Indians righty Danny Salazar is slated to begin throwing next month, president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti tells MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian (Twitter link). At the moment, the club isn’t certain whether it’ll utilize the hurler as a starter or reliever, though it does sound as if the plan is to tender him a contract. Salazar will almost certainly command the same $5MM salary he did this year after sitting out all of 2018 with shoulder issues. That’s a decent bit of payroll to stake on a return to form, though Salazar has real upside on the mound and will also remain controllable for the 2020 season.
Here’s more from Cleveland and the rest of the American League …
- Speaking of payroll planning, the Indians will need to budget for a slight boost to the salary for fellow right-hander Carlos Carrasco. As Bastian notes on Twitter, the value on the club option in Carrasco’s extension rose by $750K (to $9.75MM) due to his fourth-place placement in the 2017 Cy Young voting. It’s not entirely clear from what’s known of Carrasco’s contract whether that prior voting performance also operates to boost the value of his 2020 option, which comes at a $9.5MM base price point.
- It’s also worth noting that the Blue Jays will have to open their wallets a bit wider to hang onto first baseman Justin Smoak. By virtue of topping 1,100 total plate appearances over the past two seasons, he has boosted his 2019 club option value from $6MM to $8MM. That still seems to be a reasonable rate of pay for a switch-hitter who has carried a .256/.353/.495 batting line and launched 63 home runs since the start of the 2017 campaign. Smoak could well profile as a trade candidate, depending upon how the Toronto front office decides to approach the offseason.
- Elsewhere in the AL East, the Yankees face a tough question on a player entering his final season of control. Joel Sherman of the New York Post argues that the team ought to strongly consider working out an extension with shortstop Didi Gregorius. Sherman wonders whether the recent Jean Segura contract (five years, $70MM plus option) might serve as a starting point in talks, rightly suggesting that it may well cost a bit more to lock up Gregorius. The 28-year-old is projected to earn $12.4MM in his final trip through arbitration and is a half-season closer to free agency than was Segura. He’s also fresh off of his best season, having posted a .268/.335/.494 slash with 27 home runs in 569 plate appearances. Outfielder Aaron Hicks and reliever Dellin Betances could also be considered for long-term deals, Sherman opines.
The pen may be the best place for Salazar
Kluber, Carrasco, Bauer, Salazar, and Clevinger. That just sounds dangerous. They always have Biebs if it doesn’t work out!
Salazar had a history of injuries before making the majors. Since then he’s been injured numerous times.
After pitching only 103 innings as a starter in 2017, then missing all of 2018, it’s pretty illogical to think that suddenly in 2019 he’s going to throw 130-180 innings.
The Indians top 2 bullpen guys – Allen and Miller – had bad 2018 seasons. Partly due to injuries. Add in that they lost a sensational pitching coach when Calloway left to manage the Mets. Calloway always developed a quality pen out of so-so pitchers during his time with the Indians. He was replaced by a below average pitching coach that couldn’t do a thing with the pen in 2018.
The Indians have 5 starters going into 2019. Plus 2-3 ready to step in from the high minors when injuries hit. What they don’t have is much of a bullpen.
When he’s on, Salazar has truly superior stuff – the ball literally darts all over the strike zone (along with a nasty curve). Have him come in and not worry about pacing himself. Let him air it out to one batter or up to 2-3 innings. If he can’t pitch for a day or two after that, deal with it.
That pitching coach is a big problem. John Ferrall made Francona look good in Boston. Calloway made him look good in Cleveland. The only thing propping up the Indians is that this past year, and for the next few, they are in the worst division in MLB.
I think Salazar needs to be in the bullpen. His upside in the rotation is huge, but that doesn’t mean much if he can’t stay healthy or pitch more than about 5 innings at a time. Plus, when everyone is healthy, the Indians already have 5 starters because Bieber deserves to be there full-time.
Put Salazar out there in 1-2 inning stints and he’ll be absolutely filthy. Plus it’ll help him stay healthy.
I also suggested a while ago that the Astros should do the same with McCullers because he’d be nasty out of the bullpen too and Houston also has a great rotation, but I feel like putting Salazar in the bullpen is an even more obvious call.
So a guy you consider brutal to throw maybe 30 starts a season should actually get up and warm in the bullpen two out of every three nights? And you really think that will work to reduce wear on his arm?
there’s also Bieber and McKenzie of the wings as well.
I would haul in both of Miller and Britton to pair up with Hand and Salazar as the SU guys and CL and bring back Donaldson and guys like Jones, Melky and Marwin.
