The Indians announced today that they have outrighted four pitchers from their 40-man roster. Lefty Tyler Olson and righties Cody Anderson, A.J. Cole, and Danny Salazar all elected free agency in lieu of a minor-league assignment.
That’s a rather notable group of arms for the pitching-rich Cleveland organization to cast out onto the open market. Olson was still a bit shy of arbitration eligibility, but the three right-handers would have qualified. Anderson and Cole each projected to earn $800K, while Salazar could have anticipated a repeat of his $4.5MM salary.
Olson, 30, had shown a surprising leap in swinging-strike rate in 2018. While he still allowed more earned runs than you’d like to see, the club understandably believed he’d be a useful hurler — particularly as a lefty specialist. As it turned out, Olson fell back to earth with a big velocity drop. He ended the campaign with 30 2/3 innings of 4.40 ERA ball and 8.2 K/9 against 4.7 BB/9.
The 29-year-old Anderson has long struggled with health issues but was able to return to the bigs for the first time since 2016. Unfortunately, he was knocked around in 8 2/3 innings at the game’s highest level.
Cole delivered an intriguing stat line on the surface, with a 3.81 ERA and 30:8 K/BB ratio over 26 innings. He’s still 27 years of age, averaged just under 95 mph with his fastball, and has maintained about a 14% swinging-strike rate in a relief role over the past two seasons. It’s tough to argue with the Indians front office when it comes to pitching decisions, but it’ll be interesting to see whether Cole is claimed.
As for Salazar, the best-known name on this list, his time in Cleveland will finally come to a close. That was a foregone conclusion by now. The injury-riddled former All-Star did show intriguing strikeout ability in his minor-league rehab run and made it back to the majors for one outing. But he ended up back on the injured list thereafter and eventually asked to be excused from the organization while struggling in yet another rehab effort.
Shatkins look to bring over their old toy in Salazar and find some of that potential he showed?
He’s toast.
Mickey Callaway, the Indians former pitching coach who got the best out of Salazar, is now the Angels pitching coach.
Might be a nice low level signing.
We need guys like that. High reward type guys that can be had for the somewhat cheap
After the way Salazar ended his season, you could probably get him for $4.50.
you mean tree giddy?
No fo fiddy is about right…
Loch Ness Monster would sign him… for treefiddy.
No surprises here
Someone should try and make Salazar their new closer. BAL? KC? DET? all have a need and the required patience.
I was hoping the RS would do this last spring. The Indians would’ve loved to have gotten underneath that salary, and even had he returned in August, they didn’t really have a slot for him.
OTOH, the RS needed a good BP arm. On the optimistic side, he’d have returned in August to augment the BP. On the pessimistic side, he’d have returned in 2020. I thought that would be worth his 2019 $4.5M.
Now that his price is presumably lowered, I’d love to add him to our BP.
Tigers dont need a closer. Thed All Star Joe Jimenez is cemented in that role.
I was thinking Cole myself.
id assume they are set with Jimenez myself, but he’s shown warts at times and the team at least needs one more 8/9 guy. another guy in case you think he should move to the 8th is never a bad shout.
Closer when his fastball hits 86 and his changeup hits 84?
I would love to have the tribe face him in the ninth and his sweet, down the middle 88 MPH fastball.
Only one that surprises me a bit is Olsen. Everyone knew Salazar was done and honestly should have been done last winter. Anderson is hurt again and Cole was hurt and out of options. Olson was at least effective when healthy and I expected them to give him a shot in spring training but it was probably done to protect someone in the rule 5 draft.
Pretty sure Olson is out of options, plus CLE has other lefty relievers who are more effective in Hand and Perez. If they want a 3rd lefty, they’ll either sign someone to a minor league deal or magically find one among their pitching prospects.
“or magically find one among their pitching prospects.”
