May 25, 2013

Indians Reduce Roster by 15 Players

March 19, 2009 by 15 Comments

adam-miller-indians

With the start of the regular season just weeks away, Eric Wedge and company are facing their final roster decisions.  Today, they took one step towards the final roster for opening day.

The following players have been optioned to Triple-A Columbus:

RHP Jon Meloan
RHP Adam Miller
RHP Hector Rondon
RHP Luis Salas
LHP Tony Sipp
CA Carlos Santana
INF Luis Valbuena

The following players have been re-assigned to minor league camp:

RHP Jack Cassel
LHP David Huff
CA Armando Camacaro
INF Jordan Brown
INF Wes Hodges
INF Jesus Merchan
INF Beau Mills
OF Stephen Head

I know that a few people were hoping that Meloan would get a crack at the big league bullpen, and I think he will.  Just not quite yet.  He’ll be 25-years old in July, so it isn’t like a “now or never” move.  The Adam Miller situation just never seems to end, with rumors that his career may be in jeopardy with this injured finger of his.  Yes, this is the same guy that the Indians would not part with for Mark Teixeira back in the day.  That Adam Miller.

David Huff may be one of the first young pitchers called-up if needed this season.  He’s coming off of a strong season, but saw little action during spring games.  Ironically, likely fifth starter Aaron Laffey takes the hill today after pitching four perfect innings during his last outing.

I’m personally surprised that Santana was sent to Columbus given the fact that Chris Gimenez should see the bulk of the time behind the plate.  Perhaps this is just a stop gap to get him some time against elevated competition before he heads to Akron.  A place that is closer to my coordinates.  Yes, I’m being selfish. 

Valbuena will be a guy to keep your eye on at the Triple-A level, coming over in the Franklin Gutierrez deal.  Josh Barfield will get his chance with the big boys, but one has to wonder how long of a leash he will get if he has a slow start.

Jordan Brown, Beau Mills and Wes Hodges are all solid hitters, but simply don’t have a spot with the Indians just yet.  They’ll have to keep cracking in minor league camp before getting the nod.  As we mentioned not long ago, Mills was doing extremely well against elevated competition.  The former first-round pick, currently 22-years old, was named the Carolina League MVP and appears to have a heck of a future ahead of him.

There are currently 44 players still on the roster.

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(Update: The team just released an updated roster.  Carlos Santana and Hector Rondon were in fact optioned to Double-A Akron.  Makes a bit more sense now; apologies for the confusion.)

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  • S-Dub

    Good to see Crowe still with the big league club

  • Harv 21

    Will they keep a young guy like Crowe on the final roster if he’s not going to play regularly? Maybe we are finally ready for the David Delucci Death Watch.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/ Rick

    I think Giminez is in for a position change. No reason to have him and Santana at Catcher when they are ready for the bigs.

  • http://www.twitter.com/dennymayo IRB?

    @ Harv – DDDW NK.

  • RandyOSU

    Can anyone PLEASE tell me why Edwin Mujica is STILL on the roster? Haven’t we seen enough of his straight mushy stuff over the past several years ALREADY? (and yes…….can’t figure out why Meloan would be sent down while this stiff pitches onward).

    Hopefully we (and Paul Hoynes) can now stop the incessant Adam Miller watch-he actually claimed last week that the lastest finger incident was not career threatening.

    One of the young kids BETTER make the final cut over Delucci-as others have pointed out, it costs virtually nothing as you pay DD either way. Get the head start on developing someone who can step in when Choo goes down.

  • AJ

    Anyone else pleasantly surprised by LaPorta not being optioned for Triple-A? Or did I miss something?

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/ Rick

    He will be there when the season starts. He doesn’t need to be optioned there because he isn’t on a major league contract yet. He will get moved to minor league camp at some point I’m sure. Probably when they want to get Hafner more at bats. (laughs to self while typing that last part)

  • http://www.jrosen.wordpress.com Jacob Rosen

    Indians have so many catchers I would not be surprised if any one of them gets traded soon. Between Victor Martinez, Kelly Shoppach, Chris Gimenez, Wyatt Torregas and Carlos Santana we are pretty much set for the future at that position.

  • RandyOSU

    Does anyone here believe that Hafner will make it past mid-season? Scouts are almost embarrassed when commenting on how slow his swing is. I know it’s early…….I wish him well, something really is not right with that whole situation.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com Craig

    @Jacob… I really hope the Indians can parlay their catcher depth into a 3-5 starter… I don’t even know who yet, but I am hoping beyond hope that we don’t have to start counting the days until Westbrook returns.

  • http://baseballdigest.com Michael

    Santana and Rondon were reassigned to AA Akron, there was a misprint in Castrovince’s post that broke this story.

  • Harv 21

    @8: I agree a trade involving our catchers seems logical, maybe inevitable – we are running out of teams for them to advance to and keep playing. (I’ve said this same thing on so many times that I might become the RandyOSU of Tribe articles).
    Re Westbrook, given the severity of his injury and other pitchers’ recovery from this type of surgery, Shapiro has no business counting on him this year regardless of when he is activated. Other pitchers always say that if you don fully recover from this it will be the second season post-surgery. If we are going to compete we will need a reliable starter not in this organization right now. There is no way Shapiro will stand pat with this aollection.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com Scott

    @Michael: The post has been updated. And my intial report came directly from the team’s public relations area, which was then updated with a follow-up release. No “breaking” of a story.

  • Jon

    I agree that Mujica is such a liability and I can’t fathom why he’s still on the roster, and I thought Carlos Santana and Wes Hodges would be further up the ladder by now… which I guess we’ll have to see how Hafner does. I’d love to see Santana DH now and then.

    I don’t think it’s possible to move Shoppach or Martinez at this point, so moving prospects isn’t going to return us anyone sexy. I’m almost not counting Martinez as a catcher at this point, I foresee him spending a majority of this season at 1b or DH. Between Hafner and Garko it’s anyone’s guess.

  • Matt in Lyndhurst

    @ Craig…

    A possible trade partner for one of our catchers would most likely be the Boston Red Sox. Right now, they only have an aging Jason Varitek who they reluctantly resigned this year. They also just cut ex-Indian catcher, Josh Bard. If anyone’s desperate for a catcher, it’s the Red Sox. And from what I hear, their minor league is a loaded with talent (with the acception of a catcher).

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