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February 1, 2013The Cleveland Indians have potentially added to their already strong bullpen by signing relief pitcher Matt Capps to a minor league contract.
Capps, 29, onws an eight-year career record of 29-33 with 138 saves. He has spent time in Pittsburgh, Washington and Minnesota, being named to the 2010 National League All-Star team in a season where he posted a career-best 42 saves and a 2.42 ERA.
Capps has posted 14 or more saves in each of his last six seasons and has a career walk rate of 1.7 per nine innings pitched. Capps reportedly throws four pitches: a four-seam fastball and two-seam fastball (91–95 mph), slider (85–89), and changeup (87–89).
He opened the 2012 season with the Twins, saving 14 of his first 15 opportunities before having two trips to the disabled list with shoulder inflammation. On October 24, the Twins announced they would decline their club option for Capps worth $6 million. Capps, instead, received a $250,000 buyout.
Indians pitchers and catchers are set to report to Goodyear, Arizona for Spring Training on February 10.
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14 Comments
I like this move. A minor league deal is low risk, and with his track record, Capps becomes a high reward player. Our bullpen continues to become stronger, possibly setting up a potential trade to bolster our prospects. Another great offseason move by Shapio, Antonetti and Franona
Solid move… worth taking a flyer on the guy.
Nice. Me likes. Trade closer next move.
agreed it’s worth the risk, but his shoulder must still have issues if all he could get was a minor league deal
Here’s the prototypical Indian signing. Btw Hafner is now a member of the Yankees.
All that for Matt Capps, wow, easy fella!
Does this move mean that the Indians are working on trading Perez? Sure, he’s an All-Star closer, but I think paying a bit north of $7mil is a bit much. Especially since Pestano is closer-in-waiting with fallback options available and there are teams searching for a closer (Texas?)
All I’m saying is that this offseason we have made some good moves, and assuming health (awful thing to assume, but I will anyway), this deal is a breath of fresh air.
Plus, I’m on the “Trade Chris Perez as soon as possible” train, so this is a move that makes said train go faster
About 6 years too late in my opinion…Hopefully they sign Sizemore too before we give him $5 million more to rehab…but seriously a very refreshing offseason for Indians. Was assuming we’d hire Jonah Hill after Dolan watched Moneyball or something
Figures. We pay him 2.75M to pack his bags, and he signs with the yankees for 2M!
He usually doesn’t start the season being a problem, it just gets worse as the season goes on. He is the guy that other teams and fans hate when he closes games. I am fine with that
Oh yeah BTW, Yankees wanted to give us Burnett last year for Hafner. Burnett had 180 SO and was 16-10 in 31 games.
It’s still just Matt nothing to see here move along, move along Capps though.
I’m not a Perez fan either but if he does his job I guess I can live with the outbursts. In a perfect world he’d just shutup entirely but we all know it won’t happen.
I somehow missed this but if true I have only one thing to say: DOH!