4:36pm: The Indians have indeed optioned Marshall, Hoynes reports. Additionally, the club has designated reliever Alexi Ogando for assignment. Ogando signed a minor league accord with the Indians during the offseason and ended up cracking their roster earlier this month. However, the 34-year-old only made one appearance – a disastrous May 4 outing against the Yankees in which he pitched one frame and allowed two earned runs on two hits and three walks. Ogando took the loss in that game.
4:12pm: Cabrera will start in right field for Cleveland on Sunday, per Zuppe. It appears the Tribe will option reliever Evan Marshall to open up a 25-man spot for Cabrera, Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com suggests.
4:02pm: The Indians are set to promote veteran outfielder Melky Cabrera to the majors, T.J. Zuppe of The Athletic tweets. Adding Cabrera wouldn’t require the Indians to make a 40-man roster move, as they currently have a vacancy.
Even though the 33-year-old Cabrera has enjoyed a successful MLB career, he was one of several notable veterans who didn’t encounter much interest on the free-agent market last offseason. In fact, he went without a contract until the end of April, when the Indians inked him to a minors pact. By making it to Cleveland, Cabrera will be in position to earn at a $1MM rate and have an opportunity to rake in extra cash via incentives.
Cleveland will be the seventh different major league destination for the switch-hitting Cabrera, who didn’t produce much in 42 plate appearances with its Triple-A affiliate (.286/.286/.381) but does bring a .286/.335/.418 MLB line across 6,852 PAs. He offered similar numbers last year between two of the Indians’ AL Central rivals, the White Sox and Royals, combining to slash .285/.324/.423 with 17 home runs in 666 trips to the plate.
Cabrera’s 2017 production was more than the Indians have gotten this year from their outfielders, who have combined for a .255/.308/.396 mark in the first month and half of the campaign. Michael Brantley and Tyler Naquin have held their own, but each of Bradley Zimmer, Lonnie Chisenhall, Rajai Davis, Greg Allen and Brandon Guyer have scuffled, and three of those players (Naquin, Zimmer and Chisenhall) are on the disabled list.
allen probably down for now.. guyer should go though.
So should Lonnie.
“Cabrera will start in right field for Cleveland on Sunday”
How exciting. Did Melky take his special Geritol vitamins?
Don’t know about that. However if the options for RF are Melky, Edwin E or Yonder Alonso and those remaining get 1B & DH its easy to see why Melky gets sent out to RF..
Despite his lack of range and occasional inability to properly track a flyball, Cabrera does have a solid enough arm to man RF. He compiled quite a few assists with the White Sox in LF including throwing out a number of runners at home plate. If he can get to ball he will usually catch it and make an accurate throw to the proper base.
+1
First inning and he already threw out a runner at third. 😉
Wow! The Indians must really be desperate having to play the Melk Man in RF. He could barely play LF in his three previous season with the White Sox. That being said, Melky Cabrera is a solid switch-hitter at the dish and probably could have some supplied some instant offense with just a week of PA’s in the minors.
2017, Melky had 12 assists, but -20 DRS, -11.6 UZR
If you exclude Melky’s rookie reason (barely played) Melky had 7+ assists, every year— 10 of 12 years — incredible double digit OF assists— last 3 of 4 years.
Melky’s D is underrated. 12 OF assists, but also have -20 DRS, -11.6 UZR in OF? Lol
fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=4022&posit…
How many years was he on the juice?
Who can say for sure? Cabrera hasn’t tested positive since 2012 with the Giants and he’s been a decent enough producer on offense when healthy since that time. It’s his defense and lack of speed on the bases that has dragged down his overall WAR throughout most of his 13 year MLB career and particularly so in his last 5 seasons with the Blue Jays, White Sox and Royals. Had he been given the opportunity to strictly DH with those AL clubs his overall WAR would have been better.
Just trying to make baseball talk. Thanks for the down-votes. (None of the data is incorrect) I was seriously asking how in hell someone has 7 assists, yet, -20 DRS, -11.6 UZR.
Melky was a PED user, but you can still have a civilized discussion. Go to your safe-space, people
Why are you ranting again about downvotes?
If you’re going to take time out of your busy day to do that, at least tell me why you agree or disagree. Gets annoying after a while.
Wasn’t ranting. It was a follow-up post in case, didn’t get the question. I’ll ask question again: 7 Assists, yet -20 DRS, and -11.6 UZR, How? (No answer, just down-votes)
You told people “Go to your safe-space” maybe that’s not the best choice of words.
Sorry, I assumed Meky’s PED history makes discussing this topic, (potential discrepancies in his defensive stats) blasphemous.
