The Indians activated Francisco Lindor from the injured list today, while veteran Hanley Ramirez was designated for assignment to clear the roster spot, per MLB Roster Moves (Twitter links).
This should come as a welcome bit of news for Indians fans, who finally have their middle infield at full health for the first time this season. Cleveland performed arguably better than expected in their superstar’s absence, as the team sits one game up on the AL Central with an 11-7 record. While the team stayed afloat, offense from the shortstop position was abysmal without Lindor, as his understudies hit a combined .069/.139/.097 – that’s a full -1.0 fWAR in 18 games (-43 wRC+). Replacing that production with anything close to Lindor’s career .288/.350/.487 ought to provide a significant boost to a Cleveland offense that ranks 28th with a .266 wOBA.
For Ramirez, thus ends a second straight disappointing season for the 35-year-old Dominican. He appeared in 16 games this season, hitting only .184/.298/.327 with two home runs. The former highlight-reel shortstop has been relegated to designated hitter duties, from which he simply does not provide Cleveland with enough utility to warrant a roster spot. If this spells the end for Ramirez’s major-league career, he would finish as a career .289/.360/.486 hitter with 271 home runs and 1,834 hits across 7,127 plate appearances in 15 years.
… aaaaand so much for that experiment.
I wouldn’t doubt you see him come back at some point just like Melky did last year
Except that Melky wasn’t struggling to the degree that Hanley is, at least not how I remember it. Speaking of Melky, man has he been a pleasant surprise for the Pirates so far this year. The Bucs are without Polanco, Chisenhall, and now Marte in their OF, so they really needed Melky to hold down RF for awhile, and has he ever.
Glad he’s working out for Pitt. Unfortunately there are haves and have nots in mlb so team like Cleveland and Pitt need to shop wisely and try to get reclamation projects to fill out the lineup.
money, money, money
Good ABBA tune.
haha
Will Ramirez be this season’s Bautista and float team to team?
If he’s lucky
“for the 35-year-old Dominican.”
Do you ever say “for the 35-year-old American”?
You could have written “for the 35-year-old former superstar”
Just saying, little things like this matter now.
Yes they do all the time. “20 year old Canadian”, “Puerto Rican manager”, “the Venezuelan right hander”.
If you find “Dominican” offensive, that’s on you, buddy.
I don’t find it offensive, I find no one ever writes “American” offensive. You either describe all nationalities or none of them.
Yeah, like Indians or Braves
They don’t say American because we’re in America. Do you think in Japanese professional baseball they say the Japanese player? No. But they say the 35 year old American if he’s from the US and not Japan. Quit trying to be offended by every little thing, there’s enough actual hate in this world without you trying to manufacture some.
Maybe because it’s an American sport being played in an American league. I would guarantee you in the Dominican league they would announce every press release for an American player that they are an American player.
This is not even close to “manufactured hate” – these kinds of divides are what “certain types” LIVE for. Open your eyes, the world is bigger than just you.
This is MLBTR, a web site available to the WORLD.
Also MLBTR writers are not “press releases” they are journalists and I dont see anything wrong to holding them to an extremely high standard.
For the record, we do often reference a player’s birth origin, even Americans, whom we might refer to as a “Houston native” or “Florida-born.” You are right, however, in that we probably do not do this as often as we do for foreign-born players.
These “certain types” live for when people create these divides for them, which is exactly what you’re doing right now.
Good grief. Politically correct way over done…..
I bet this person is also one of those “What about me? ALL lives matter!” kinda people.
Every single aspect of your bizarre take on this is deliberate and manufactured to draw a response of negativism from average and normal citizens to therefore prop yourself and your “woke” views as “enlightened “. We are all aware of your pointless and childish behavior and thinking, rational humans are done with it. Go proselytize to the automatons at a college campus or something.
