Report: Browns select Mike Pettine as coach, working on contract today
January 23, 2014Monsters introduce family value packs- win one at WFNY today
January 23, 2014Its cold. Its winter. The Cavs are awful. The Browns Head Coaching search is comical at this point. Lets talk about the best team in town, shall we?
1. This Carlos Santana to third base thing took on a life of its own over the past few days. Speaking to ESPN Deportes baseball insider Enrique Rojas, the Tribe slugger said that he is expecting to play Third Base in 2014 and that is all he has been working on this winter. In so many words, Carlos intimated to Rojas that he will be the starter at the hot corner. The quotes seemed a little strange, considering the idea was essentially hatched as an experiment during winter ball.
Then yesterday, Tribe manager Terry Francona met with the media and put some water on the flames. Everyone needs to pump the brakes.
“I probably shouldn’t read too much,” Francona said, “because every time I read something I get confused. Carlos offered to go play third base in winter ball, which we all thought was terrific. And it sounds like he’s improving. But we don’t need to make any kind of decisions today, nor will we at the beginning of Spring Training.
“If he can handle playing third — some, a lot, little — we’ll see. That’s all part of Spring Training. If he can handle it, it gives us another option with our middle-of-the-order bat.”
“I’ve never even seen the guy play third.” Francona continued. “We’ve got a lot of time to let that play out. But, we will give him a chance to play some in Spring Training.”
I am all for expanding the versatility of this roster. If Carlos can give the Indians some at-bats at third base, fantastic. The idea of it is also yet another in a long line of warning signals to incumbent Lonnie Chisenhall that now is the time for him to step up and prove he is an every day major league starter. The last two seasons have done nothing to dispel the notion that he may be nothing more than a platoon guy.
Another reason I am not buying the “Santana to third, permanently” talk is the backup catching situation. Yan Gomes, a breakout player for the Tribe in 2013, will assume the everyday catching role, but should Carlos become the third baseman, that leaves the Indians looking for a backup. The way Francona likes his roster constituted, having essentially a no-hit caddy on his bench leaves him a little hamstrung. The beauty of “The Goon Squad” was that Ryan Raburn and Mike Aviles could be used all over the diamond. Nick Swisher played first base and right field. Santana caught, DH’d, and played first base. This allowed Jason Giambi to be the clutch presence that he was both in the clubhouse and with his bat. The “Gomes with Santana as the backup” plan is much better suited to how Francona uses his position players.
2. Meanwhile, GM Chris Antonetti continues to try and find ways to improve his ball club without stretching the payroll. Last night, former Mariners closer David Aardsma was signed to a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training with the big club. He has battled injuries over the past three seasons – including Tommy John surgery in July of 2011 – and has bounced around since. In 2008 he pitched in 47 games for the Boston Red Sox under, you guessed it, Terry Francona.
Aardsma will battle with Scott Atchinson, Vinnie Pestano, CC Lee, Frank Herrmann, Blake Wood, and Nick Hagadone for one or two of the final bullpen slots. New closer John Axford, Cody Allen, Bryan Shaw, Marc Rzepcynski, and Josh Outman are all essentially 25-man roster locks.
3. A few weeks ago I wrote that the almost zero possibility that Ubaldo Jimenez would return had moved into the slight chance category as this long offseason drew on. Yesterday, that biggest starting pitching domino finally fell. Japanese sensation Masahiro Tanaka inked a massive seven-year, $155 million deal with the Yankees, which means that all of the teams that lost their bids on him can move onto Plan B. Matt Garza, Jimenez, and Ervin Santana will become the consolation prizes. I’d expect teams to jump on them quickly.
Judging by Francona’s candid remarks to the media yesterday, I just don’t see Ubaldo in Wahoo Red, White, and Blue this summer.
“We want to see Carlos Carrasco pitch. We want to see Josh Tomlin pitch. So rather than go out and spend some money on guys, we want to see our guys. We have Corey Kluber, Zach McAllister and Danny Salazar, hopefully, for a full year. So we have guys in place. We made some moves last year with [Nick Swisher] and [Michael Bourn] and we knew that those were probably our moves.”
So in other words, don’t hold your breath on another big free agent deal for Jimenez.
Francona also noted that veteran Shawn Marcum, who will be in that mix for the fifth spot along with Carrasco, Josh Tomlin, and Trevor Bauer, isn’t as far along as Scott Kazmir was at this stage. Sounds to me like Tribe fans should temper their expectations on him. Carrasco still has to have the inside track at this point. He is out of options and still has that tantalizing stuff. You can bet he will be Mickey Calloway’s 2014 pet project.
“We certainly want to see Carrasco pitch,” Francona said. “I think that’s a given with his stuff and things like that. He made some alterations in his delivery. He’s got his arm up a little higher to create some deception. I think we’d like to kind of see him take off with that, but I don’t know that we need to anoint our rotation today.”
4. Speaking of starters, the Tribe’s top horse, Justin Masterson, is up for free agency at the end of this upcoming season. In his final arbitration year, Masterson’s agents and the Indians brass have exchanged figures that are far apart. The players’s number is said to be at $11.8 million, while the club has submitted $8.04 million. That’s a pretty wide gap, considering.
