DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum MLB "Hot Stove League" thread

j/c...

The more I think about the Players getting on pass on signal steal the madder I get .. They are the game .. they [censored] in their own house !

The league and the players association basically reached a plea deal giving the players immunity if they cooperated.

j/c...

Oh I read that when it came out.. But the more I stewed on the pass they got , the madder I got ..

Interesting. Cincinnati has been making some moves over the past several months.

Per ESPN, its a 4 year $64M deal with a 1 year opt out.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28575397/sources-reds-agree-64m-deal-nick-castellanos

That seems like a pretty modest deal. I thought I had read that Castellanos was looking for a contract around $24-25M per year. Contracts for non-marquee type players seem to be leveling out. Indians might be able to sign Puig for $12-14M if they want him. If they don't want Puig, Cincy seems to have a logjam at the OF position, with Castellanos, Senzel, Aquino, Winker, Ervin, and Akiyama (just signed for $21M/3 yr out of Japan).

Would've loved to have got Castellanos. Indians never seemed interested.

Also...

And Then There Was One
By Jeff Todd | January 28, 2020 at 8:08am CDT

By definition, there’ll always be one final major free agent to come off the board. It’s a lonely spot, perhaps, but also one where the market is yours and yours alone. Things rarely shake out quite as might originally have been hoped, but neither does last-man-standing status mean the money has necessarily dried up. We saw two fairly large contracts handed out in the middle of the 2019 season, including a multi-year pact for Craig Kimbrel.

MLBTR’s top 50 list has been picked over rather thoroughly. There are three unsigned players, including a solid relief arm (Pedro Strop) and useful utilityman (Brock Holt). But if we’re being honest, there were others just off the list who could make roughly similar free agent cases. We predicted both players to receive fairly modest guarantees.

So with Nick Castellanos leaving the board yesterday, we can now official declare: this year, the Big Name Yet To Sign is Yasiel Puig. His days as a true star with the Dodgers are distant memories now, but Puig has mostly been productive outside of a poor stretch with the Reds to open the 2019 season. He hit about twenty percent above the league-average rate in the prior two campaigns and finished with a solid run late last year after being dealt to the Indians. Depending upon one’s preferred means of measuring and valuing defense, Puig was a 3-4 WAR player in 2017 and 2018. He’s only just turned 29; perhaps his downtick in 2019 was just a blip.

On the one hand, this isn’t much of a surprise. Much like the three other young corner outfielders on this year’s market, Puig was an awfully tough player to gauge. All the more so in his case … not only does Puig come with some performance questions, but he’s a notably eccentric player whose occasional hijinks may not be fully welcomed by all organizations. But this was hardly inevitable. Puig also has long looked like an intriguing buy-low candidate — one that a value-hunting team might well have targeted from the outset.

Whatever the background, we now have a much clearer picture of the Puig situation than when we predicted he’d take down a one-year, $8MM deal when the market opened. We’ve now seen Castellanos (four years, $64MM), Ozuna (one year, $18MM), and Avisail Garcia (two years, $20MM) set a market that had been ill-defined. And multiple teams have filled openings, of course, even beyond the clubs that inked those players (the Reds, Braves, and Brewers). The Diamondbacks and Marlins have installed multiple outfielders; the White Sox seem to have filled out their lineup.

But that’s not to say that it’s now all that obvious where Puig ought to land. The Tigers — our guess at the outset of the winter — still make sense for all the same reasons. But it’s also possible the club will prefer to preserve its roster flexibility to jump on some intriguing players that shake loose early in 2020. A return to the Indians still makes some amount of sense if the club elects to add back some salary. That the Cleveland org went out and got Puig last year adds to the plausibility.

There are other teams worth considering as possibilities. The Rangers have pursued a righty bat to join a lefty-heavy outfield mix, though whether they’ve got interest in Puig specifically isn’t clear. It’s wild to imagine it, but the Giants are certainly an on-paper fit for the same essential reasons that the Tigers are. You could argue that the Orioles should be as well, even if they already have a few guys on hand that they’d like to give a look to. And why not the Rockies? The club isn’t spending much, but could perhaps find a way to make one bet and could really use the upside. Puig’s right-handed bat would provide much-needed lineup balance.

