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Twins Surveying Market For Catching Upgrades

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The Twins are among the teams that are “aggressively digging” into the market for catching upgrades, reports ESPN’s Buster Olney in his daily blog (Insider subscription required and recommended). Olney notes that Minnesota may prove to be a landing spot for free agent Jason Castro, adding that there’s an expectation within the industry that Castro will receive at least a three-year deal. As of last week, Castro was said to have offers from three AL clubs, and the Twins were rumored to be reconvening with his reps sometime this week, perhaps to make an offer of their own.

Olney notes that Castro excels at pitch-framing, and new Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey comes from an Indians organization that heavily emphasized that skill. I noted as much when previewing the Twins’ winter in MLBTR’s Offseason Outlook series, and Castro does indeed fit that mold quite well. It’s also perhaps telling that Kurt Suzuki, who has been the Twins’ primary catcher for the past three seasons despite consistently poor framing marks, seemingly drew little interest from the Indians following Yan Gomes’ injury. Cleveland continued to deploy the light-hitting Roberto Perez as its primary backstop due largely to his proficiency in stealing extra strikes.

Of course, Castro is hardly the only option available to the Twins. The free-agent market also offers options like Matt Wieters and Wilson Ramos, and Minnesota could also look to buy low on San Diego’s Derek Norris, who had a down year at the plate but excelled at getting extra strike calls for his pitchers. New York’s Brian McCann is widely known to be available in trades, but the Twins hardly seem to be in a position to take on a significant portion of McCann’s deal and surrender prospects in order to acquire him from the Bronx. Plus, given the team’s MLB-worst finish in 2016, McCann probably wouldn’t be keen on waiving his no-trade clause to approve a deal there.

Catching is merely one area of need for the Twins, but it’s a glaring one that could also benefit their justifiably maligned pitching staff. Minnesota catchers hit just .249/.295/.378 this past season, with the bulk of that offense coming from Suzuki, who is now a free agent. John Ryan Murphy, acquired this time last November with the hope that he could become the team’s long-term option behind the plate, took a massive step back and batted just .146/.193/.220 in 90 MLB plate appearances in addition to a similarly discouraging .236/.286/.323 in 290 Triple-A PAs. Journeyman Juan Centeno posted a respectable .261/.312/.392 line in 192 PAs but comes with little track record and drew very negative marks in most defensive categories.

Jason Castro Reportedly Has Offers From Three AL Clubs

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1:13pm: The Twins did meet with Castro’s representation during the GM Meetings this week, tweets Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (via Twitter), though the two sides only discussed “general needs and wants” at the time. Berardino adds that the Twins and Castro agreed to “reconvene” next week.

11:27am: Free-agent catcher Jason Castro is already weighing offers from at least three American League clubs, reports Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link), who also notes that the market for catchers is beginning to heat up. While Passan doesn’t specify which clubs have extended offers to the Stanford product and former No. 10 overall pick, there are multiple clubs in the AL that could certainly use catching help. The Astros are known to want Castro back, while the Angels, White Sox, Orioles, Rays and Twins are among Houston’s AL rivals that could look to pick up some help behind the plate.

Castro, 29, posted a .210/.307/.377 batting line with 11 home runs in 2016 — sub-par production relative to the league-average hitter but right in line with the park-adjusted output of a league-average catcher. While he was an All-Star with Houston in 2013 and looked to have enjoyed a breakout season (.276/.350/.485, 18 home runs, 35 doubles), his bat has regressed quite a bit since that time. While some clubs are undoubtedly tantalized by the upside of Castro once again reaching this height, he’ll play the bulk of next season at age 30, so teams also must be cognizant of the fact that it could simply be an outlier.

If a team were able to find a sufficient platoon partner for Castro and heavily limit his exposure to left-handed pitching, there’s reason to believe that his overall performance would increase. Castro hit .231/.331/.426 and launched 10 of his 11 home runs against right-handed pitching in 2016 but floundered at a .149/.237/.241 clip against fellow lefties. That’s been a trend throughout his career, as evidenced by a .247/.328/.424 slash line when holding the platoon advantage and an ugly .190/.249/.287 line against southpaws.