1.Jones CF
2.Lindor SS
3.Donaldson 3B
4.Edwin DH
5.Ramirez 2B
6.Alonso 1B
7.Melky RF
8.Perez C
9.Gonzalez LF
if they want to win a championship, they need to spend some money. their bullpen this lasted season, was a disaster. the line up failed to produce despite Lindor, Ram having career yrs. I don’t expect them to break the bank, but bringing back Donaldson on a one yr deal so he can reestablish his value + a couple of options, should ok. also guys like Melky, Gonzalez, Britton and Miller shouldn’t he all that expensive after down yrs. Brantley will probably cost you much and brings a higher injury risk. that’s my take towards the tribe.
You can go ahead and put that team together with your fantasy baseball league payroll but the Indians won’t be able to do what they have to work with.
That’s nuts
As an Indians fan.. another team would be the best place for Salazar. His arm is damaged goods. Spend the money on a safer bet.
Why not have him close? Is that an option?
Salazar has been the pitching version of Lonnie Chisenhall – very productive when healthy, but rarely healthy. Tribe clearly has bigger needs in the pen than the rotation. Salazar has minimal trade value at this point, so might as well hang onto him for another year.
Your description comparing him to Chisenhall is spot on!
Spend the money? The $5 million he’s worth the risk, and don’t let them go to another team you go to buy low sell high.
No-brainer, lock up Didi anywhere around 70M. But this is the Yanks we’re talking about. They don’t extend their players. They wait until they hit FA, probably won’t outbid 29 other clubs, since they have a security blanket (who plays better SS than 2B, cuz it’s his natural pos) If they lose Didi due to “anti-extension” policy, wouldn’t surprise me one bit. Stupid policy, make an exception for Didi, Yankees!!
What valued Yankee have they failed to sign once they became a free agent other than Cano and Pettitte? I do think the Yanks should extend guys before they’re free agents but the Yanks probably feel they can keep anyone they want even in an open market. My guess is they weren’t too thrilled to offer Cano a long term contract because maybe they suspected peds or that he wasn’t going to age well.
You have three valued Yankees right now: Didi, Betances and Hicks. Miracle if one gets extended. They made an exception for Cano long ago and CC. Does CC count? Successfully leveraged a player opt out into an extension. It wasn’t unsolicited extension offered by team and accepted by player in an Arb. year.
They have extended tons of guys, Even ARod got an extension. Try going back and looking, only guys they don’t extend are ones they don’t plan on keeping.
Also, I love Didi but he is not worth the same money as Segura, who is an all around better player
There is a reason Segura gets tossed around. Plus add the recent scrap with a teammate. Segura might be better, but he has been shipped out of town a few times already and it’s not because of ability.
What do you mean by “shipped out of town a few times already”? Segura was traded 3 times: LAA to MIL to ARI to SEA; Didi was traded 2 times CIN to ARI to NYY
And I think we can say that Segura wasn’t that good in MIL (the death of his son had an influence)
Tavares – do I have to spell it out for you? Figure it out. I don’t hear DiDi starting clubhouse scuffles in New York. Still don’t get the hint yet?
Care to say the scuffles that Segura had in MIL and ARI?
I think we would’ve heard if Segura was a clubhouse cancer by now. Stuff like that is usually leaked pretty quickly and let’s be honest, there probably isn’t a team that didn’t have some sort of “scuffle” this year. I forget who said it but one of the MLB network guys said he was never on a team that didn’t have one. These guys see each other more than they see their families, it’s bound to happen in a competitive environment.
@Shield “They have extended tons of guys, Even ARod got an extension. Try going back and looking, only guys they don’t extend are ones they don’t plan on keeping”
Your example actually isn’t a good one. ARod opted out of his contract (I remember because he did it during the WS after the Yankees got eliminated from the playoffs and pissed a bunch of people off) and the Yankees resigned him after. The Yankees let Jeter’s 10yr/180 deal expire and than resigned him (after having him go test the market). CC’s “extension” was because he said he was going to opt out so while its an extension, and wasn’t like if they resigned Didi now when he has no leverage.
I can’t think of any in recent memory where the Yankees truly just extended someone because they wanted to lock them up for more years and avoid them testing the market.
How do you know that Dee Gordon wasn’t the one who started the scuffle (with Segura)? What’s your inside intel that it was Segura who started it? Looking forward to your eagerly-anticipated response.
ShieldF123,
ARod opted out, and was given 10-year $275M (w/ incentives that could push it over 300M)
Arod is the furthest example of the Yankees handing out an extension.
Most recent example of extending a player: Brett Gardner.
There’s no need to extend Didi, in fact I’d like to see them use him in a trade for pitching. Like you said Torres is a great fallback, and younger at that. Yankees have some tough choices this offseason.
