Indians To Sign Blake Parker
Free-agent reliever Blake Parker is signing a non-guaranteed deal with the Indians, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. Parker could earn around $2.5MM if he hits the incentives on the contract.
Based on the production the 35-year-old right-hander has put up throughout his career, he seems like a solid bet to earn a season-opening spot in Cleveland’s bullpen. Dating back to his 2012 debut, Parker has pitched for six major league teams (Cubs, Yankees, Mariners, Angels, Twins and Phillies), with which he has combined for a 3.52 ERA/3.25 SIERA across 301 2/3 innings. While Parker doesn’t throw especially hard – his fastball has typically clocked in around 92 mph – he has managed above-average strikeout and walk percentages of 27.7 and 7.9, respectively.
Parker only threw 16 innings with the Phillies last year, but he made them count, as he registered an impressive 2.81 ERA/3.39 SIERA. He did issue an alarming amount of walks (13.0 percent), but Parker somewhat offset his control issues with a lofty strikeout percentage (36.2).
Indians Sign Billy Hamilton
FEB. 12: Hamilton will make a $1MM salary and up to $950K in incentives if he gets to the majors, per Heyman.
FEB. 11: The Indians are nearing a contract with free-agent outfielder Billy Hamilton, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Daniel Alvarez Montes of El ExtraBase first reported the news, noting it’s a minor league contract.
It’s back to the state of Ohio for Hamilton, who played with the Reds from 2013-18. Although he has never been any kind of offensive threat, Hamilton had his best seasons in Cincinnati on the strength of a superlative combination of defense and base running. Hamilton hit a meager .245/.293/.333 in 2,736 plate appearances as a Red, but he succeeded on 277 of 340 stolen base tries (81 percent) and ranked in the top 10 of big league outfielders in Defensive Runs Saved (65) and Ultimate Zone Rating (45.5).
The 30-year-old played the previous two seasons with four different teams (Royals, Braves, Cubs and Mets), but his offensive numbers got even worse. Hamilton batted an ugly .210/.278/.270 with 28 steals over 389 PA, though he’ll nevertheless get an opportunity to earn a spot in a Cleveland outfield that finished last in the AL in fWAR (minus-0.9) in 2020. Hamilton joins Ben Gamel as the second minor league outfield addition of Thursday for the Indians.
Indians Sign Ben Gamel
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.
Indians “Not Interested In” Trading Jose Ramirez
With Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco gone to the Mets, speculation rose about Jose Ramirez‘s potential future with the Indians, as the AL MVP runner-up is one of the few players still drawing a significant salary on Cleveland’s roster. However, while teams have been in touch with the Tribe about Ramirez, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (subscription required) reports that “Cleveland is not interested in moving him.”
Ramirez is owed $9MM in 2021, the last guaranteed season of the five-year, $26MM extension he signed back in March 2017. He is also controlled through 2023 on a pair of club options that would pay Ramirez $11MM in 2022 ($2MM buyout and $13MM in 2023 (no buyout), with potential bonus clauses that could add another $1MM to each of those option years.
Even at the top potential price tag of $35MM over three years, Ramirez’s is obviously “one of baseball’s biggest bargains,” Rosenthal notes. As Ramirez enters his age-28 season with three top-three MVP finishes over the last four seasons, he would have easily scored more than $200MM if he had been a free agent even in this unusual offseason.
Given the nature of Cleveland’s payroll limitations, it isn’t out of the question that the Indians could explore moving Ramirez before his contract is up. But, Ramirez’s contract makes him far less of a trade chip than Lindor was, since Lindor never signed an extension and thus had a salary that rose considerably every year via the arbitration process. (By comparison’s sake, Ramirez will earn less over the next two seasons than the $22.3MM that Lindor will earn in 2021 alone.) Carrasco was also a bit more expensive, as well as older, and perhaps more expendable given the number of young starters Cleveland’s farm system has been able to generate for the MLB roster.