Though he may not be more than an average bat for a catcher, he does excel when it comes to pitch framing — a trait that is becoming increasingly important to front offices around the game. Castro trailed only Buster Posey and Yasmani Grandal as the best framing catcher in baseball, according to Baseball Prospectus, and he’s consistently been among the top framers in each of the past three seasons. He’s seen some fluctuations in terms of halting stolen base attempts, throwing out a career-best 36 percent of potential thieves in 2015 but sandwiching that between a pair of below-average seasons. Overall, he’s prevented 26 percent of the attempts against him in his career — about two percent below the league average in that time.

Though Castro has his flaws, his solid numbers against right-handed pitching and excellent framing skills landed him 29th on MLBTR’s Top 50 free agent list with a projection of two years and $15MM. I’ll note, however, that I’m among the most bullish on Castro among the MLBTR staff and do think he has a chance at landing a three-year pact.

Offseason Outlook: Minnesota Twins

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MLBTR is publishing Offseason Outlooks for all 30 teams. Click here for the other entries in this series.

After a promising 2015 season that led many to believe the Twins’ lengthy stay in the AL Central cellar had reached its conclusion, nearly everything that could go wrong for Minnesota did in 2016. The Twins lost 103 games, prompting baseball’s most loyal ownership group to move on from GM Terry Ryan along the way. A new front office regime will look to guide the team back to prominence in the AL Central.

Guaranteed Contracts

Arbitration Eligible Players (service time in parentheses; salary projections via MLB Trade Rumors)

Free Agents

Other Financial Commitments

  • Ricky Nolasco: $5MM paid to Angels through 2019 ($4MM for 2018 salary plus $1MM buyout of 2019 option)

Twins depth chart; Twins payroll information

The decision to move on from Terry Ryan was a fairly stunning development for the Twins this summer, as Ryan was one of just three general managers that the notoriously loyal Twins had employed dating back to 1985. Minnesota has been perceived as one of the most traditional organizations in the game, which made the hiring of 33-year-old Derek Falvey as the team’s new top baseball executive a significant departure from the status quo. Joining Falvey will be longtime Rangers assistant GM Thad Levine, who’ll receive a titular promotion to GM but still serve as second in command in his new organization. They’ll be complemented by longtime Twins AGM Rob Antony, who served as interim GM following Ryan’s departure but will return to his previous post following the new hires. At their introductory press conference, Falvey and Levine spoke about building out the club’s analytics department as well as the entire front office staff.

There are any number of issues facing the Twins’ new leadership team, though they won’t need to find a manager, as Paul Molitor will return for his third year on the job at the behest of owner Jim Pohlad. The Twins will be looking for a new hitting coach, though, after firing Tom Brunansky from that role earlier this week.

Beyond that, the first order of business will be to determine whether the club needs to embark on a total reset and further prolong what has already been a lengthy residence in the American League Central cellar (minus a one-year flirtation with a Wild Card spot in 2015). Falvey, perhaps unsurprisingly, didn’t commit to a clear direction during his introduction to the Twin Cities, instead speaking somewhat vaguely about a desire to deliver a “championship-caliber” baseball team, focusing on the long-term health of the organization and keeping an open mind to all scenarios.

Reading between the lines a bit, Falvey did praise the work that the previous regime had done in compiling a nice core of young talent on the position-player side of the spectrum, implying what anyone who has followed the Twins even remotely already knew: the pitching staff is in need of a major overhaul. Outside of Ervin Santana, Minnesota’s rotation is rife with uncertainty.

Former first-round pick Kyle Gibson took a marked step back in 2016 and dealt with shoulder injuries. Phil Hughes underwent thoracic outlet syndrome surgery this summer and hasn’t looked anywhere close to his 2014 breakout in either of the past two seasons. Hector Santiago was acquired to be an upgrade over Ricky Nolasco, but he regressed immediately upon joining the club and posted a 5.58 ERA in 61 innings with the Twins. Young right-hander Jose Berrios, lauded as a top 25 prospect by most pundits, was shelled for an 8.02 ERA in 58 innings, and sophomore Tyler Duffey followed up a terrific rookie effort with a 6.43 ERA in 133 innings (albeit with considerably more promising peripherals).

In the bullpen, Glen Perkins made just two appearances before a shoulder injury ended his season, while starter-turned-setup-man Trevor May dealt with back problems and turned in a poor season of his own after showing great promise in 2015. Veteran setup man Kevin Jepsen pitched so poorly that the Twins released him. Hard-throwing relief prospects J.T. Chargois and Pat Light (acquired from Boston this summer) both struggled in the Majors. Rookie left-hander Taylor Rogers was a bright spot all year, though he wilted in September.

