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December 17, 2015The Cleveland Indians were incredibly quiet for six weeks of the MLB offseason. But in a span of just 24 hours, they’ve now signed three legitimate MLB talents. First, it was first baseman Mike Napoli. Then, outfielder Rajai Davis. And now, it is left-handed reliever Joe Thatcher.
MLB Daily Dish’s Chris Cotillo first reported the news on Thursday morning. The terms of the deal are yet unknown. [1pm Update: Paul Hoynes reported the contract is a minor league deal with a spring training invite. Cotillo added that it could max out at as much as $2.2 million if he makes the team and reaches certain incentives.)
Thatcher is a 34-year-old who pitched his first six-and-a-half seasons with the San Diego Padres. Since then, he’s bounced around from the Diamondbacks to the Angels to the Astros. He earned $1 million as a free agent in Houston in 2015.
Thatcher’s best career season was in 2010 with a 1.29 ERA in 65 appearances (35.0 innings) in 2010. He struck out 45 batters and walked only seven. As one can easily tell from that innings-to-appearances ratio, he’s a lefty specialist by trade. He had shoulder surgery in 2011 and missed most of that season.
But since returning, he’s still been fairly effective out of the bullpen. Over the past four seasons, he’s 7-10 with a 3.41 ERA in 223 games (124.0 innings) with 128 strikeouts and 40 walks. Lefties are hitting just .232/.298/.348 against him in his career. He’s struck out over 35 percent of left-handed hitters. He is tied for 58th in baseball in relief appearances since 2012.
Notably, Cleveland’s Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen have the most relief appearances in baseball dating back to 2013. That possible durability concern — and the trade deadline deal of Marc Rzepczynski for Abraham Almonte — created the need for another legitimate reliever in the pen. Thatcher will logically compete with youngsters Kyle Crockett and Giovanni Soto for an Indians LOOGY (i.e. lefty one-out guy) bullpen position.
The Indians previously signed veteran reliever Joba Chamberlain to a minor league contract this offseason. But Chamberlain’s recent track record of success is not as impressive as Thatcher’s. Other reliever options for the Indians include Zach McAllister, Jeff Manship, Austin Adams, and Shawn Armstrong.
11 Comments
The roster has to be pretty close to set at this point, unless someone makes a great offer in a trade. All of the holes except 3B appear to be plugged. Maybe they’re that high on Urshela?
Super Bowl.
It will be interesting to see if Manship was a one year wonder. I really like Adams stuff. Shaw really scared the hell out of me in the last 10 weeks of the season. Another arm to throw into the mix in spring training…..
Love the Manship
In the last 24 hours, we have added 103 years to the roster through 2 players
It’s based on analytics: AARP (Age Against Replacement Player)
I tend to agree. I think they are optimistic Urshela is a better hitter than we saw in his rookie season and just aren’t willing to give up a huge amount to displace him, although I doubt they think he’s a well-above-average mlb hitter. We were a little spoiled by Lindor’s hot start, though, and are maybe a little too hard on Urshela as a result. It’s not out of the question that he improves significantly. They obviously kicked the tires on a couple of 3B’s, but I’m guessing they weren’t willing to give up Zimmer or Frazier to get one of the ones available.
Urshela is probably a better hitter than last year’s display, but that still leaves a lot of room for him to be a below average hitter. Maybe it is a bit hard on a 23 year old getting his feet wet in MLB, but he was replacement-level last year. We should be looking for quite a bit better performance from 3B in 2016.
I think you are right about Urshela, he’s not that bad of a hitter but he won’t be a great one either.
I am worried about the bullpen though. I feel like we need another arm (or two) out there to accommodate Tito’s managerial style but I don’t see how you make room for them.
Napoli and Davis major league talents? You got to be kidding. Two more old, washed up stiffs collected by the idiot front office.
I am getting a salary of more than 3800 dollars each week , that is awesome. Over a year ago I was in a horrible condition , jobless and Bank account with only few bucks . Thank one of my friends showed me a way where I was able to gather my self and making average of 85 d/h. So it can change your life as it has changed mine.
fg….
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