May 23, 2013

Kerry Wood to the Tribe?

December 9, 2008 by 13 Comments

Kerry Wood

‘Tis the season for Baseball Winter Meetings, rumors and free agent acquisitions.  While I’ve been in the “Tribe won’t do anything worth mentioning” camp for quite a while now, the news that Kerry Wood is being considered as our 2009 closer is definitely worth mentioning.

Details that are key to the situation:

- Two-years with a possible option for a third.
- We need help for the bullpen, and Wood had 34 saves last year
- Wood has a cannon for an arm; as in 84 K in 66 innings cannon

As TD put it best, we really haven’t had a dominant closer since the days of Jose Mesa.  And as much as that one blown save will always be his lasting mark, the guy threw unhittable balls for the majority of his saves.  Sure, Wood may have a bit of an injury history.  But he’s considerably younger than Trevor Hoffman, throws considerably harder than Jensen Lewis, and would cost considerably less dollars that Francisco Rodriguez.

Whether you’re in the belief that Jensen Lewis can get the job done for an entire season or not, you have to admit that adding Wood would only make our ‘pen situation that much better.

(Update: Looks like Wood could take Tom Mastney’s spot since he’s going “Childress.”)

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  • The Bambino

    I’ll believe it when he takes the mound for the first time as a member of the Tribe.

    (notice I didn’t say when we sign him…see Foulke, Keith)

    Hope so though. Two years with an option sounds ok to me.

  • mj

    I think it’d be a smart move for the tribe… I certainly didn’t peg them to be the ones to open the market on closers, however. I would’ve bet that Shapiro would have let the market shake out and then go bargain-hunting in the aftermath (that’s not a criticism of the club’s spending, I just don’t like the trend of overspending on closers, especially in what is overwhelmingly a buyers’ market this year.)

  • Matt in Lyndhurst

    I’ll be thrilled if this deal goes through!

  • Harv 21

    …”Wood may have a bit of an injury history…”
    Yeah, like Romeo has a bit of a job security issue. Dude misses major portions of entire seasons at a time, and not with hang nails, either. That said, why not, who else will the Tribe be able to afford who has that type of electric, Hall of Fame stuff? Wedge loves the pitch count thing, and wouldn’t work him too hard.

  • mj

    And the first domino falls…

    ESPN is reporting that the Mets just signed K-Rod for $37 million over 3 years.

  • mj

    # # 4 Harv 21 Says:
    December 9th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

    …”Wood may have a bit of an injury history…”
    Yeah, like Romeo has a bit of a job security issue. Dude misses major portions of entire seasons at a time, and not with hang nails, either. That said, why not, who else will the Tribe be able to afford who has that type of electric, Hall of Fame stuff? Wedge loves the pitch count thing, and wouldn’t work him too hard.
    ========

    To be fair, isn’t most of this injury history from his days as a starter? I no longer follow MLB closely enough to know his stats over the past two years, but I though he’d put his injury woes behind him since his move to the bullpen.

  • mj

    Damn… and Casey Blake got $17.1 million over 3yrs from the Dodgers? I am a Casey fan… but thank God the tribe bowed out of this one. I can’t see a 37 or 38 year old Casey Blake producing enough to justify a nearly $6million/year salary…

  • http://www.bugsandcranks.com Jon

    Wow. This could be great. Wood has had no injuries or serious arm issues since being moved to the bullpen, and as far as pure stuff, he’s the best closer available in my opinion. This deal can’t get done soon enough for me.

    Seriously, when’s the last time the Indians signed a big name FA? (If you say David Delucci, we’re going to have words.)

  • P@

    I like this move so long as the Indians don’t spend too much on the guy. Hopefully his injury history will keep a lot of potential buyers out of the market. I would also like to add how amped I am to hear that Tom Mastny has moved on. Having 1 good game out of 3 is a bad trend for a bullpen guy and this was a guy who had zero chance of coming into a game when the Indians had a lead, so why not trade his contract to Japan for some cash? Smart move by Shapiro.

  • Harv 21

    MJ:

    You may be right, but wasn’t he on the IR again beginning of last season for a long while? My main point is, it still would be a good thing, when he’s healthy he can dominate. And Lewis can try to step in again if Wood goes down.

  • http://www.dbuu.com buu

    i just want to mention that on mentalfloss.com they recently had a “6 strangest baseball trades” list, and the indians were involved in half of them(trading for a player to be named later and then later trading that player, picking up the tab at dinner for dave winfield, etc). and now we trade tom mastny to japan for straight cash. its not that weird, but its nice to see that they’re trying to keep tradition.

  • http://www.dbuu.com buu
  • mj

    @ Harv21: I just checked his injury history on wikipedia. You are correct… he started 2007 on the 60-day DL with elbow soreness, and made his bullpen debut on Aug 5, 2007. He also was placed on the 15-day DL with a finger blister on July 24, 2008, and returned Aug 5, to throw a scoreless inning against HOU…

    So he hasn’t seriously injured himself as a closer, a case could probably be made that his problems early in ’07 could have been related to his past as a starter.

    Surely something to be wary of, but I agree it’s a good move for Shapiro–as long as they’re not overpaying for him. If he’s a value signing, though, it could be a very shrewd move…

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