Whatever course the Twins set this offseason, it’s clear that some rotation additions are needed. The team does have another MLB-ready arm at Triple-A in the form of Adalberto Mejia (acquired from the Giants in the Eduardo Nunez trade), while 2014 first-rounder Tyler Jay and 2013 fourth-rounder Stephen Gonsalves had nice years in the minors. But given the rampant uncertainty that permeates their staff, the Twins need additional innings. It wouldn’t be prudent for Minnesota to ink one of the top starters and allocate tens of millions of dollars at mid-rotation arms as they so frequently did in recent offseasons, so look for lower-cost alternatives. Left-hander Derek Holland saw his option declined by the Rangers and is obviously a very known commodity to new GM Thad Levine, for instance, as is right-hander Colby Lewis (in whom the Twins had interest when he was first returning to MLB from Japan).

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Twins Rumors: Dozier, Ervin, Bullpen, Perkins

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Twins second baseman Brian Dozier drew trade interest from multiple teams at this week’s GM Meetings, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Morosi. That’s hardly a surprise, considering Dozier finished the season with 42 home runs on a last-place team and is controlled cheaply ($15MM total) for two more seasons. While many rightly tout Dozier’s preposterous second half — he hit 28 home runs and slashed .291/.344/.646 in 72 games following the All-Star break — the 29-year-old has somewhat quietly been playing at a high level for quite some time, averaging 3.5 fWAR and 3.7 rWAR per season from 2013-15. The St. Paul Pioneer Press’ Mike Berardino noted earlier this week that the lack of teams with obvious holes at second base might make it difficult for new Twins CBO Derek Falvey and GM Thad Levine to extract maximum value in a Dozier trade, but it’s still not a shock to see some teams kick the tires.

A few more notes on the Twins…

  • Berardino spoke to Falvey and Levine about the likely trade interest that the Twins will receive in right-hander Ervin Santana this winter, and the new Minnesota front office duo didn’t sound especially anxious to move him. “I think we look at him as the anchor of our starting rotation and certainly something we want to build around,” said Levine of Santana, who is owed $28MM over the next two seasons and has a club option for 2019 on his contract as well. “…We think (Santana) is one of the most attractive pitchers that could be in consideration, but we view him as the No. 1 starter on our team. That’s an area we’re trying to build, not subtract from.” Berardino spoke to execs from other teams that said the Twins haven’t been aggressively marketing Santana in trades.
  • Also via Berardino (Twitter links), the Twins met with agent Casey Close of Excel Sports Management this week and discussed several of Excel’s free agents, including Joba Chamberlain and possibly fellow right-handed relievers Joe Smith and Shawn Tolleson. Both Chamberlain and Smith pitched with the Indians while Falvey was a member of the team’s front office, and Levine of course is quite familiar with Tolleson, who spent the past three seasons with the Rangers. The Twins are almost certainly casting a wide net when looking at free-agent relievers, so it’s probably early to read too heavily into that trio of relievers. As can be seen in MLBTR’s Agency Database, Excel also reps free agents Alex Avila, Aaron Barrett, Jerry Blevins, Aaron Crow and Brian Matusz. Additionally, Dexter Fowler, Neil Walker, Steve Pearce and Colby Rasmus are all Excel clients, too, although there’s less of a fit in Minnesota for that group.
  • Twins closer Glen Perkins, who made just two appearances this season before hitting the disabled list and eventually requiring shoulder surgery, is about four and a half months through what is expected to be a nine-month rehab process, the left-hander tells Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Perkins tried to rehab the injury for three months before ultimately going under the knife and having screws inserted into the labrum of his left shoulder. Perkins conceded that given his age (34 in March) and the severity of the surgery, he’s not sure if he’ll recover all of his velocity, but he expects to be competitive next year and hopes to remain with the Twins beyond his current contract. (Perkins is set to earn $6.5MM next year and has a $6.5MM option for the 2018 season.) “I see myself being a part of this organization for a lot longer than my contract,” he said.
  • Also of note from Miller’s column, assistant GM Rob Antony offered praise for the job that right-hander Brandon Kintzler, who inked a minor league deal with the Twins last winter, did upon stepping into the ninth inning out of necessity in 2016. However, Antony suggested that the organization isn’t necessarily expecting Kintzler to reprise that role in 2017. “I’m not sure we see him as a closer,” said Antony, who also acted as the interim GM prior to the hiring of Falvey and Levine. “I don’t think we’ve penciled in anybody.” That would suggest that the Twins could potentially lure a bullpen arm to Minnesota by offering a chance to compete with Perkins and Kintzler for the ninth-inning job.

