Travis Hafner Returns, but are the Indians Better Off?

At 7:33pm EST on Wednesday night, Cleveland Indians designated hitter Travis Hafner took his first pitch since August 5, a curve ball that crossed right through the middle of the plate. Approximately two minutes later, he took a 90-mile-per-hour fastball off of his left elbow, proceeded to remove his at-bat armor and then slowly trot down the first base, barely-buttoned jersey and all.

Month-long breaks between plate appearances have unfortunately become commonplace in the waining career of Hafner. Missing time after knee surgery earlier this season, the 35-year-old’s latest run in with the injury fairy left him with a bulging disc in his back; just a few days after his wife gave birth to their second son, it was the slugging lefty who was receiving an epidural.

Typically, when a player comes back from injury, especially a member of the Cleveland Indians where depth isn’t exactly a key descriptor of the team’s annual roster, celebration is had.

Year after year, injuries have been an element of excuse in Cleveland, underachievement laced in disappointment and what-could-have-beens. This year, however, as the core members of the Tribe have remained relatively healthy ¹ , the excuses have turned into shoulder shrugs and hands thrown in the air out of disgust. With that, as general manger Chris Antonetti speaks of these last few weeks of the regular season being used as a means to gauge exactly what it is this team has heading into the winter months, the four pitches that Hafner took on a chilly Wednesday evening in front of roughly 17 non-Indians employees, were simply the product of an indefensible decision by the team’s front office to activate the player, and the coaching staff for placing him into the starting lineup.

Over the course of his tenure with the Cleveland Indians, Hafner has been nothing short of the ultimate professional and a man who, when a step back is taken, Clevelanders typically opt to embrace with open arms. We are talking about a man who was once in the talk for league MVP, putting up OPS totals which would, if amassed today, top both Los Angeles’ Mike Trout and Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera ² . A man who, while the rest of his teammates are donning on their freshly pressed collared shirts and pomade, is unrolling an Angry Birds t-shirt down his 240-pound frame. A man who willingly adapted to a nickname derived from a donkey. A man who famously wore a shirt around the clubhouse which stated “I may not be smart, but I can lift heavy things.”

But Hafner has also become the poster child for the underachievement which has plagued Progressive Field since the winter that bridged the 2007 and 2008 seasons. An albatross of a contract, Hafner’s $13 million salary for 2012 represents roughly 20 percent of the team’s $66 million which is currently owed ³ . To chastise a man for being handsomely compensated for his profession would be nothing but a cold concoction made of one-part jealousy and one-part communism, the entire spirit garnished with a dash of spite, and poured over ice cubes made of resentment. But to brush it off as a sunk cost while the rest of the team is forced to be comprised of piecemeal and spreadsheet-based hope, well, that’s just not being a sports fan in the city of Cleveland.

The Indians being willing to play Hafner down the home stretch of what will likely be his final season in Cleveland ⁴ is undoubtedly a gentleman’s move, one rooted in respect that may be aided along by Paul Dolan requiring Hafner to be trotted out as much as possible; after all, if the team is going to pay him more than the entire starting infield ⁵ and he does not even require a glove, Bernie Lomax may as well have a No. 48 jersey plastered to his back. Whether or not the few thousand fans in attendance on the team’s final home game will have the wherewithal to understand that this could be their very last glimpse of Hafner remains to be seen. But the point remains, every at-bat he gets over the rest of September is one that can be given to another, hopefully younger, player.

Relief pitcher Rafael Perez was shut down for the season after a “setback.” Had the team reported Hafner being the victim of similar issues, would any fan bat an eye?

As team president Mark Shapiro hinted earlier this week, while the team will have considerable money coming off of the books (thanks to Hafner’s buyout), they are skeptical of the quality of the free agent market. Certainly, this will allow the Indians to take on some salary in any potential trades ⁶ , the core of the 2013 roster will remain largely similar to the one that is currently producing the worst record in the American League. This means that, while we may see another round of Casey Kotchmans and Johnny Damons and Jose Lopez’, this team will need to receive production from younger, considerably less-expensive talent. It is these players who should be receiving the at-bats in Hafner’s place, even if it has to be a 27-year-old Matt LaPorta one night after making one of the biggest bone-headed moves of the season.

Lou Marson, Jason Donald, and Cord Phelps. Thomas Neal and Juan Diaz. Heck, even Lars Anderson, the team’s big trade deadline move. One could make the argument that each one of these players would deserve the late-season at-bats more than Hafner. Sure, none of these guys are costing the team as much as Hafner is, but each and every one of them has a better chance of sharing the Cleveland clubhouse than the long-time designated hitter; heck, at least Marson, Donald, Phelps, Neal and Diaz can hit from the right side of the plate.

Hafner’s time in Cleveland most certainly had a lot of ups as well as its fair share of injury-related downs. “Pronkville” has since been renamed, his bobbleheads have been removed from the annual release. At this stage, as the schedule slowly (thankfully) finds itself with one fewer game left to play each time the sun rises, each at-bat given to Hafner does nothing but impede the potential, albeit marginal, progress of another player.

As Antonetti said, amidst a State of the Wahoo Union address just a few weeks ago, the next several weeks are to see exactly where on the map their current philosophy leaves them; what sort of turns need to be made to satisfy this multi-million-dollar navigation system where the final destination is (allegedly) a World Series appearance. Each time Hafner’s name finds itself in the batting order between Wednesday night’s loss — where he proceeded to go 0-for-3 at the plate — and the season finale, all Cleveland will hear is a course, head-scratching command of “recalculating.”

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(Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer)

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1. Shin-Soo Choo, Michael Brantley, Jason Kipnis, Asdrubal Cabrera and Carlos Santana all have over 450 at-bats on the season [back]
2. Insert “different eras” argument here [back]
3. Payroll figures courtesy of ESPN [back]
4. He has a $2.5 million buyout for the 2013 season [back]
5. Roughly $6 million on this very evening [back]
6. Chris Perez, I fear your days are numbered [back]