As evidenced by recent signings of Eddie Rosario and Cesar Hernandez, the Tribe is still planning to contend this season. Should the team stumble, it’s possible we could again hear some whispers of a Ramirez deal around the trade deadline, though the nature of Ramirez’s contract probably means the Indians would hang onto him for at least another full year, barring a broader change in organizational direction.
Indians Sign Eddie Rosario
FEB. 4: Cleveland has announced the signing. The deal also includes up to $600K in incentives, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.
JAN. 29, 8:01pm: It’s a one-year, $8MM deal, pending a physical, per Jon Becker of Roster Resource. The deal is done, Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com reports.
7:27pm: The Indians and free-agent outfielder Eddie Rosario are nearing an agreement, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tweets. Rosario is represented by Kyle Thousand of Roc Nation Sports.
If this deal goes through, it would keep Rosario in the American League Central, where he played with the Twins from 2015-20. Rosario was a three-time 20-home run hitter as a Twin who put up a .277/.310/.478 line over 2,830 plate appearances in their uniform, but the club nonetheless moved on from him after last season. While Minnesota could have kept the 29-year-old for a projected $8.6MM to $12.9MM via arbitration next season, it decided to non-tender him. Rosario then reportedly drew interest from at least a few teams (including the Red Sox, Giants and Brewers) before the Indians landed him.
Cleveland entered the offseason in obvious need of help in the grass, as its outfield finished last in the American League in fWAR with a minus-0.9 fWAR mark in 2020. Their most used holdovers – Oscar Mercado, Jordan Luplow, Josh Naylor and Bradley Zimmer – all endured subpar years, but there wasn’t much expectation the small-budget Indians would sign someone as high-profile as Rosario. They did, after all, start the winter by cutting ties with closer Brad Hand – who had an affordable $10MM option – and they said goodbye to face-of-the-franchise shortstop Francisco Lindor in a trade with the Mets three weeks ago.
Although this has largely been a lean offseason for Cleveland, the team has been busy this week, as it re-signed second baseman Cesar Hernandez before potentially landing Rosario. The latter’s a longtime left fielder who should be the Indians’ top option there, considering Luplow, Naylor and the rest of their choices at the position can’t match his resume.
Indians Re-Sign Mike Freeman To Minor League Deal
The Indians announced this morning that they’ve re-signed infielder Mike Freeman to a minor league pact and invited him to Major League Spring Training. Cleveland also inked righty DJ Johnson to a minor league deal and will bring him to Major League camp.
Freeman, 33, has spent the past two seasons in the Cleveland organization, working in a utility capacity and slashing a combined .270/.352/.377 in 256 plate appearances. He’s seen time at all four infield spots and in both outfield corners along the way, with the majority of his work coming at second base and at third base. While he doesn’t have much power, Freeman has a productive track record in Triple-A and a history of average or better walk rates. He could join Yu Chang in vying for a bench spot this spring.
Johnson, meanwhile, spent the 2020 season pitching in Japan between the Hiroshima Carp and the Rakuten Eagles. He had some struggles with the Carp but did pitch to a 3.07 ERA with a 16-to-6 K/BB ratio in 14 2/3 innings with the Eagles.
Prior to that NPB stint, Johnson saw big league action with the Rockies in 2018-19, logging a 4.88 ERA and 4.93 SIERA with average strikeout and walk rates but a 14.7 percent walk rate that was far too high for sustained success. Johnson has punched out a quarter of the minor league hitters he’s faced in his career, including exactly one third of the 453 hitters he’s faced in Triple-A.
Indians To Sign Bryan Shaw, Heath Hembree To Minors Deals
Former Indians reliever Bryan Shaw is returning to the team on a minor league contract with an invitation to major league spring training, Zack Meisel of The Athletic tweets. The Indians have also added fellow righty reliever Heath Hembree on a minors pact, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Hembree will earn a $1.25MM salary and could also make incentives if he gets back to the majors.
