May 18, 2013

Buster Olney: Travis Hafner May Be Done in Cleveland

August 11, 2012 by 10 Comments

The book on Travis Hafner may be closed in Cleveland after the designated hitter was placed on the disabled list Thursday. The four-year, $57 million to which the Indians signed him was a complete bust. Hafner was often hurt during the term of the deal, and beyond that, the investment in the designated hitter greatly restricted the Indians in their efforts to piece together a contending team.

The latest from ESPN’s Buster Olney is not surprising news to Indians fans who have followed the team closely all season. Hafner was not expected to return in 2013, and with his latest trip to the disabled list, it seems he may have played his final game for the Wahoos.

Now 35 years old, “Pronk” has played all but 23 games of his 11-year MLB career with Cleveland. He has career totals of .278/.382/.508 with 242 doubles, 200 homers and 692 RBI. He finished fifth in MVP voting in 2005 and led the AL with a 1.097 OPS in 2006.

Olney shared that over the past four injury-riddled seasons of his massive contract, he played just 366 games with 53 home runs, 154 runs scored and a WAR of just 5.6.

According to Baseball-Reference.com, Hafner has a $13 million team option for 2013 that includes a $2.75 million buyout. For relatively little money then, the Tribe could buy out his deal and let the DH find another home in the AL.

[Related: MLB News: Hafner Placed on 15 Day DL; Donald Recalled]

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  • Dan

    Hafner and Sizemore should not be on the Indians next year. We need to cut ties with them and start investing in players who are actually play. We’re paying Sizemore 5 or 6 mill to sit in his ass or mildly jog all year, great investment Antonetti!!

  • http://twitter.com/brian_ristau Brian J. Ristau

    Considering I was calling for Hafner to be traded after 2005, I have to say IT’S ABOUT TIME. ATTN: front office. never lock down a DH that has an arthritic elbow and can not play the field. It’s a bad business move.

  • SadWahoo

    “Pronk has played all but 23 gamesin his 11 year major league career with Cleveland.”

    What?

    He has missed more than 23 games THIS year? His contract handcuffed the Indians for many years. It’s too bad he was seemingly always hurt.

  • SadWahoo

    I know what the author meant, I just wanted to point out that he didn’t. Actually “play” in Cleveland much.

  • http://www.facebook.com/davelb87 David W. Elbrecht

    In other news, water is wet.

  • Matt S

    I’m actually okay with the idea of bringing back Hafner, so long as it’s not by exercising his option. If we can bring him back for $5M or less, I’d do it. He’s our second-best hitter this year (rate-wise, not aggregate production-wise, obviously. Using wOBA as the stat of choice), and I don’t see us being able to get an equal or better hitter to replace him at DH.

    Realistically, who’s going to offer Hafner more money? He’s got to be comfortable in Cleveland, and most of the big-dollar AL teams out there already have a DH or a platoon of players that need to rotate into DH. The Angels have 6 good players to play OF, DH and 1B. The Red Sox have Ortiz. The Yankees have a bunch of good outfielders. The Rangers are really the only team I can think of that might be interested that has a lot of money to bid.

  • Leaving Pronkville

    Last game for CLEVELAND? Last game ANYWHERE! Nobody will take a chance on his brittle body and he will not play for peanuts next year. Thanks for the memories, Pronk.

  • mgbode

    and the Rangers have Michael Young in that role currently (depending on what they do with Hamilton this offseason). you make alot of sense with this comment

  • stevs

    epic fail on your part sir

  • George

    I refuse to understand how a DH can be hurt as often as Hafner. His body went to crap overnight. There wasn’t even a gradual downside. More like a cliff. Please don’t resign him, even if for the same or less than the team option buyout.