And what about teams back-filling after trades? The Pirates could be involved in theory, though they’re mostly in need of center field capability and are surely wary of off-field (or on-field) shenanigans after a trying 2019 season. The Mariners previously dropped Domingo Santana and aren’t exactly laden with established talent. And hey, what about the Red Sox? If they end up dealing Mookie Betts, an upside play might be just the ticket.

If we consider timeshare possibilities, the Angels make some sense. The club needs to be willing to accept some risk to turn the corner. Puig could pair with Brian Goodwin while the club waits for Jo Adell to force his way up. The Marlins can still consider Puig as part of a revamped lineup mix, even if they aren’t really set up to install him as an everyday presence. If there’s still an avenue for the Rays to jump in on Puig, it’s a narrow one now that Jose Martinez and Randy Arozarena are on hand. But the Tampa Bay organization can surely figure a way to shift things around if it sees a chance to shoehorn in a value opportunity.

It takes some squinting and some balancing of tradeoffs even to imagine a fit for Puig. Just how specific teams feel about the polarizing player, and just what situation he prefers, will no doubt dictate the outcome. But there are plenty of theoretical possibilities.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/01/and-then-there-was-one.html

Is there a reason to feel good about the Cleveland Indians without lying?

By Terry Pluto, The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio – “When I stand in front of our team for the first time (in spring training), I won’t have to lie.”

Those words came from the mouth of Indians manager Terry Francona, who met with the media on Friday night.

Lie about what?

“When I say if we play the right way, we have a chance (to win),” said Francona. “Not everyone can say that.”

But why?

“We are talented enough so that when we do the things we’re supposed to, we have a chance to win," said Francona.

I asked Francona to explain.

“Any time you can pitch, it helps you sleep at night,” he said. “Does it mean we’ll win for sure? No. But we have a chance.”

For the second winter in a row, the focus of many in the media and fans has been on the Tribe cutting payroll.

This winter saw the trade of two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber to the Texas Rangers for rookie reliever Emmanuel Clase and journeyman outfielder Delino DeShields Jr.

The trade wasn’t 100 percent about money. The Indians love the 21-year-old Clase, whose average fastball is 99 mph. He had a 2-3 record and 2.31 ERA in 21 games for the Rangers in 2019.

Francona praised DeShields for his defense in center field.

FACING REALITY

But the Indians also were unloading Kluber, who will be paid $18 million in 2020.

“No one wanted to trade Corey Kluber,” said Francona. “Talk to Chris (Tribe president Chris Antonetti). Talk to Cherny (general manager Mike Chernoff). They didn’t want to trade Kluber.”

Payroll was a consideration. But Kluber pitched only seven games last season with a 2-3 record and a 5.80 ERA. Kluber fractured his arm when hit with a line drive. He tried to come back later in the season, but suffered an oblique injury. His last big league game was May 1.

At 33 and superbly conditioned, Kluber is a good candidate for a bounce-back season – even though he threw more than 203 innings every year from 2014-18.

But the Indians also were surprised about the lack of attractive offers for Kluber as other teams wondered if he could return to his elite form.

The Indians don’t want to overhype Clase, but they see the righthander as a future closer. Francona loves relievers and Clase is one of his reasons for being upbeat about 2020.

WHY OPTIMISTIC?

“Every team in our (AL Central) division has taken a serious step backwards after having success,” said Francona. “We haven’t taken a step back.”

Teams in the Central tend to contend for a few years, then fall back, slash payroll and lose big. It happened in Minnesota, Chicago and Detroit.

“We were disappointed about not making the playoffs last year,” said Antonetti. “But we did win 93 games. We were the first team to win 93 games and not make the playoffs in the wild card era (since 1994).”

Having to choose between a strong pitching staff or a powerful lineup, Francona will always go with the arms.

After praising what Kluber meant to the Indians, “it can’t be overstated,” Antonetti mentioned the Indians had another successful season while their star righthander was injured.