Allow me to introduce to Kyle Nelson (LHRP).
baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=nel…
Pitched in High A, AA & AAA in 2019. WHIP of 0.887 in 2019 & 69k in 47.1 IP
I foresee him & James Karinchak forming the backbone of a formidable Tribe bullpen over the next 5+ years
Ah, I was not familiar with Kyle Nelson, as I don’t follow the minor leaguers as closely as I should. And I agree about Karinchak; hopefully he can harness his stuff and be a quality back-end guy.
I’m guessing the Indians will roster Tristan McKenzie, Daniel Johnson and Scott Moss. I think they would still have to DFA a couple guys because they’ll have to move Naquin off of the 60 day IR.
Kluber/ Naquin/ Christian Arroyo all placed onto 40 man roster today as 60 day IL was clean up..
2 open spots currently on 40 man roster.
Naquin was reinstated from the IL, so he’s back on the 40-man.
And I agree with McKenzie/Moss/Johnson making it on the roster, but it seems like every year there’s always another surprise that add that no one expected (Erik Gonzalez, Jean Carlos Mejia, etc.) so I think another guy will make it there too.
I’d expect someone like Skylar Arias or Juan Hillman to be added too.
I agree with McKenzie/ Moss/ DJohnson to the 40 man roster (1 more opening will be needed).
Can’t see Hillman or S Arias getting a spot before 1 of following 5 eligible players: Ka’ai Tom/ Jose Fermin/ Luis Oviedo/ Cam Hill/ Jared Robinson
Good call on Tom, I forgot he was eligible. He’ll probably make it on; the others I’m not quite as sure about. But I agree that there will be more than the original 3 that get added.
Salazar’s days as a starter are probably done. He could be a lethal back end bullpen arm.
He could if he still threw his old gas…he doesn’t. Unless he gets a sports psychologist to fix his head he’ll never make an impact anywhere in the majors.
Everything I have read about him says he doesn’t like to put in the hard work. So yes, seeing someone like a psych, probably is too much effort for him. I would be surprised if he doesn’t ride off into the sunset and live a comfortable life.
I thought that A.J. Cole was pretty good. I’m surprised he got outrighted.
Maybe it came down to a choice between him and Edwards?
Jon Edwards was off the 40-man a while ago. I forget which acquisition pushed him off, but I think he’s a minor league free agent now.
My bad.
Salazar should try the pen. Who knows, he could see Wade Davis type improvement if he is not pitching 10 innings a week in a rotation.
Angels please sign at least 2 of these guys
The Indians showed incredible patience and faith that Salazar could be useful again. But to pay him $9.5M over the last two years and get all of four innings out of him is totally unacceptable and made the call to outright him beyond easy.
Exactly!
Cody Anderson had one good year, and even then it was clear the peripherals didn’t back it up. He’s been injured too often, and just bad when he’s been healthy. Olson was useful the past few years, but the new three-batter minimum made a lefty specialist like him much less appealing.
AJ Cole was serviceable, but he was way too hittable, way too homer-prone, and is out of options, which reduces the flexibility the Indians have to send guys up and down to keep them fresh. Even during the season, he probably would have gotten cut loose had he not gotten injured anyway.
Salazar…well, he’s toast. He’s got so much potential and if I was a fan of a different team I’d probably really want him, but he hasn’t been healthy in years and there were frequent rumors (which I obviously don’t know about firsthand) that his work ethic was subpar. It’s looking more like he’ll end up as someone who never really put it all together. Some team will understandably take a chance on him, but I just don’t think he’s worth it anymore.
Big part of issue with Salazar – he has resisted a permanent move to bullpen. Feels he needs a 5 day routine in order (as a starter) to pitch effectively & to his best levels.
Until he accepts the idea of bullpen being best for his long term/ career, there will continue to be problems.
That said, if his health doesn’t allow for anything other than starting, his career might already be over. Some people just never recover from surgery or the injuries that require surgery to be done…
His actual injuries have healed, his mindset is what has held him back. The Tribe wasted so much time, money and resources to get him back and he resisted. They finally sent him home. He’s done!