Times do change, I think for the better. I’m Italian and well remember when I read this as a young boy about the great DiMaggio…
In May 1939, Life wrote, “Although he learned Italian first, Joe, now twenty-four, speaks English without an accent and is otherwise well-adapted to most U.S. mores. Instead of olive oil or smelly bear grease he keeps his hair slick with water. He never reeks of garlic and prefers chicken chow mein to spaghetti.” The article also included a picture of DiMaggio with Joe Louis, captioned “Like Heavyweight Champion Louis, DiMaggio is lazy, shy, and inarticulate.”
Wow. I never thought those two would be described as lazy.
“Little thing like this matter now”
No, they don’t. To paraphrase Cory Taylor, “If I offended you, maybe you needed it”. If you’re sensitive to it, rub some dirt on it and get a little bit thicker skin. Quit being such a snowflake.
You sound like the bigger snowflake here. All I asked is why these writers never use “American” but every other nationality gets it.
Cry some more….
BTW I dont care what anyone from Iowa has to say about sensitivity.
Be careful there Fourtnite. What’s wrong with every citizen of Iowa?
Um….you just managed to make Strike Four’s argument the second-worst argument on this thread. Nice job. Please don’t ever comment again. Thanks!
Sorry, I should clarify that I was responding to “Smartz1” and his tough guy posture.
Kiddhoff is right: there is no reason to malign everyone in Iowa.
You sir are exactly right. The fact Strike4 is offended has absolutely no impact on anyone but Strike4. This stuff does not matter and snowflakes simply do not comprehend that but for fellow snowflakes people do not care if they are offended and suffer no adverse effects as a result of the offense. For something to matter it has to impact people and personal opinions as to what is right do not impact people unless the person is elected to office. Although this appears to be a snowflake website now as you can no longer down vote comments. Lets be completely honest- if a person has ever been upset or offended that someone did not like something they posted on mlbtraderumors then that person is pathetic.
I get a kick out of the anti-snowflake internet crowd. It is as if crying and moaning anonymously on the internet about how weak everyone else is somehow makes you hard. Oh but you listen to slipknot? Well, ill show myself out….
This is rich, a Trump supporter telling people to get a thicker skin…..Trump has the thinnest skin of any politician in history. Dude can’t even handle SNL making fun of him.
“People take things like this too seriously now” there, fixed it.
I don’t think anyone gets offended by you describing them as their nationality..
Right, so why don’t they ever use “American”?
Way to totally misinterpret my post.
Because it would not be out of the norm maybe redundancy?
The internet is not America though, and this is on a site on the WORLD wide web, where EVERY nationality reads it.
People like you are just lazy and dont want to change anything about how you live, regardless how behind the times it is. Grow up.
Grow up? Really? Dude you’re an idiot…
+1 Polish
No one misinterpreted your post, we all agree that you’re a whiny offended cry baby. I would guess Hanley is proud to be Dominican and should be. And saying it’s on the World Wide Web? Yeah great, it’s also an American site written by Americans about a game that takes place in America. Idiot.
While the argument that we are an extremely self-centered country is valid (see: “World Champion” for the Super Bowl winner), I don’t think that’s what’s happening here.
As BrewCrewBernie notes, while the site may have readers outside the U.S., anyone who reads the site knows that it’s based in the U.S., and it’s pretty common for U.S.-based media to refer to U.S.-born folks by their city or state of birth. I think this is pretty common practice around the world – the Brits, for example, would do the same for their football players.
I hate to profile you but I am going to assume that you are a white person who has had few real problems.
Agreed
here here
strike four’s tripe makes it difficult to read legitimate commentary.
Shut up already. Why is everything so political now? Watch and comment about baseball. Go to cnn and Fox News for political and pc crap
Triggered much? All I asked is why no one ever writes “American” as a descriptor and then I get all these gutter twitter-level posts. Go away fool.
Then perhaps you should have typed “Go away, American fool”.
Spelled it wrong, he’s an American tool…
Here, I’ll explain why they don’t ever describe players as American. Every writer on this site is either racist and only describes players as where they are from. Or every writer HATES America and cannot bring themselves to even use the term. Or every writer is stupid. Or every writer is targeting your sensibilities and they just want to piss you off. Or every writer is practicing free press principles and EVERY SINGLE WRITER AND EVERY SINGLE READER DOES NOT FIND IT OFFENSIVE EXCEPT YOU. Pick one. It has to be one of those.