Antonetti talked about how All-Star Game MVP Shane Bieber and Mike Clevinger “are emerging as top of the rotation starters.” They are thrilled by 2019 American League Comeback Player of the Year Carlos Carrasco, who is healthy and winning his battle with leukemia.

Young starters such as Aaron Civale, Zach Plesac and Adam Plutko will compete for two spots in the rotation.

THE FRANCONA FACTOR

The Indians have had a winning record every year since Francona became manager in 2013. They’ve made the playoffs four times. They lost in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series.

That’s what haunts the franchise in the eyes of some fans – the Indians have won the most games in the American League in the last seven years, but no World Series.

The Indians are the most consistent, well-run franchise in town. They prize continuity.

“We believe it gives us a competitive advantage," Antonetti often says.

For all the criticism of the Dolan family’s modest payrolls, Antonetti and Chernoff have turned down chances to work for teams in larger markets.

“I don’t know I’d be doing this (managing) unless I was here,” said Francona. “It’s the people here... I don’t want to say they saved me, but they are people I care about and can trust.”

THE CHALLENGES

Francona won the World Series twice (2004, 2007) in Boston. He is likely to make the Hall of Fame as a manager. He’s won at least 90 games in 11-of-15 years managing the Tribe and Red Sox.

He knows the advantages of managing in a major market with a big payroll.

“There are some teams, when they make a poor (financial) decision, they can make it go away,” said Francona.

The Indians are not one of those.

“I’m not complaining about that,” he said. “We don’t go ‘woe is me.' Instead, it’s 'How are we going to figure it (the problem) out?’ That’s one of the first things you hear (in meetings). It allows me to even enjoy the challenges."

Antonetti and his top people work hard to “make sure everyone is pulling in the same direction.”

It’s part of the reason the Indians under Francona often start slow and finish strong. They have a .598 winning percentage after the All-Star break. The team makes trades and promotes players during the season to fill in holes.

At 60, Francona has dealt with significant health challenges over the years. He looked and sounded refreshed Friday night. Under contract through 2022, his commitment to the Tribe remains strong.

“Nothing is perfect," said Francona. "But when you take the positives and negatives... for me, the positives so far outweigh the other things. We are challenged, but I enjoy going through it with the people here.”

https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2020/02/...hout-lying.html

High, hard: Indians’ Clevinger takes aim at cheating Astros
By TOM WITHERS
https://apnews.com/9a0e32047da9dbf9a0145dafd45167b7

CLEVELAND (AP) — Indians pitcher Mike Clevinger doesn’t know exactly how he’ll react the next time he’s on the mound facing the Houston Astros.

They cheated, and he doesn’t like cheaters. On Friday night, he took aim at them.

“We’ll see,” he said. “It’ll be fun.”

Clevinger has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Astros since their sign-stealing scandal broke earlier this month and rocked baseball, leading to suspensions, managerial firings in Houston, Boston and New York, and blanketing the sport in a net of suspicion as spring training approaches.

Once the season begins, the Astros will be under more scrutiny and they might have to deal with some high, hard pitches.

“I think players will deal with it the way it should be across the league,” Clevinger said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a comfortable few ABs (at-bats) for a lot of those boys, and it shouldn’t be. They shouldn’t be comfortable.”

Asked what bothered him most about the scandal, Clevinger said, “Probably them accepting an award and cracking a joke about it without an apology.”

Clevinger, who went 13-4 last season for Cleveland, has long wondered about Houston’s hitters and their uncanny ability to hit tough pitches. He and former teammate Trevor Bauer raised concerns in the past about the Astros, and the revelation that they were using a camera in center field and banging trash cans to alert teammates of incoming pitches, gave the right-handers some vindication.

“I wouldn’t say it was common knowledge, but it’s been going around the league for a while as far as rumors there’s been a lot more substance involved,” Clevinger said. “It’s just, we didn’t have the smoking gun ... and it finally came out and it was a reiteration of how cocky they were and how they treated other guys around the league. And for that to be going on just struck a chord with me.”

Clevinger said he was confident the Astros’ secrets would eventually leak. It was former Houston pitcher Mike Fiers, now with Oakland, who revealed that Houston used a video feed sent to a monitor near its dugout to decode signs and relay them to hitters.