Twins Outright Alex Wimmers

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  • The Twins outrighted right-hander Alex Wimmers, as Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press tweets. Wimmers threw his first 17 1/3 major league innings last year, putting up a 4.15 ERA with 14 strikeouts and 11 walks. In his 56 2/3 Triple-A frames on the year, he worked to a 3.97 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9.

Twins Notes: Jason Castro, Veteran Additions, Brian Dozier

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  • The Twins have expressed interest in catcher Jason Castro as the offseason gets underway, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press reports. Minnesota’s new-look front office will sit down with Castro’s representatives tomorrow at the GM Meetings, per the report. The 29-year-old Castro is a well-regarded pitch framer who delivers some power from the left side, though his limited on-base ability saps much of his offensive value. There figure to be quite a few teams with interest in the veteran backstop, as a number of organizations will be looking to shore up their mix behind the plate.
  • As the Twins seek to build around a core of young talent that is largely already in place, the organization hopes to find some veteran pieces to supplement that group, Phil Miller of the Star Tribune writes. Levine spoke of the need for “clubhouse ambassadors,” explaining that elder statesmen help get the best out of a team’s in-prime players. Precisely how this interest will be manifested in the team’s offseason plans remains to be seen, and major splashes can probably be ruled out, but it seems that Minnesota could look to supplement its roster via free agency.
  • While Brian Dozier represents an excellent trade chip for the Twins, at least in theory, Berardino explains that it may not be as easy to achieve value for him as might be expected. Chief baseball officer Derek Falvey and GM Thad Levine both discussed the team’s best player in 2016, noting that despite his monster season, the second base position is well-stocked leaguewide. While there would certainly be interest in a player who Levine says is viewed “with a ton of respect” by the incoming brass, the Twins may not have an opportunity to start a bidding war for his services in hopes of finding an overwhelming return.

Notes On Greg Holland’s Showcase

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Free agent righty Greg Holland took the hill for scouts yesterday as he sets the stage for his return to action. The former Royals closer missed all of 2016 after undergoing Tommy John surgery, and he’ll play an interesting role in the market with multiple big-payroll clubs among those seeking power arms at the back of their respective bullpens. Despite the long injury layoff, MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes rates Holland 23rd in earning power among free agents, noting that a wide variety of organizations could pursue him. Joel Sherman of the New York Post covered the showcase, and we’ve also heard additional reports about which teams were represented.

Here’s the latest:

  • The most important aspect of the appearance was Holland’s health, and Sherman writes that scouts came away feeling optimistic in that regard after seeing 35 pitches. Though the typically fireballing righty sat in the 89 to 90 mph range with his fastball, he’s obviously still building up arm strength. One scout explained that Holland worked with “good extension” in showing off his heater and ballyhooed slider, suggesting he’s ready to continue working back to his prior form.
  • Agent Scott Boras argued that his client, who’ll soon turn 31, represents a great value for teams unwilling or unable to sign top closers Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen, and Mark Melancon. He predicted a multi-year deal, with a two-year arrangement laden with incentives possibly making sense for all involved. It remains to be seen just how much cash teams will be willing to promise Holland, who had faltered in 2015 while pitching through the elbow problems that ultimately resulted in surgery. But the upside is undeniable: from 2011 through 2014, he compiled 256 1/3 innings of 1.86 ERA pitching with 12.6 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9.
  • All told, about sixty scouts were on hand to watch, says Sherman, with about 18 clubs putting eyes on the righty. We had previously heard that the Giants, Red Sox, Rangers, and Yankees would be joined by the Twins in attendance. Sherman notes that GM Bobby Evans and a top scouting exec were on hand for the closing-needy Giants, with the Yankees also sending top talent evaluators. He also lists the Dodgers, Blue Jays, and Phillies as organizations that sent reps. The Royals, too, were watching their former hurler, MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan tweets, as were the division-rival Tigers, per MLB.com’s Jason Beck (Twitter link). And the two top NL East clubs — the Nationals and Mets — were also intrigued enough to send scouts, according to Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post (via Twitter) and ESPNNewYork.com’s Adam Rubin.