I think the writer is just trying to be more descriptive. Like, he might also write “35-year-old Nebraskan”. I forgot Hanley was from the DR, so it’s cool to be reminded where people are from. Just makes the writing a little richer, that’s all.
While they may not say “American,” they say “Texan,” “Californian” etc plenty. No harm intended – it’s just pointing out where they’re from. Too many people are offended by too many things nowadays. I would say it’s getting ridiculous but it has been for some time.
They look to be offended and this is a classic point-this guy also ignores that MLB- with the Word Baseball Classic actually makes a concerted effort to point out where players are from. MLB has a tournament where the teams are based on where you are from- so nationality has relevance. Also lets not forget they actually keep statistics regarding place of origin.
“Just saying…”
This new age disclaimer is pure cowardice. It allows one to make a statement without taking any responsibility, to be able to walk away from any rebuttal. Weak.
Stfu
This reminds me of the episode of the Office where Michael Scott asks Oscar “is there a term besides ‘Mexican’ that you prefer? Something less offensive?”
You are Michael Scott.
Yikes, who gives a crap about feelings.
you really need to stop getting worked up over small issues and just read the articles for their purposes. oddly enough you never seen to comment on the actual topic of these articles.
So DH will be…. whoever?
Floating through the players on a day off in the field.
I would imagine that they will mix Lindor/Santana in the DH slot a bit as they are recovering from injuries. I could see CarGo and Bauers getting in the mix.
Yeah I think at first Lindor might DH a few times here and there, but as the season goes on I’d expect it to be CarGo mostly with Bauers a little here and there too.
“Tonight’s lucky 10,000th fan will be the designated hitter!”
Might have to go with 5000th.. some of those Progressive Field crowds have looked pretty small this year.
I saw smaller crowds in Detroit and Seattle on the previous road trip.
no one sold out those places expecting those teams to be good.
Seattle was the hottest team in the league when they went up there and swept them.
Figured Hanley would be gone before his 45 day clause guaranteed his contract. With a double header today and Lindor probably being limited the first week or so they need the extra infielder right now.
he doesnt play anywhere except 1st base at this point. I’m not sure he did anything to prove he was better than Lindor’s replacements.
And like Miller who also used to play SS and no longer can. Wonder if we’ll get the same rants that they didn’t keep him on the roster?
That’s what I meant. By extra infielder I meant keeping Moroff and Freeman to spell Lindor since Hanley was just a bat not hitting well.
I’m pleasantly surprised that I have seen no such rants! I was definitely anticipating them.. but I guess Strike Four found something even dumber to get worked up about, ha.
Hanley made a tactical error taking last season off after he was released in May. At his age, many players have a hard time rebounding from a long lay-off.
I think that time off had something to do with his off the field issues as well as has something to do with his contract. So nobody was going to bring him in last year.
For once I can say I called it.
And that’s the end of Hanley’s career
Even though he is probably done, Hanley Ramirez had a very good career. Not HOF worthy, but still respectable enough to possibly remain on the ballot for a couple of years. It’s a shame his best years were wasted on a perpetually rebuilding Marlins team. I hated him as a Dodger. but I always respected his game.
he certianly deserves more respect then he will get, given how good he was during his better years.
He’s done. Ramirez is 35 years old which is considered old in baseball these days. The DH position is now like a day off for position players. So I don’t see him getting another chance. I could go on and on, but I know that true baseball minds on here understand. Lol
Um, ends his season? It’s April. You’re absolutely positive nobody will pick him up at his bargain basement price for the next 5 months? Quite the seer.
pjmcnu, yes I’m very positive
given the events of last year, most likely.
Lindor is an incredible player. One of my favorites in the game.
Glad to see he’s back.
Hanley the “ Headcase” nice 17 year run.
Hanley just isn’t the same since he stopped taking steroids