“Me and Trevor Bauer since 2017 have been waiting — there’s no way they can keep this glued together,” Clevinger said. “There’s no way everyone’s going to keep their mouth shut. There’s no way they can keep not picking up contracts, not giving free agents money and no one is going to say anything. We knew something was going to happen and sure enough, it did.”

There’s still a part of Clevinger that wishes he and Bauer weren’t right about their suspicions.

“Obviously, we didn’t want it,” he said. “I’d rather me be the hippie conspiracy theorist and him be the (jerk). I’d totally rather it went that way, man, 100%. It sucks that we were right. But it wasn’t like we were just throwing stuff at a wall. There was a lot of stuff we knew that other people didn’t know we knew.”

And now that the Astros have been exposed, Clevinger said sign-stealing may be more prevalent than anyone realized.

“I’m not debating that it’s not,” he said. “The point is we know who it is. People see the repercussions now. I have no idea where it’s going to go from here, whether it’s detrimental enough, but I think there’s enough punishment involved that it’s going to steer teams away from doing it. Hopefully there will be more checks and balances involved in the video department, be it with MLB through each game.”

The Astros were also fined $5 million, a penalty Clevinger found insulting, and he’s sorry Fiers has been cast as a villain by some for talking about his former team.

“What’s he going to do, while he’s wearing their colors going into the playoffs?” Clevinger said. ”He’s got to speak out now. He’s going to have to do it after. It doesn’t matter when he spoke out. It’s the fact that he did it. It had to come to light.”

Clevinger didn’t start against the Astros last season, but said during an outing against them in 2018 that he began to wonder if something was amiss.

The 29-year-old said he threw a 95 mph inside fastball to Houston outfielder Tony Kemp, who pulled it down the line for a hit.

“Not that he’s not a good ballplayer, but Tony Kemp’s not the best fastball, high-ball, two-strike hitter,” Clevinger said. “Let alone, pulling it down the line at 95 mph. I knew something was up that game. I had my stuff, but I was fighting for every out I had to get. I knew something was different.”

The Indians were swept by Houston in the 2018 AL Division Series, but manager Terry Francona isn’t making any excuses about what happened. The Astros beat Cleveland fair and square, he said.

“You can beat as many trash cans as you want,” Francona said. “I think we had two hits off of (Gerrit) Cole and three off of (Justin) Verlander. That wasn’t because of trash cans.”

Dodgers, Red Sox still talking about a Mookie Betts trade

By Craig Calcaterra
NBC Sports
Jan 30, 2020

Andy McCullough of The Athletic writes today that the Dodgers front office “remains engaged with Boston” about a Mookie Betts trade. He adds that the “dialogue with Boston has approached a resolution” in recent days, which means that they’re either close to a deal or close to calling things off.

The shape of such a deal is unknown, and what it is probably depends on how interested the Red Sox are in shedding payroll vs. acquiring young talent. The Dodgers farm system is stocked, and an MVP-type for young studs is a classic sort of deal, but Red Sox owner John Henry signaled earlier this off season that getting the team under the Competitive Balance Tax threshold is a priority. That could mean that the Dodgers — who are loaded with cash as well as prospects — might consider taking on a big salary in addition to Betts in order to make a deal happen with a lower cost in terms of prospects. For example, David Price is owed $96 million between 2020-2022. If Boston is happy with falling out of contention in the short term, they could certainly make that kind of deal.

Hard to say where things are, but this certainly seems like it has more momentum now than it’s had at any point this off season.

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2020/01/30/dodgers-red-sox-still-talking-about-a-mookie-betts-trade/

**********

The rumor I heard on the radio was OF Alex Verdugo to the Red Sox for Mookie Betts and David Price, with the Dodgers taking on the $96M that is owed to Price for the next 3 years. Its a variation of our trade for Brock Osweiler a couple years ago with much higher cash stakes. The Dodgers would be gambling that they can sign Betts to a long term deal before he hits FA next year. It might also take the Dodgers out of the picture as a trade partner for Lindor

Indians lose a potential trade partner in a deal for Lindor. Doubtful they'd be willing to part with Gavin Lux to get Lindor.