You read the first reply? Not even answer to my question, just a potshot at Melky. Yeah down-votes, but no answer to my legitimate question. just fed up lol. Go to your safe space, people if you can’t let your personal bias, not get in the way of a baseball discussion. Or hit the thumbs down-button^
Once again, xabial, why are you bothering with people who don’t have the stones to put even their made up user names on the line with their “opinion”? Engage with the folks who are here to talk baseball and ignore the others. You know what gets annoying quickly—watching you joust with the faeries of the MLBTR universe.
And, back on point, you can’t judge the defensive value of an OFer by his assists. You can’t even judge his arm by it. Frequently players with known guns aren’t given the opportunities to rack up assists as nobody runs on them. Bill James looked at this ~30 years ago, focusing on Dave Winfield and Omar Moreno.
“Once again, xabial, why are you bothering with people who don’t have the stones to put even their made up user names on the line with their “opinion”? Engage with the folks who are here to talk baseball and ignore…”
There is no “engaging”? I seriously think any question that remotely puts Melky in a positive light, (whether right or wrong, I asked if assists, make Melky’s defense underrated.— Double digit OF assists 10/12 yrs impressive. Even the 7 he had, last year was impressive yet -20 DRS, and -11.6 UZR to show suggest DH.
Nobody bothers to answer me, just xx down or whatever — probably due to the sensitivity of the topic. (Putting Melky in any form of positive light by asking if his Assists, make his DRS/UZR Defensive #s underrated)
Nobody bothered to explain like you, but they feel the need to down-vote probably because of the topic. So while I appreciate, you taking your time to answer me in a well-thoughtful response that helped shed light on the matter —had to call them out on it.— u r Cowards ^
7* OF assists 10/12 yrs impressive. He had double digit assists 3 of 4 years NOT 10/12. Sorry about that!
Xabial, he has little to know range which is why those numbers are bad. Usually when guys have a lot of assists, it means guys aren’t scared to run on them. Guys with few assists might have the best arms in the league, it’s just they don’t have as many opportunities to show it since base runners know not to take the extra base
It’s the perfect choice of words. People today act like w9rda are weapons they need protection from. It’s sad.
“There is no “engaging.”
Yeah, there is. Every time you mention ratings/down votes you are engaging. Do you expect your comments about ratings abuse to change anything?
At this point there are probably a few folks who down rate your comments on sight, just because they dislike you and want to set you off. While that sort of thing strikes me as ratings abuse this site isn’t currently capable of addressing that issue.
Also, don’t allow yourself to get distracted by anonymous critics. No matter what you do there will be people throwing um, doo-doo at you. If you do nothing at all they’ll throw doo-doo at you for that too. Focus on what you’re doing and ignore those whose arsenal is limited to anonymously dropping feces on your comments.
“I seriously think . . . to show suggest DH.”
This whole long thingy is not a coherent sentence. Looks like some editing problem. Try again?
“Nobody bothers to answer me, just xx down or whatever—probably due to the sensitivity of the topic.”
That’s one possibility. But I’ve seen several “grownup” discussions here about players who were caught using PEDs like Melky. While there are still a few PED “purists” most appear able to deal with the question: to Melky or not to Melky based on what he is likely to produce now, rather than his past use.
“had to call them out on it.— u r Cowards”
Yeah, they are. But when you acknowledge their downvotes you are giving them what they want. I’m sure you aren’t the only user here who gets automatic downvotes on his comments, be kinda surprised if I don’t have a few myself. But, as I’ve told you several times, xabial, I don’t see ratings, don’t care about ratings and am much happier for it.
Don’t you own some sort of tablet? Install the MLBTR app and use it whenever you visit this site. You’ll never see a rating again. And they all lived happily ever after. The end.
I thought he was slow but not a bad defender. Below average but not Dean Palmer bad.
Perhaps if the fellows who run this site would lose the the dislike icon we could rid these comment boards of those trolling “faeries” you speak of. That or they would actually have to write what’s on their mind which could be even more entertaining for the rest of us. Win-win!
Bad outfielder often rack up assists because they misplay balls and runners try to take extra bases against them. That’s been true throughout history. People don’t run on outfielders with good arms.
If you use an iPhone , u never see them! No harm! No foul ! But if something like idiots on the net giving you down votes causes you such problems , you have more serious problems than that to deal with! LoL
You’re a little late to the party, Brucey Boy Lol
Where is anyone saying his defense is underrated lol? He’s a horrible fielder. Anyone who watched him more than a season since he was a Yankee would know he’s got no speed but a really strong throwing arm which can offset some of his mobility.
Alexis back to the Rangers
How desperate is Cleveland that that had to sign old ass Melky Cabrera. Sad!
Calm down, dude. Melky isn’t that bad. He has moments when he can be pretty productive. Cleveland should have no worries on rolling the dice with him as weak as the AL central is right now. After all, playing 500 puts you in first place in that division. Plus he can also be fun to watch and I assure you, they could’ve done worse.