The Indians have signed outfielder Ben Gamel to a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training, per a club announcement. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman first reported the deal. Gamel is represented by Jet Sports.
The 28-year-old Gamel will vie for playing time in an overcrowded outfield jumble that is lacking in proven players. Eddie Rosario is the only lock to see time in the Cleveland outfield this year after agreeing to a one-year deal worth $8MM not long ago. Oscar Mercado will surely get a chance to put his awful 2020 season behind him, and if he looks anywhere near his excellent 2019 form, he should be the everyday center fielder.
Other options on the 40-man roster for Cleveland include Jordan Luplow, Jake Bauers, Bradley Zimmer and Daniel Johnson. Luplow, as the only right-handed hitter of the bunch (including Gamel) may have the inside track based on handedness and the fact that he decimated left-handed pitching at video-game-esque levels in 2019 before a 2020 decline.
Gamel brings a knack for drawing walks (10.8 percent over the past three years) to the competition, and he has experience at all three outfield slots. He’s best deployed in a corner, however, and his bat has tailed off considerably since a solid 2017-18 showing in Seattle that saw him bat .274/.335/.398 (102 wRC+). The Mariners traded Gamel to the Brewers after the 2018 campaign, and his strikeout rate in Milwaukee has soared as his overall production has waned
In 483 plate appearances as a Brewer, Gamel batted .245/.331/.381. The batting line looks somewhat similar to his Seattle output, but it came in a more hitter-friendly setting at a time when offense was on the rise throughout the league. Gamel’s strikeout rate also ballooned from 21 percent in Seattle to just shy of 30 percent in Milwaukee, which surely didn’t leave the Brewers feeling great about giving him a raise via arbitration.
If Gamel wins a spot on the Indians’ roster this spring, he’ll remain controllable through the 2022 season via arbitration.
Can do a lot worsem
Big day for AAA.
Gamel will get a lot of starts and i’d place him as 3rd best option after Rosario and Mercado.
Good job guys. Good response to the Benintendi news
Actually I thought they might be a fit for Benintendi , for Mercado (a real CF with bounce back potential) and some spare parts Maybe Jake Bauer; Sox need a 1B (Bauer’s terrible in the OF) and he’s another one who never lived up to the hype. And they could have crisscrossed those PTBNL-types.
But apparently there wasn’t any interest.
If I were the Tribe, I’d take Eddie Rosario over Benintendi.
ditto
So the Tribe has Mike Trout and Mookie Betts occupying the other 2 OF spots?
I would take Rossario over Bene too…but it would be better to have both….
Not every OF’er can play every OF spot though. Benintendi’s best spot appears to be LF, same with Rosario. You could stick Benintendi is CF.. but if you are looking for a bounce back season from a young CF’er, why give up prospects and pay for Benintendi when you have Mercado? Benintendi definitely has more upside with the bat but Mercado seems to have enough offensive potential and better defensive skills.
Good points. And I agree, Mercado will bounce bat to be at least an average offense guy. Put that together with the defense, and it’s a pretty valuable player.
Steve Adams, Josh Naylor may be in the outfield mix as well so his name ought to be listed in the article. If he is in the OF mix and not at 1B, Naylor will play and be in the lineup.
In my opinion, there is no bad minor league signing. If it works, great. If not, no harm done.
Ha, I read this as Steve Adams was also an option in the outfield
My first thought was, good for him!
I was like WTF is Steve Adams and when did they sign him! Then I was like please God, let him be able to hit a baseball!
Good signing for the Tribe. was hoping my Birds would scoop him up as a depth piece
Solid pick up. The Indians have to be the odds on favorite now to win the Central. Their pitching staff is the best in all of baseball
Looks like it’ll be him and Johnson for one of the corner spots. and I guess this means whatever slim chance there was of Tyler Naquin returning on a MiLB deal is all but 0% at this point.
Naquin had every opportunity to nail down a starting job with little competition, and he just never distinguished himself. I hope he gets a shot with another organization, but he clearly doesn’t fill the needs of the Tribe.
Naquin put up a bWAR of 1.5 in 89 games in 2019. His problem is more of staying health than performance. I feel he (like many others) pressed too much last year when he went into a slump, because he knew he had limited opportunities to turn it around.
Yeah, I think the Tribe would be open to having Naquin back on a minors deal.. but he can probably find a better opportunity elsewhere and might benefit from a change of scenery.
It’s a nice pickup for Cleveland. Ben Gamel has proven to be a nice 4th OF type and he’s actually been better vs LHP’s over his career. Cleveland is a wonderful landing spot for him. Having said that, Gamel is also much better in the first half of a season. Maybe the club looks to move him at the deadline. I was a big fan of Ben’s older brother Mat Gamel and thought he would have a much better career. Even owned him in a couple of expert NL-only leagues. During 2013 spring training, Mat Gamel retore his surgically repaired ACL and missed the entire season. That effectively ended his career.
This guy stinks! We ran him out of the Bronx so fast his head is still spinning. Ahahahaha!
Not an exciting pickup, but Gamel is actually an upgrade over most of CLE’s options in the OF. Shouldn’t be too difficult for him to make the opening day roster given the general lack of talent of his competition.
Oh boy, yet another piece of middling garbage to add to the existing pile of middling garbage…how about instead of signing 6 league castoffs you just sign one or two actual producers. This is why the tribe has the new longest championship drought and will remain there.
I really liked Gamel when he was here in Seattle. The dude is a gamer. Wouldn’t be surprised if he bounces back.
Gamel can make the team as a 4th Outfielder since he can play all three spots. Rosario is set in LF and Mercado in CF, RF is the spot up for grabs. I think its Franmil Reyes, Josh Naylor, and Bobby Bradley that are all tied together between 1B (Naylor/Bradley), RF (Naylor/Reyes) and DH (all three)
Add the Shaggy DA to the Cleveland OF mix
Another 4th OF type that doesn’t move the needle. Keep throwing OF garbage at the wall and see what sticks. At least they signed Rosario, because other than that they keep rolling out young OFs that showed nice glimpses in their 1st MLB action, get hurt and then never get back to it.
I saw Daniel Johnson play at Columbus and was impressed by his speed and his arm. He has a little pop in his bat too. I would love to see him get a chance and make the Indians big league club. I think the Indians (and other teams) should be thinking about becoming more of a contact-hitting club, working on getting on base and moving base runners instead of swinging for the fences with strikeout numbers to match, especially if the ball is going to be somewhat deadened this year (I hope it leads to less reliance on the home run and more action on the bases this year…this strikeout/home run fascination baseball has had for the last 10 years or more is not interesting to watch).