Big trade...

The Dodgers just stole the secondish best player in the league b

j/c...

That’s a huge get for LA ... he’s a heck of a player

Its also a gamble. Betts might not sign long-term with them. Some Red Sox fans think he'll re-sign with them as a FA. I'm not so sure about that, but the Yankees are always lurking in any big name free agency scenario. The Sox reportedly offered a 10 year $300M deal, but Betts is looking for 12 years $420M. BTW, somewhere between those two numbers is where Lindor's market lies, IMO.

I hope many of the Twins offensive players had a career year in 2019 because adding Maeda seems like a big deal to a previously average-to-below average rotation.

Yeah, thats kinda the forgotten piece here

If the Red Sox are crying poor then basically every other team besides two, the Yankees and the Dodgers, are going to cry poor also. This is a bad look for the league. The Red Sox salary dumped the second best player in the league.

Red Sox will spend $50,409,418 in CASH for players that will not or are highly unlikely to bat or throw a pitch in Boston this year

David Price - $16,000,000
Rusney Castillo - $14,271,428
Dustin Pedroia - $13,125,000
Pablo Sandoval - $5,000,000
Manny Ramirez - $2,013,418

ouch

https://twitter.com/bostonsportsinf/status/1224911139294892034

Haha. How long have the Marlins been paying Bobby Bonilla?!

Bobby Bonilla is a retired MLB player who last took the field in 2001, but, 20 years later, is still getting paid $1.2 million a year by the New York Mets. In fact, he'll get paid $1,193,248.20 a year every year until 2035, when Bonilla is 72 entire years old.

Ah, the Mets. Not the Marlins.

I knew it was an "M" team!

That's a lot, but they are shedding $48M over the next 3 years for Price and approx $97M (27+35+35) over the next 3 years that they would have had to pay Betts.

j/c...

She’s pretty hot! But, that’s good news IMO

Way to minimize accomplishments by reducing her to how she looks.

Cleveland Indians nearing deal with power-hitting outfielder Domingo Santana
Updated 1:55 PM; Today 12:29 PM

By Paul Hoynes, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It seems the Indians are in the process of adding another body to an already crowded outfield.

A Tweet out of the Dominican Republic said the Indians have reach agreement with free-agent outfielder Domingo Santana. They are reportedly close to coming to terms on a big-league deal worth just over $1 million. The Indians have signed only one free agent of note this winter to a big-league contract -- second baseman Cesar Hernandez.

The deal is contingent on Santana passing his physical. Look for an official announcement to be made sometime next week. The Indians open spring training in Goodyear, Ariz., on Tuesday.

Santana, 27, hit .253 (174-for-507) with 21 homers and 69 RBI for Seattle last year. His slash line was .253/.329/.441. He struck out 164 times in 121 games. Kansas City’s Jorge Soler and Rougned Odor of Texas led the AL with 178 strikeouts each.

The 6-5, 220-pound Santana seems to be a clone of Franmil Reyes, the 6-5 slugger the Indians acquired from San Diego in the Trevor Bauer deal. Reyes dropped 18 pounds over the winter to prepare to improve his outfield play during the offseason at the Tribe’s baseball academy in the Dominican Republic.

Santana, a right-handed hitter, has played in the big leagues with Houston, Milwaukee and Seattle. His best year to date came in 2017 with the Brewers when he hit .278 with 30 homers and 85 RBI. He posted an .875 OPS, while appearing in 144 games in right field.

Last year he played 59 games in left and 42 in right for the Mariners. He missed time in the second half with a sore right elbow.

The Indians already have nine outfielders on the 40-man roster. If they sign Santana to a big-league deal, someone will have to be dropped from the 40-man roster.


https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2020/02/...go-santana.html

Big spenders! Watch out!

I actually like this signing a lot.

that was my joke lol .. shoulda used purple

Indians reportedly nearing deal with outfielder Domingo Santana

https://www.beaconjournal.com/sports/202...domingo-santana


The Indians are closing in on a deal to add outfielder Domingo Santana to the roster not long before pitchers and catchers report to Goodyear, Ariz.