The problem with moving Torres over to SS is they don’t have anyone readily available to take over 2nd base if they move Torres. So moving Torres right now or in the immediate future really isn’t a viable solution.
Isnt viable?
It’s the offseason and you dont think they can find a 2nd baseman???
Exactly…
Which would lose another much needed lefty bat.
Are Yankees fans still telling themselves Torres is an elite defensive SS? He was even worse at SS than 2B, and he was really bad at 2B. If everything breaks right for him, he will be average at best on the defensive side of things. It’s his offense that will carry him in the league
Because all 21 year olds, which Torres is, that take on a new position 2B are expected to be elite fielders right out of the gate. Prior to this year with the Yankees Torres played all of 16 games in the minors at 2B. As for his defense at SS he started 15 games at SS with the Yankees after playing 2B much of the year. Just food for thought, Ozzie Smith considered one of MLB’s greatest SS committed 23 errors with a fielding % of .970 at SS at the age of 23.
Food for thought: Torres Fielding percentage in the minors, at the position he’s supposedly “elite” at, is under .950. Maybe he’s just not the defender you think he is? there’s nothing wrong with that, the bat is legit
Are non yankee fans so clueless about baseball that they grade a rookies defense on insignificant sample sizes?
Again, exactly…
I mean, considering he was never once thought of as an above average defender, let alone elite, until Yankees and their fans for ahold of him… maybe I’m not that one that’s clueless about baseball? But hey, at least Refsnyder worked out for you guys!….oh, wait…
I’m not saying the guy is Ozzie Smith, but the Yankees did pretty well with another offensive leaning SS named Derek Jeter. That old Refsnyder go too is dead in the water, how about coming back into 2018, or just don’t worry about it.
Except if you actually look at jeters stats, you’ll notice his defense was Manny Machado levels of bad. And that’s SS Machado, not 3B. I’ll make you a deal. come back to reality in regards to Torres’ SS defense, and I will. You bring up his age and position change as example of why his D will be amazing, and just completely ignore the fact that even when he was at SS everyday, his D was only good enough to MAYBE stick at SS in the majors. What excuse are you going to use a couple years down the line when his defense is still horrible?
Edited: Duplicate
I could see the Yankees making a legit attempt to extend both Didi and Betances. As for Hicks I just don’t see any more than trying to add 1 additional year for him that would take him through the 2020 season. Extending him past the 2020 would effectively block Estevan Floiral from the Yankees outfield & CF. The Yankees are & have been very high on Florial for several years now. Don’t see them extending Hicks for 4 or 5 years who will be on the wrong side of 30 in a year or 2.
just keep Randy Levine out of the room when working on a Betances deal …
lol
Article makes it sound like it will be a burden to exercise Smoak’s option.
Including that $8MM, $20MM over the same 4 years that Morales will have “earned” $52MM says Money Well-spent to me.
Didis better than Jeter so this should be interesting
Go troll somewhere else.
I don’t think the Jays could get very much for Smoak. They are much better off keeping him.
1.Ramirez 2B
2.Lindor SS
3.Donaldson 3B
4.Edwin DH
5.Harper RF
6.Jones CF
7.Alonso 1B
8.Perez/Gomes C
9.Gonzalez LF
that would be the ideal line up for the tribe if they want to win a championship. Just trade players with too much $ and no too much production. guys like Miller, Britton would also be ideal to pair with Hand. Kimbrel probably way too expensive.
Smoak to the cardinal s they have young pitching Give them Carp at least Smoak can hit in the middle of the order
You wouldn’t need to give up Carpenter to get Smoak. Blue Jays will need to unload infielders, not add. They need pitching.
Agreed. Shapkins could have started the rebuild last offseason and yielded a bunch of stud prospects for Donaldson, Smoak, Happ, Estrada, Liriano, etc. Look at what David Stearns has done with Milwaukee since he was hired at the same time as Shapiro in 2015. The Brewers are up 1-0 in the NLCS this October. When does Atkins say the Jays will compete in Playoff baseball again? Talk about setting the bar low!
Would rather the Jays trade Smoak and invest his 8M in pitching. Tellez showed me enough in September to give him the 1B job next year and see how he develops. Jays have so much IF talent at and near the Major League level that they need to spend next year letting them play and see who the keepers are. The OF is where the real issue when it comes to position players. It’s hard for me to watch Pillar try and hit and it’s hard to watch Teoscar Hernandez play defense. Both have huge deficits in those areas. Grichuk is there best OF and I would put him in CF, trade Pillar, play Anthony Alford in RF and Teoscar in LF and give them half a season and see how it looks.