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Cleveland Indians 2018-2019 Offseason Outlook

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Asdrubal got $3.5 mil? Hell, I would've given him $4 mil to come in and play second or third while Jose mans the other spot.

.262/.316/.458 splits last year with 23 homers and 36 doubles? Shit, if we get that out of our last infield slot (assuming Lindor, Jose, Santana all start at the other spots), I'll be absolutely floored.

Production did fall off when he got moved to Philly though.
 
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Our offense will blend in a little with the putrid Central Division. I'm looking forward to a dominate year from the starting pitching with DL stints from Kluber and Cookie. Maybe we can see McKenzie during that time.

Our bullpen is still a sore spot. It was bad last year and we lost key names.

Until Cimber can strike somebody out, I don't know who's after Hand that I'm trusting.

I hope Chicago gets Machado, I would like a fun baseball year within the division, and itll be a win because the Yankees won't get him.
 
Sounds like $55m over 4 years for AJ Pollock from the Dodgers

Good player and certainly would have filled a need, but his age and injury history would have really worried me if the Indians had ponied up for him.
 
Real Deal said:
Our offense will blend in a little with the putrid Central Division. I'm looking forward to a dominate year from the starting pitching with DL stints from Kluber and Cookie. Maybe we can see McKenzie during that time.

Our bullpen is still a sore spot. It was bad last year and we lost key names.

Until Cimber can strike somebody out, I don't know who's after Hand that I'm trusting.

I hope Chicago gets Machado, I would like a fun baseball year within the division, and itll be a win because the Yankees won't get him.
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We have no clue what the youngsters will bring, Allen, Luplow, Bauers, etc to the table. We really only have a few bats that are established/you need to fear as an opponent right now. I don't doubt we will end up with a Melky Cabrera type of signing here within the next week or so.

A couple bullpen arms signed today (Strickland and Brach on one year deals). My guess is we are going to try and invite as many veterans as possible to make this ball club when it comes to the bullpen. I mean we are an attractive team overall to someone who wants to stay in the bigs when it comes to a bullpen arm and didnt get a big league offer. We don't have anyone who is established outside of Hand when it comes to the bullpen so the other 6 spots are truly up for grabs.



AJ Pollock though signed with the Dodgers,

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/01/dodgers-to-sign-a-j-pollock.html

12:50PM: The deal will pay Pollock $55MM over 2019-22, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reports (Twitter link). Pollock receives a player opt-out after the third season if he reaches a certain number of plate appearances. There is also a player option for a fifth season that pays Pollock $10MM in 2023, with a $5MM buyout. All told, Pollock stands to land a maximum of $60MM over a five-year span. Olney also notes that Pollock has passed his physical.

That is something the Indians could have matched in a sense in my mind. Though with him getting that much, the market really is in the Indians favor.
 
sportscoach said:
That is something the Indians could have matched in a sense in my mind. Though with him getting that much, the market really is in the Indians favor.
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No it isn’t.

Again, the 11 APY figure that Pollock just got would have been top 5 in terms of the contracts the Indians have ever given out to a free agent over the course of their history as a franchise.

If they’re ever going to spend 11 million or more on a player, it damn sure won’t be on someone with multiple health concerns and on the heels of a franchise record high payroll.

That’s something the Indians could have only matched in a dream world. If you’re looking for what they’re looking for as far as multi year deals go, look at the 5-8 million per year range. They aren’t going over that for external free agents this year.
 
BimboColesHair said:
No it isn’t.

Again, the 11 APY figure that Pollock just got would have been top 5 in terms of the contracts the Indians have ever given out to a free agent over the course of their history as a franchise.

If they’re ever going to spend 11 million or more on a player, it damn sure won’t be on someone with multiple health concerns and on the heels of a franchise record high payroll.