A report from Yancen Pujols in the Dominican Republic indicates the Indians and Santana have reached an agreement on a deal worth just north of $1 million. The team has not yet confirmed the signing, which would be contingent on a physical. That announcement could come next week. Pitchers and catchers are due to report to the Indians’ spring training facility on Tuesday, with position players needing to report by Saturday.

Santana’s addition would add yet another piece to the Indians’ crowded outfield puzzle. Though as another offense-first outfielder not known for his work defensively — similar to Franmil Reyes — Santana’s inclusion might put even more emphasis on the need for Reyes to get as much work in the outfield this spring as possible to see if he can handle right field or left field more often. Reyes says he dropped 18 pounds this winter in anticipation of getting more time in one of the corner spots. If Reyes can improve his work defensively and be more of an option there, that would open up the designated hitter spot in the Indians’ lineup, which is where Santana could fit in addition to being an option in the outfield when needed.

Santana has a career 112 wRC+ — it was 107 in 2019 — with -31 defensive runs saved in his career, so it’s clear where his value lies. He does strike out quite a bit — 164 in 2019 and 178 in 2017, his last and only season with 600 at-bats — but at times has offered power and an ability to get on base sandwiched between a few whiffs.

Santana, 27, had a strong start to 2019 at the plate but fizzled as the year wore on as he dealt with an elbow issue. He slashed .286/.354/.496 in the first half of last season, slugging 18 home runs with 19 doubles and driving in 63 runs in 399 plate appearances. But that production disappeared in the second half, when he hit just .128 with a .468 OPS in 108 plate appearances. In mid August, he was put on the injured list with right elbow inflammation.

Santana, who has just over four years of service time, was non-tendered by the Seattle Mariners this winter.

The Indians know Oscar Mercado will be in center field or left field on an everyday basis. If Reyes and Santana were to primarily handle one of the corner spots and the DH spot in the lineup, it would leave whatever spot Mercado isn’t plus any bench spots available to Delino DeShields, Jordan Luplow, Jake Bauers, Greg Allen, Tyler Naquin once he’s healthy, Bradley Zimmer and potentially Daniel Johnson, should he force his way onto the roster. Though if Santana were to repeat his second-half performance in 2019 and bring that into 2020, with little to no defensive value, the Indians would again have to rely on their internal options to a greater degree.

While Reyes and Santana occupying an OF and a DH spot makes some sense from a defensive standpoint, another torrid stretch by Bobby Bradley this spring or in Triple-A could eventually complicate things if none of the other outfielders on the 40-man roster play well enough to force the Indians’ hand. Santana finding success in Cleveland and sticking in the DH spot would momentarily block Bradley’s immediate route to the majors with Carlos Santana entrenched at first base. Bradley forced his way to Cleveland in 2019 but struggled once there, hitting .178 in 45 at-bats with one home run.

Bradley, in that way, adds yet another factor — on top of Santana’s potential inclusion — to an already crowded outfield group and how the Indians can construct the active roster. Bradley and Domingo Santana both leaving the Indians no choice but to have them both in the lineup at some point with strong showings at the plate could create an interesting defensive situation in the outfield, along with Reyes on the other side.

Cleveland Indians adding yet another outfielder in Domingo Santana, time to scribble away
By Terry Pluto,

https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2020/02/...ibble-away.html

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Scribbles in my Cleveland Indians notebook as they are close to signing outfielder Domingo Santana:

1. Why not? That is the Tribe’s thinking about Domingo Santana. He is expected to sign a contract in the $1.5-million range. A year ago, he batted .253 (.770 OPS) with 21 HR and 69 RBI for the Seattle Mariners. He’s only 27 years old and has monster raw power.

2. Santana was batting .286 (.850 OPS) with 18 HR and 63 RBI in 88 games at the All-Star break. He suffered an elbow injury, tried to play through it and was 12-of-94 (.128) to finish the season.

3. Santana missed part of the 2016 season with an elbow problem. The Tribe deal isn’t finalized because he needs to take a physical to make sure he’s healthy.