The Indians love having it known that they haven’t had to go to arbitration since 1991, but that looks like that will soon change. Antonetti won’t discuss any particular player, but it is obvious who he is taking about when he said earlier this week “I will say it is very likely we will end up with at least one hearing this year.”
That isn’t nearly as much of a concern as the long term deal potential with Masterson. If the Indians and Masterson’s agents are this far off in a one year arbitration deal, you can imagine where they are with an extension. There hasn’t been much progress or even chatter about Justin staying in Cleveland long term. We’ve seen this many times before with All Star free agents here. I think the Indians will play 2014 out with Masterson as their number one starter. Should they fall out of the race at the deadline, they will certainly have plenty of suitors for his services. Should they contend, it will be the Ubaldo situation all over again. Masterson would get a qualifying offer, most likely decline it, and the Indians would receive a first round compensation pick should he sign elsewhere.
16 Comments
I don’t know how they are so off with Masterson. They must not think he is going to sign a new contract here, by lowballing him, I don’t think he will be doing us any favors when contract negotiations are in talks.
It’s a lowball, but that’s part of the negotiation. You don’t come in giving your best offer.
While I’m a little worried about Masterson, I still don’t think they’ll go to arbitration. There’s just too much to lose for both team and player. With arbitration hearings being sort of be a crap shoot, it behooves both parties to meet somewhere in the middle.
If it does go that far, I think re-signing him is completely out. Beyond the obvious “we can’t agree on a one-year deal so how can we figure out a long-term one”, there’s the fact that the Indians basically have to go into the hearing and bad mouth Masterson by showing why he isn’t that great of a pitcher.
Carlos Santana’s first month and last 2 months with the Tribe in 2013 were pretty good offensively. His numbers in May, June, and July, on the other hand, were pretty lackluster. In April, of course, he was just starting the season and not worn down by daily catching duty. And in August and September, Yan Gomes had taken over behind the plate and Carlos switched primarily to 1B/DH. The optimist in me wants to think that if Santana plays an entire year without catching more than once a week, his season-long offensive numbers will see a measurable uptick.
That said, I’m skeptical about his defensive chops at third base. Maybe when Lindor arrives full time, it could work. But Carlos and Asdrubal would make a pretty shaky left side of the infield. not quite Miggy Cabrera and Jhonny Peralta, but close.
But if it’s strictly a platoon situation and we see Carlos at third ONLY vs. left-handers, it could work.
I really like Terry Francona at least there is one guy in this town you can actually believe something he says. I just wish there were owners and a few more front office people on these other teams like Francona.
I think you are wrong if you are thinking defensive side… Santana was traded to us as a third basemen. That is his original position. Asdrubal is also a great shortstop, with range and an arm that is above average for his position.
Offensively, I agree with your statements above about his offensive numbers improving. Asdrubal will have a better year this year offensively because it is a contract year for him. I still believe that if we are not in contention Cabrera will be traded, making room for Lindor. But if we are winning, then Cabrera will stay (unless Lindor is absolutely ready to dominate as we all keep hearing that he will be.
Asdrubal is a great defensive shortstop with range? Did you really type that statement or have I started drinking w/o realizing it?
Um I thought Santana started as an outfielder with the Dodgers.
I don’t know if Santana will ever be a serviceable 3rd baseman or not, and if so, how much he’ll play there. (depends also on how Chisenhall is doing) One thing is 100% locked in stone certain though: Carlos Santana is still a catcher. The Indians value having a power bat behind the plate too much to bring in another Marson when we have both Santana and Gomes on the roster. So yes, Gomes will be the “everyday” catcher, but at that position the backup gets like 50-60 starts, especially if he’s not a liability at the plate. Between Catcher, 1st base, and DH, there are plenty of starts for Santana, and there’s not much chance he makes a permanent move anywhere. If he can play 3rd it just gives us that much more flexibility if Chis proves he needs to never ever face a lefty.
April: .389/.476/.722
May: .200/.331/.330
June: .250/.355/.391
July: .294/.380/.471
August: .240/.354/.448
Sept: .271/.393/.438
He played some LF/RF when he was really young. Looks like he didn’t have a true position back then.
… but Web Gems?
I’m sorry, I blacked out for a few hours. I think I must have been drinking 🙂
agreed, Asdrubal has some nifty web gems. strong arm and good accuracy on the throws. if only Stephen didn’t say the word range I would have left it alone 🙂
I think Santana would be serviceable at 3B, he can’t be worse than Miggy was last year. If he can match Chisenhall it makes the latter expendable, and the Indians have brought in serviceable backup catchers to Spring Training like Matt Treanor.
I like the thought of Santana at third. I think his offensive numbers would climb not having to catch every day. True, we are going to have to think about a backup catcher and move Santana to the third catcher but there are several young guys in camp who were invited to spring training and it seems like finding a backup catcher is easier than finding a solid hitting third-basemen. Don’t know what to do with Chisenhall, he seemed to take one giant step backwards last year. Of course, if Carlos fails at third, we have a young, hungry guy who is ready to step in. I think it’s Masterson’s farewell year with the Tribe. He will leave in 2015 so we hope that he has one hell of a year in 2014 and the Tribe goes all the way. In 2015, we will have lost 3 of the starting five from 2013.
Good points.
“I don’t think he will be doing us any favors when contract negotiations are in talks”
He wasn’t going to be doing us any favors regardless of what we offered him at any point in the process.