Twins Introduce Derek Falvey, Thad Levine

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It’s been an uncharacteristically jarring few months for the Twins organization. In the midst of just the second 100-loss season in the post-D.C. history of the franchise, the Twins parted ways with longtime executive Terry Ryan, breaking with their usual pattern of organizational continuity. Months later, they officially have two key new executives in place, and on Monday, they introduced their new hires, Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey and GM Thad Levine, to the Minnesota media.

The Twins’ reputation for loyalty is a big reason why jobs with the organization are coveted in the industry, Levine said at today’s press conference. “People all over the game would like to work for the Twins,” Levine said. “But part of that loyalty from ownership means that it’s perceived as a difficult organization to get into as well.”

Twins CEO Jim Pohlad admitted to having virtually nothing to do with the Levine hire. “I had not met Thad until last night,” Pohlad said. “It was Derek’s entire decision to hire Thad, and we couldn’t be happier.” Pohlad added that he wouldn’t stand in the way of Falvey’s need to add resources to beef up the team’s analytics department, which currently is a three-person operation.

Falvey and Levine, along with as longtime assistant GM Rob Antony, will head out Monday evening to the general manager’s meetings in Arizona. If that seems a bit sudden, it’s because it is. The Twins had to wait to formalize hiring Falvey until his Indians were eliminated from the playoffs, per a handshake agreement between the two clubs. When that took seven games — plus a rain delay — to materialize, it meant the timing would naturally be a bit hurried.

Falvey said he wasn’t too worried about that, even if it would be a bit of a crash course over the next few days up to and after free agency formally opens on Tuesday. In his mind, it’s going to be good for the three minds to converge upon the offseason together, as he can bring the best of his information from the Indians organization, Levine the same from the Rangers and Antony from the Twins to blend it all into what ends up being their offseason path.

Falvey joins the Twins from the Indians organization, where he was third in command behind team president Chris Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff. Falvey joined the Indians in November 2007, and ascended quickly before settling in for the last year as the assistant general manager. 

Levine joins the Twins from the Rangers organization, where he’d spent more than a decade working under current GM Jon Daniels. Levine started in baseball with a brief stint with the Dodgers before joining the Rockies full-time in 1999, ultimately becoming Senior Director of Baseball Operations. 

There’s no question addressing the pitching staff will be paramount to whatever path Falvey and Levine take this offseason, and they’re keenly aware of it. The Twins ranked last in starting pitching ERA (5.39), and the bullpen wasn’t much better (4.63, 26th). With little in the way of MLB-ready pitching in the pipeline (considering the struggles of Jose Berrios and the relative lack of certainty with Stephen Gonsalves and Kohl Stewart), Falvey said he’s aware the team is going to have to get creative in supplementing the pitching staff.

“With pitching, I think you want to explore every avenue and opportunity to add talent,” Falvey said. “Whether that’s being opportunistic in the free agent market, or through trades, or through unique development philosophies, which I think are things that we will apply moving forward, there’s no one way to attack that. This year’s free agent market is a little lean on the pitching side, so I think we have to explore every opportunity that we have to develop the players we have internally, and figure out what it is that we need to do to develop the strengths into useful pieces at the major league level.”

Part of working on the pitching staff will be evaluating players in-house to determine what assets the club has to move around to acquire pitching in addition to what it might find on the market. Falvey wasn’t prepared to go down that road mere minutes into his tenure, but he did suggest the team would search high and low, internally and externally, to revamp the club’s woebegone pitching staff.

“I think we’ll spend time over the next week in Arizona to dig in and talk to other teams about needs and fits and what the landscape looks like for this offseason,” Falvey said. “We will commit to being collaborative in our approach to pitching development. It’s something I feel very strongly about. Utilizing different resources to help us develop the current pitchers that are on the staff and the players coming up through the minor leagues. We wouldn’t shut out any avenue to acquire or develop a player, and I expect that will be a slight change from how we’ve operated here, but I look forward to leading that.”

