Or play Yandy Diaz
Better watch out. People are gonna tell you that Yandy shouldn’t play because he doesn’t hit HRs.
Only consistent home run hitter is EE
Yandy? He doesn’t hit enough HRs, if I’m gonna have a weak hitting 3B make it a Gold Glove type glove,an like Urshela.
He definitely is not weak…his average exit velocity is in the upper 5%. If he could just learn to hit the ball not straight into the ground he’d have a renaissance season. I’m quite aware the Indians and mlb teams know this, just that his approach is less ideal.
Just about every scout has said that Yandy is still developing his swing and will be a gap type hitter which is similar to what Ramirez is. Did you hate Ramirez when he came up? Because when he first made it to majors he barely hit 10 to 12 homers a year in minors.
It takes a good arm to play 3b. Kipnis does not have it
I think Santana is a good fit in philly for 3 yrs, with their payroll flexibility – and should help develop their young core. His patience will reap rewards amongst those who can learn from it. I think we’ll keep him. He’s a Phillie now. Not an Indian anymore :)
None of this really surprised me. The past few weeks I have been looking over the roster both major and minor leagues as well as the payroll breakdown and a few things really stood out.
The first is that the team was setting up for a 3-4 year contention window in 2016 when they made the Miller trade. The team was setup so they only had 2 core players that did not have were not under team control through 2018 (Shaw and Santana obviously) and 6 additional players after 2018. Of those players you have 2 injury prone outfielders in Chisenhal and Brantley as well as your 5th starter Tonlin but the real loss is the bullpen. McAllister is up and down consistency wise but Miller and Allen are the real hit. It’s doubtful they will be able to extend either but they will have much more financial flexabilty at that point. Not including potential arbitration raises for Salazar and Bauer or the large raise with Lindors 1st year in the process the guaranteed contracts only increase a total of 12.5M with 44M (47M if Guyers option is declined) coming off the books if no one is resigned. If they dont resign 1 of the relievers I believe they will still contend but World Series chances are greatly reduced.
The second thing I noticed is in the off-season following 2020 the Indians will look alot like the Phillies do this off-season from a financial standpoint. Carasco, Bauer and Salazar are all free agents after 2020. Depending on the way the season goes they could flip them for prospects at the deadline or issue them qualifying offers after the year if they do well enough. However they appear to have plenty of pitching to replace them from the minors around that time IF they develop. Same goes as well for Bobby Bradley to play first in the coming years if he continues to improve like he did this year. Mejia and Bradley would be pre arb as well as possibly Diaz if he becomes the everyday guy at 3rd. Plus you still have Lindor 1 year and Ramirez for 3 years. With all these potential fits for 2021 the team is only looking at around 50-60M to cover the entire rotation, infield and centerfield. If they are willing to still be at 140M like this year then that’s 80-90M to spend on 2 starting outfielders, bench and bullpen. We may see Lindor finally be the Star that signs long term in Cleveland and I think that may just be the goal. Build a foundation from within around him and pay for him to stay.
Yes this is dependent on health and prospects panning out but the Indians appear to be a threat for a while.
I wonder if Kipnis can play 3B. Ramirez is a wizard at 2B and along with Lindor at SS and Zimmer in CF the Tribe would have perhaps the best up the middle defense in baseball.
He doesn’t have enough arm
kinsler , simmons and trout disagree
IIRC, Kipnis played a bit of 3B in the AFL, but that never really panned out. He probably doesn’t have the arm for it anyways.
Honestly, if the Indians were willing to throw in a little bit of cash and a prospect, it could make sense for Detroit to grab him. As a wealthy, rebuilding franchise, it seems like a rather high upside gamble seeing as how Kipnis is just one year removed from a 4 WAR Season.
Something like
Kipnis, Shane Beiber* and like $10m for a minor league filler piece like Ken Figeruoa
You can insert any pitching prospect in for Beiber. Figure, the Indians have enough very strong pitching to fill two major league teams, it might make sense to try to flip one for like $20m in salary relief.
They may do that for a team outside the division but not within