Today marks the deadline for teams to submit to Major League Baseball their initial spring training player pools, which can comprise up to 60 players. Players are not eligible to participate in either a spring training or regular season game until they are included in the pool. Teams are free to change the makeup of the pools as they see fit. However, players removed from a team’s 60-man (for reasons unrelated to injury, suspension, etc.) must be exposed to other organizations via trade or waivers.
Not all players within a team’s pool are ticketed for MLB playing time, of course. Most teams will include well-regarded but still far-off prospects as a means of getting them training reps with no intention of running them onto a major league diamond this season. A comprehensive review of 2020’s unique set of rules can be found here.
The Indians’ initial player pool consists of the following players.
Right-handed pitchers
- Shane Bieber
- Carlos Carrasco
- Adam Cimber
- Aaron Civale
- Mike Clevinger
- Daniel Espino
- Ethan Hankins
- Cam Hill
- James Hoyt
- James Karinchak
- Dominic Leone
- Phil Maton
- Triston McKenzie
- Jean Carlos Mejia
- Eli Morgan
- Kyle Nelson
- Zach Plesac
- Adam Plutko
- Jefry Rodriguez
- Nick Sandlin
- Nick Wittgren
- Hunter Wood
Left-handed pitchers
Catchers
Infielders
- Christian Arroyo
- Aaron Bracho
- Bobby Bradley
- Yu Chang
- Ernie Clement
- Mike Freeman
- Tyler Freeman
- Cesar Hernandez
- Nolan Jones
- Francisco Lindor
- Jose Ramirez
- Carlos Santana
Outfielders
- Greg Allen
- Jake Bauers
- Delino DeShields
- Daniel Johnson
- Jordan Luplow
- Oscar Mercado
- Tyler Naquin
- Franmil Reyes
- Domingo Santana
- George Valera
- Bradley Zimmer
Surprised Carasco is gonna play givenhis immune system
I assume cookie said I want to play and was cleared
nice to see Gose back in the show. (sorta) also only 3 usable catchers. bold strategy.
If I counted cotrectly. There is less then 60 players on the list
You’re right – I counted 55 or so. I suppose it makes sense to leave yourself some wiggle room since removing a player requires they be exposed to waivers.
Hence the term “initial”, go Tribe!
Gose is a pitcher???
yep. started the switch a few years ago in the Tigers system.
Yes. When he decided to make a comeback it’s as a pitcher. He throws hard, but has control issues.
Kyle Nelson is on both the right handed and left handed pitchers list
Correct, they listed Kyle Nelson twice & put the overall list at 56 players when the Tribe actually named 55 to the pool.
Interestingly, the name of Robert Broom (RHRP) was published as an invite to the pool on Saturday but his name was not part of the list today (Sunday)
Hence the term Initial. Go Tribe
It’s a good looking team for a short season. Cleveland has a legit shot at the AL pennant and more.
I love that the Tribe has two catchers named Bo Naylor and Beau Taylor.
Bo knows Beau, and Beau knows Bo.
I’ve been such an irrationally big Eli Morgan fan for a long time. He’s never been on prospect lists, but he looks like a rock solid back-end starter. I’m glad he’s part of the taxi squad.
So many outfielders vying for playing time! Obviously Johnson and Valera are just there for training camp. I guess designated hitter will be split between Reyes and Santana since both are a butcher in the outfield. Mercado is a lock, but what about the other outfield spot? Will it be Allen, DeShields, Bauers, or Zimmer? I’m assuming Bauers and Zimmer will need to push in training camp for playing time, but it’s not as though DeShields has exactly set himself apart from the pack. It’ll be interesting to see how the situation sorts itself out
Very likely, it will be a platoon of Bauers and Luplow. Zimmer is seemingly in the doghouse of the org for choosing not to go to AFL last year, and Antonetti made some comments to the effect of him needing to “make up” at bats in the minors this year.
DeShields likely makes the team as a defensive replacement/pinch runner. What is most likely is that in tight ballgames, he might be brought in to replace either Bauers or Reyes as neither are good fielders.
Greg Allen probably should be the left handed side of the platoon as he’s a hands down better fielder and runner, has wicked platoon splits for a switch hitter. But the belief is that Bauers has more upside. Long term the hope is that Daniel Johnson and/or Zimmer is the left handed side of that platoon (with Domingo Santana gone after the year).
I forgot about Luplow in my initial post. He’ll definitely start against lefties, but I suppose they’ll have to either deploy Allen or Bauers against eighties.
I imagine Bauers has more upside, but he’s also more reckless and prone to strikeouts, making him very similar to Reyes and Santana. We’ll see if he makes some adjustments in spring training, but Allen seems like a safer option for the time being. Hopefully Naquin can make a late-season comeback
Tyler Naquin was supposed to be cleared for full baseball activity just about the time the shutdown of ST1 occurred. There is no reason to believe he’ll not be ready to go from the get go as a starting corner OF’er.. perhaps platooning with Luplow who will be a starting corner OF’er against LHP’s..