Falvey’s vision isn’t limited to the pitching side, though it can be easy to focus on that part. Not only are the Twins coming off an incredible run of subpar pitching — including carrying an MLB-worst K/9 every year from 2011-15 — but the Indians are coming off the seventh-best ERA in baseball. Beyond that, the Indians found some of their best pitchers in unlikely places. Corey Kluber came in the Jake Westbrook trade and was far from an instant success. The same can be said of Carlos Carrasco, who came over in the Cliff Lee deal with the Phillies and needed multiple years and even a stint in the bullpen to find his way. Mike Clevinger, who is one of the team’s more promising young pitchers, arrived in a deal for a broken-down Vinnie Pestano. That sort of resourcefulness, if Falvey can duplicate it in Minnesota, will only serve to make the search for pitching more interesting for Twins fans.

“The goal here is straightforward and measurable,” Falvey said. “It’s to build a sustainable and championship-caliber team and organization that Twins fans across Twins Territory will be proud of. Thad and I know there are no shortcuts to getting there. We intend to relentlessly identify, pursue and advance top-performing people, cultivate world-class process and build a culture that’s collaborative and transparent to achieve our goals.”

Falvey didn’t stop there, as he promised wide-sweeping changes to the “Twins Way,” which is such a key phrase that the organization made it the address when they opened Target Field at “1 Twins Way” in downtown Minneapolis.

“The Twins Way will be to thrive together,” Falvey promised at the outset of the conference. “That’s important to me. Both Thad and I have grown and experienced a measure of success within organizational cultures that understand the value in creating balanced systems, designing, implementing and evaluating processes and rewarding hard work and professional character, both on and off the field. We will root our decision making in evidence-based practices, both subjective and objective in nature, which means a commitment to understanding the metrics, but always making human decisions. That will never change. There is no substitute for the people and the input from our senior leadership group.”

Twins To Attend Greg Holland Showcase

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  • The Twins will have representatives at Greg Holland’s showcase tomorrow, 1500 ESPN’s Darren Wolfson reports (Twitter link).  The Giants, Rangers, Yankees and Red Sox will also have scouts on hand at Holland’s showcase, while the Royals are also known to have interest in a reunion with their former closer and will probably also have personnel on hand.  Holland missed all of 2016 recovering from Tommy John surgery, though he is already drawing a lot of attention from both contenders and rebuilding clubs like Minnesota as an intriguing bounce-back candidate.
  • The Twins are expected to heavily expand the baseball operations department under Derek Falvey and Thad Levine, La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes.  Minnesota had just 15 people working in baseball ops last year, as per the team’s press guide, while other teams had almost twice as many personnel working in a wide variety of roles.  As you might expect given Falvey and Levine’s background with modern statistical analysis, the Twins’ analytics department is expected to receive particular attention.

Indians Name Co-Assistant General Managers

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Indians president Chris Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff have decided it’s going to take two executives to replace former assistant GM Derek Falvey, who became the Twins’ chief baseball officer after the World Series. The American League champions promoted Carter Hawkins and Matt Forman to co-assistant GMs on Friday, Chernoff announced (via Jordan Bastian of MLB.com).

“I don’t expect we’ll fill [Falvey’s role] exactly the same way, but Carter Hawkins and Matt Forman will be promoted to assistant general managers. Carter, who had been director of player development, will continue to oversee our player development,” said Chernoff.

Hawkins, whom the Indians hired in 2008, became their player development director in 2014. He oversaw the Tribe’s farm system in that role, which will continue to be the case in his new position, per Bastian.

This is the second promotion in less than a year for Forman, who took over as the Indians’ director of baseball operations last Nov. 20 when Falvey moved up to assistant GM. Prior to joining the Indians in 2013, Forman worked for Baseball America.

“Matt, who had sort of come up through more of a scouting background, will oversee a lot of our scouting and acquisition processes — international, professional — and continue to be involved in the amateur stuff,” Chernoff stated. “And then, both guys will be part of our leadership team with all personnel, staff development and other initiatives.”

It doesn’t appear the AL Central rival Twins will force Cleveland to undergo more front office changes during the offseason, as Antonetti said Friday that he doesn’t expect Falvey to hire away any Indians execs. Falvey already tabbed a GM earlier in the week in former Rangers assistant Thad Levine.

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