Now 33 years old, Shaw enjoyed his best seasons as an Indian from 2013-17. He was good for 60-plus innings per season then, totaling 358 2/3 in 378 appearances, and logged a 3.11 ERA/3.41 SIERA with a 22.5 percent strikeout rate and an 8.0 percent walk rate. Shaw parlayed that success into a three-year, $27MM guarantee with the Rockies, but his career has gone off the rails since then. He struggled mightily with the Rox and Mariners from 2018-20 and had been on the open market since October.
Hembree did well to prevent runs with the Red Sox from 204-19, but they traded him to the Phillies last August amid what was a rough season for the 32-year-old. He ended the campaign with 19 innings and a horrid 9.00 ERA (albeit with a much better 4.47 SIERA), after which the Phillies let him go.
Quick Hits: Indians, Payroll, Patton, Nationals, Catchers
The Indians did not budget enough money in 2021 to both re-sign Cesar Hernandez and add free agent Eddie Rosario. With those two completing the lineup, the Indians’ roster is more-or-less set with a payroll around $50MM, per Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com. Take this for what it is, but the Indians exceeded payroll just to get there. Owner Paul Dolan made an extra concession to allow the addition of Rosario. To their credit, he represents a somewhat major addition given their inability to field above-average offensive outfielders. Over the last two seasons, Rosario slashed .271/.305/.494 with 45 home runs over 821 plate appearances, good for a modest 105 wRC+. That Nolan was willing to stretch the payroll speaks volumes about how the Indians value Rosario’s fit in the lineup.
- Spencer Patton is throwing an improved change-up with the hopes of bringing three viable pitches out of the bullpen, per Robert Murray of FanSided. The 32-year-old right-hander led Nippon Professional Baseball with 57 appearances last season, which is no small feat to MLB teams aware of the perils in ramping up pitcher workloads in 2021. Patton’s numbers from Japan won’t blow you away, however, with a 4.92 ERA, respectable 28.1 percent strikeout rate, and slightly-concerning 11.7 percent walk rate. Patton will throw for teams again on February 2nd, with the Braves, Rays, Angels, Royals, Rangers, and Giants being among the teams to have shown some interest thus far.
- Pitching has long been the focus for the Nationals organization, but at the same time, they’ve lagged behind in the catching department, writes MASNSports.com’s Mark Zuckerman. Pedro Severino is the most prolific homegrown catcher with 105 games played for the organization – though he didn’t break out until joining the Orioles. Raudy Read or Tres Barrera are next in line to have an opportunity, but the recent signing of Alex Avila suggests GM Mike Rizzo isn’t ready to give either one too long of a look out of the blocks. Both Barrera and Read have served PED suspensions in the past, however, and Welington Castillo will also be in camp as a non-roster invitee.
Indians Re-Sign Cesar Hernandez
JAN. 29: The signing is official, per Zack Meisel of The Athletic. The club option is worth $6MM. There’s no buyout, according to Heyman.
JAN. 26, 1:21pm: Hernandez will earn $5MM, Heyman tweets.
9:12am: The two sides are in agreement on a deal, pending the completion of a physical, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman.
9:02am: The Indians are nearing a deal to re-sign free agent second baseman Cesar Hernandez, reports Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base. If completed, it’d be a one-year deal with a club option for a second season in 2022. Hernandez, an Octagon client, has left his winter league team in Venezuela in order to finalize the new contract, according to Alvarez.
The 30-year-old Hernandez spent the 2020 season as Cleveland’s primary second baseman after signing a one-year, $6.25MM deal last winter. That contract paid off nicely for the club, as Hernandez turned in a characteristically solid .283/.355/.408 batting line with three homers and an AL-best 20 doubles while playing in 58 of the 60 games during last year’s shortened slate. He also went 3-for-8 with another double in his tiny sample of postseason work.
