The Indians have announced that righty Matt Belisle is re-joining the organization on a minor-league deal. He’ll begin his tenure at Triple-A.
It seems that Belisle was not able to find a better opportunity with another club. He opened the year on Cleveland’s active roster after winning a job in camp, but was designated for assignment two weeks ago and thereafter elected free agency.
Bullpen depth has been an ongoing problem for the Indians, so it’s not surprising to see this move. The club also had an opening at Triple-A after promoting Neil Ramirez to the MLB roster.
Belisle, who’s closing in on his 38th birthday, had a solid 2017 campaign — in particular, he finished on an excellent run — but was not overly impressive out of the gates this year. In his 10 1/3 innings, he allowed six earned runs on nine hits and a walk. Belisle compiled just four strikeouts in that span, though he did maintain a swinging-strike rate of 9.8% that falls in line with his prior levels.
You know things are bad when _____________.
when ur 38 in AAA
Andrew Miller walks 3 straight batters to bring in the winning run against the Tigers
you’re about to lose the division lead to the Twins or Tigers
You’d be in 4th or 5th place in most other divisions.
I can hear the phone conversation between Antonetti and Belisle now: “Hey, Matt, I understand you’re still available. Well, we feel that you sucked less than any of the other transients we’ve had in the bullpen so far this year, and we’d like to invite you back.”