4. Why was Santana available in what amounted to a baseball bargain sale? His lousy second half and elbow injury are part of the reason. He led all left fielders in errors with nine last season. He struck out 1-of-3 at bats. So there are negatives.

5. Nonetheless, power is power. In 2017, he was healthy and hammered 30 HR with 85 RBI for the Milwaukee Brewers, batting .278 (.875 OPS) in 151 games. He’s going to strike out (178 in 607 plate appearances in 2017).

6. Tribe manager Terry Francona has a knack of squeezing good performances out of part-time players. Along with his power, a good part of the right-handed hitting Santana is he’s a career .259 hitter (.782 OPS) vs. righties, .257 (.826 OPS) vs. lefties. So he’s not a strict platoon-type player.

7. The Indians have one designated starter in the outfield. That’s Oscar Mercado, who will play center field except when DeLino DeShields is in the lineup. Then Mercado will play left or right.

8. The Indians were pleased to see Franmil Reyes had lost 18 pounds. He was listed at 6-foot-5, 275 pounds last season. The Tribe wants to see if Reyes can play at least part of the time in the outfield. He was a right-fielder for the San Diego Padres before being traded to Cleveland at the end of July.

9. It’s doubtful the Tribe will play a lot of games with Reyes and Santana in the same outfield, especially given how Francona talked about “the need to catch the ball out there” several times at Tribefest last weekend.

10. The Indians do have a DH spot. So it’s possible Reyes or Santana split DH and right field. I mention right field because that’s the position both guys played (by far) the most in the National League.

11. The addition of Domingo Santana gives the Indians six players who hit at least 20 HR in 2019: Reyes (37), Carlos Santana (34), Francisco Lindor (32), Roberto Perez (24), Jose Ramirez (23) and Domingo Santana (21).

12. Between Domingo Santana (164) and Reyes (156), they also have two guys who fanned a combined 320 times last season. It seems as if the Tribe struck out a lot last season. But in modern baseball where guys swing away wildly, the Indians had the third-fewest strikeouts in the American League last season. Only the Los Angeles Angels and Houston Astros had fewer.

13. The Tribe is extremely pleased with the progress being made by Tyler Naquin from major ACL knee surgery in September. He is already doing some running. He is not expected to be ready for the opener, but could be back well before the All-Star break. Naquin batted .288 (.792 OPS) with 10 HR and 34 RBI in 89 games. The Indians also said Brad Zimmer is finally healthy from his 2018 shoulder surgery.

14. Francona talked about Jordan Luplow getting a chance to play against some right-handed pitching. Luplow crushed lefties last season (.320, 1.181 OPS) but batted only .216 (.573 OPS) vs. righties. Why think Luplow can hit righties? In 382 Class AAA at bats vs. righties, he’s a .298 hitter (.830 OPS). Last season was the first time the 26-year-old Luplow didn’t bounce up and down from the minors several times. He gained confidence as the season progressed.

15. The Indians think Daniel Johnson has a chance to be this season’s Oscar Mercado, a young outfielder who opens in Class AAA but joins the team during the season. The 24-year-old Johnson is an athletic outfielder who batted .290 (.868 OPS) with 19 HR and 77 RBI between Class AA and AAA last season. He came to the Tribe from the Washington Nationals (along with Jefry Rodriguez) in the Yan Gomes deal.

My 2020 Projected Line Up

1. Lindor SS
2. Mercado CF
3. Ramirez 3B
4. C Santana 1B
5. Reyes RF/DH
6. D Santana DH/RF
7. Perez C
8. Luplow/Bauers LF (Naquin after rehab)
9. Hernandez 2B

Starters - Clevinger, Bieber, Carrasco, Civale, Plesac (Plutko)
Relivers - Karinchak, Clase, Wittgren, Perez, Cimber (yuck)
Closer - Hand

j/c...

My problem is the #8 hole and Left field .. Same as last season . Now if Naquin makes it back early I would smile .

Good news for the Indians that Maeda won't be joining the Twins, IMO.

j/c...



And here's a rundown on the Astros operation 'Codebreaker' that was published in the WSJ...

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2020/02/07/report-shows-that-astros-front-office-involved-in-cheating/

MLB botched the entire investigation. Shocker.