Beyond his strong showing at the plate, Hernandez enjoyed an excellent year in the field. The eight-year big league veteran took home his first Gold Glove in 2020 after posting strong marks in Defensive Runs Saved (6), Ultimate Zone Rating (3.8) and Outs Above Average (4).
The Hernandez reunion will be the first move made by Cleveland this winter that actually adds to the payroll. The Indians have been largely focused on shedding as much salary as possible, having declined a $10MM option on Brad Hand — he recently agreed to a $10.5MM deal with the Nats — and traded both Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco to the Mets. Prior to the new agreement with Hernandez, the Indians were projected to carry a payroll of less than $40MM, which was far and away the lowest projected payroll in the game.
That said, an affordable deal for Hernandez could provide some indirect cost savings down the line. Cleveland picked up middle infielders Amed Rosario and Andres Gimenez from the Mets in that Lindor/Carrasco blockbuster, and if Gimenez spends even a few weeks in the minor leagues this year, his path to free agency would be pushed back from the 2025-26 offseason to the 2026-27 offseason. That surely isn’t the sole reason Cleveland brought Hernandez back — he’s a solid player at a reasonable price who can now be retained through 2022 — but starting the year with Rosario at short and Hernandez at second undeniably has some added appeal for that reason.
Final judgment on the Indians’ chances in 2021 will be reserved until we see what further additions (and/or subtractions) the team makes between now and Opening Day. But it’s clear that after trading away not only Lindor and Carrasco but also Mike Clevinger, Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer and buying out Hand’s option that the team is aiming for a radically lower payroll that will render it difficult to compete with an aggressive White Sox club and a Twins roster that has won consecutive division titles.
Reds Have Considered Amed Rosario
The Reds have considered a run at Indians shortstop Amed Rosario as an alternative to spending on the free-agent market, reports Mike Puma of the New York Post (Twitter link). MLB Network’s Jon Heyman hears the same, tweeting that while Cincinnati has maintained interest in Didi Gregorius, he might prove too expensive an option.
Cincinnati has rampantly slashed payroll this winter, non-tendering Archie Bradley and Curt Casali despite modest arbitration projections and dumping Raisel Iglesias‘ $9.125MM salary in a deal with the Angels. General manager Nick Krall has spoken of reallocating those resources, but to this point the club has yet to put that money back into the roster. Acquiring Rosario, who is owed just $2.4MM after avoiding arbitration earlier in the winter, would represent the team’s only addition to the payroll this offseason.
Puma reported last night that the Indians were receiving trade interest in Rosario, which likely caught some fans off guard given that Rosario was one of the pieces Cleveland received from the Mets in their Francisco Lindor/Carlos Carrasco blockbuster. However, Cleveland has also been slashing payroll this winter — and doing so on an even more extreme level. The Indians also acquired another MLB-ready option at shortstop in Andres Gimenez, who at this point is more highly regarded than Rosario.
It stands to reason that Cleveland could simply have acquired Rosario with an open mind — exploring the trade market for him but also content to carry him into the season. If he were to be flipped to another club, whatever players come back to Cleveland in return could in many ways be considered an extension of the franchise’s return for Lindor and Carrasco.
Still just 25 years old, Rosario was once regarded as one of MLB’s best overall prospects, but he’s yet to display much of that potential in the big leagues. He had a roughly league-average year at the plate in 2019 when he hit .287/.323/.432 with 15 homers and 19 steals, but his offense cratered in 2020. Overall, he’s a .268/.302/.403 hitter (89 wRC+) in more than 1500 big league plate appearances. Rosario was at one point considered an eventual plus defender, but to this point in his career he’s been 21 outs below average, per Statcast’s OAA mark, and has turned in a Defensive Runs Saved mark of -35 in 3306 innings.
Rosario is still young and controlled all the way through the 2023 season, so perhaps the Reds or another interested party believe they can help him tap into the ability that at one point led to Rosario ranking as a consensus top 10 prospect in all of baseball.