That’s something the Indians could have only matched in a dream world. If you’re looking for what they’re looking for as far as multi year deals go, look at the 5-8 million per year range. They aren’t going over that for external free agents this year.
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They could technically afford to match (I think they have 10-15 mil to play with if it makes sense and I don't doubt the Ownership would approve if the argument was strong enough), but no way I would want them to honestly cause of the injury issues he has had, and I think he is slightly overrated at the end of the day. If he has been 100% healthy and was putting up his 2015 numbers the last few seasons, I would have been not happy we didn't sign him, but I don't think he is that good of sign overall.

The biggest question, do you think Marwin would fall in your price range? I think we both agree on that is a target for the Indians.
 
Im not worried. I like the idea of moving forward and seeing what these younger guys can do. We need to know what we have. With Boston, Houston and the Yanks already have the other 3 playoff spots locked up, we have the ability to experiment a little. Id say its about 70% we win the division. If we are able to win and get these young guys some much needed time and experience, we can reevaluate after the season or maybe even in late July to see if we need to make some moves to make a step forward for the future. If its obvious that we suck and its not working, we can make the necessary moves for our future and let the Redsox, Astros and Yanks beat the hell out of each other and come back in a few seasons.
I get what they are doing and it makes sense to me.
 
JDailey23 said:
Im not worried. I like the idea of moving forward and seeing what these younger guys can do. We need to know what we have. With Boston, Houston and the Yanks already have the other 3 playoff spots locked up, we have the ability to experiment a little. Id say its about 70% we win the division. If we are able to win and get these young guys some much needed time and experience, we can reevaluate after the season or maybe even in late July to see if we need to make some moves to make a step forward for the future. If its obvious that we suck and its not working, we can make the necessary moves for our future and let the Redsox, Astros and Yanks beat the hell out of each other and come back in a few seasons.
I get what they are doing and it makes sense to me.
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With the rotation that we have, we will likely win the division since it is not strong and we will see Houston, Boston, New York and Oakland all trying to get the other three spots. (I would project A's and Boston as the Wild Card and we will get Houston or New York round one).

I just feel we cannot go into the season with a weakness in the pen and a weakness in the current lineup. One needs address in the off season I feel even if we only spend a few million to upgrade one or the other, I am honestly cool with that. We just need a setup type of guy or a Marwin. I don't think we need to do anymore than that right now.
 
I am not sure if Oakland's bullpen can carry their rotation across 162 games again next season, we will see.
 
JDailey23 said:
Im not worried. I like the idea of moving forward and seeing what these younger guys can do. We need to know what we have. With Boston, Houston and the Yanks already have the other 3 playoff spots locked up, we have the ability to experiment a little. Id say its about 70% we win the division. If we are able to win and get these young guys some much needed time and experience, we can reevaluate after the season or maybe even in late July to see if we need to make some moves to make a step forward for the future. If its obvious that we suck and its not working, we can make the necessary moves for our future and let the Redsox, Astros and Yanks beat the hell out of each other and come back in a few seasons.
I get what they are doing and it makes sense to me.
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My one main gripe is batting Lindor lead-off. I was all for it before 2019. I understand he had a million runs scored last season but that was with Brantley and EE behind him.

I can live with Allen, Zimmer, Naquin, Luplow, Bauers, but I need one of them leading off and being productive leading off.

Hope is Allen can become our lead-off guy.

Lindor and Jose should probably bat back to back and give the pitcher a migraine in doing so.

I feel like our current lineup doesn't compliment each other on paper. Our 3 best hitters are switch hitters. Our likely lead-off candidate not named Lindor is a switch hitter. Then we have all lefties who seem marginal but realistically they're young, and have potential. I also don't want to mix any of those lefties in between our top 3.

Allen
Lindor
Jose
Santana

That top 4 seems like my favorite.
 
Not sure I understand the need or want to put someone who hasn’t proven they can get on base yet in the leadoff spot.

Sort of defeats the purpose.
 
AZ_ said:
Not sure I understand the need or want to put someone who hasn’t proven they can get on base yet in the leadoff spot.

Sort of defeats the purpose.
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He's fast. And he has potential, or does he?

I'm not about batting Lindor leadoff after we lost 2 productive vets behind him.

If Allen gets on base, he's most likely going to score.
 
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