Well, I guess that answers that. The Tribe is NOT going to sit idly by this off-season. With the winter meetings in Vegas, the Tribe has been active.
First, the Tribe made an aggressive move signing Kerry Wood to be their closer. It is a welcome relief (puns, heh) to see someone not named Wickman or Borowski slated to be the pitcher holding (or not holding) leads in the 9th inning this year. Wood may well end up being a total bust in Cleveland. We may rue the day that Shapiro and company went out on an injury-riddled limb and got into bed with Kerry Wood to the tune of $10 million per year. Either that, or he could save 40+ games for the Tribe next year as they make a triumphant return to the playoffs.
Then, yesterday, the Tribe tried to solve the logjam in the outfield by trading the most expendable outfielder on their major league roster in Franklin Gutierrez. In exchange for a hitter who fell off the table last year hitting .248 with 8 home runs and 41 RBI, for a 24 year-old side-arming right hander who has shown potential in the bullpen at the major league level, and a AAA infielder named Luis Valbuena. Now, we don’t know if Valbuena is going to develop into major league talent, but he apparently has potential at second base. What this means is that at worst, the Tribe outfield will include Sizemore, Shin Soo Choo and Ben Francisco. Of course that only will be the case if the Tribe doesn’t go out and get Pat Burrell who is reportedly being passed over by the Phillies. (I can dream, can’t I?)
The Tribe has also have been efficiently inactive.
I was really confused when I heard that the Indians were still interested in Casey Blake after resigning Jamey Carroll, presumably to be their utility infielder. Then a conspiracy theory occurred to me. Maybe the Tribe never really wanted to bring back Casey Blake at all. At the same time, we know that Shapiro and Indians brass have huge respect and appreciation for all Blake has done for the Tribe over the years. So, my theory is that maybe Shapiro was doing Blake and his agent a favor by expressing interest in order to help them gain leverage over the teams that Blake had a chance of signing with.
But, what do I know? Hopefully this is just the warming up period for the Tribe and they aggressively look for another corner outfielder, a more major-league ready infielder, and someone to compete for a spot in the rotation not named Paul Byrd.
Author: CraigLyndall
Craig Lyndall has been writing about all the Cleveland sports teams at WaitingForNextYear since September 2008. When he isn't, you can find him selling insurance or playing music. Follow WFNYCraig on Twitter.Craig Lyndall has written 338 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
i like it!
but after the last few seasons (all-sports encompassing) i refuse to get excited until mid-season when our record is far north of .500
…so disregard that exclamation point above, please.
I wish they would hurry up with the Blake situation, I’m still on the fence about season tickets
Shapiro’s brilliant move of c-blocking the Tigers from getting Putz was monster!
@ Danny. “The Blake situation?” Casey was already resigned by the Dodgers.
Welp, the Indians just lost them a season ticket holder
Really… you based your decision on if we could sign an over priced utility player…
Next thing you know you’ll try and tell me that you decided to get your season tickets because we’re trading young outfielders so that David Dellucci can have more playing time in the outfield…
If you couldn’t tell outside of kingdiesel’s point of kicking the Tigers when they are down even more… I’m not a huge fan of this trade… I have to believe that this is a trade in order to facilitate a trade for ACTUAL infield help… i guess I will keep my fingers crossed…
I’m joking
I was really hoping to not have to hear the Dellucci name ever again. Thanks, Alex!
The Mets just went from no one in their bullpen aside from Billy Wagner to adding two of the best closers in the game over the last two seasons… Of course, this is assuming Putz can stay healthy.
And while the Tribe’s interest in Blake may have got the ball rolling in his favor, the Twins didn’t hurt. Three years and 18mm for a 35 year old is pretty outrageous. Though it also sets the bar for what the Tribe will have to pay if they do still want an infielder…
I really like the fact that the Indians are back into the process of selling unproven hacks like Franklin Gutierrez for potential stars like Valbuena. At worst the presence of this new middle infielder will put pressure upon Jhonny Peralta, Josh Barfield, Asdrubal Cabrera, Andy Marte and the rest of the Major League infield. I hope that among these five players we will have eventually have our 2B, SS and 3B of the future…. If they don’t prove that fast, Wes Hodges could very well be on the Major League scene in 2010.
While we will obviously have to wait and see what the results of these moves are on the field, on paper, I like what Shapiro has done so far. Wood is a closer, who if healthy, brings potentially dominant stuff to the closer’s spot, something the Indians haven’t had since, *gulp*, Jose Mesa. Imporantly, as others pointed out, Shapiro kept Wood away from the Tigers, who are in need of serious bullpen help.
Regarding the trade – it was looking rather obvious that the glut of young outfielders both in the majors and in AAA was going to leave one or two of our current players out of the mix. I’ve always liked Gut, but I question whether he has the tools to be an effective hitter. The guy is a defensive stud, but his swing has some serious deficiencies. I would be surprised if the guy is able to hit for higher than .255 with Seattle. So clearly Shapiro got some value for someone who was not in the Indians future plans. If this Joe Smith character become an effective situational reliever against tough righties this season, that to me is enough to consider this deal a success. The back of the bullpen all of the sudden seems like it COULD be solid, especially if Bentancourt returns to something resembling his 2007 form. If this Valbuena guy works out at some point, this will be icing on the cake – the Indians sure have had success with Seattle infielders in the past (See, e.g., Vizquel, Omar; Cabrera, Asdrubal).
What this trade also does is take a fairly dominant closer, Putz, and keep him away from Detroit and get him out of the AL altogether. Supposedly, Putz was the back-up plan if Wood didn’t work out. When Shapiro realized Wood would come to Cleveland he did the next best thing – shipping Putz out of the league.
I personally don’t think the Indians are done. I would look for Shapiro to sign some sort of veteran back-end rotation guy as the free agent season progresses and then try to put together a package of some of our various odds and ends with young arms and young outfielders for a middle infielder. So far, I’m CAUTIOUSLY optimistic.
Yup, a good start to the offseason for Shapiro. Sure, the Wood signing is risky…but aren’t we all glad to see them going out and taking a risk for once?
In the last few days the Tribe’s essentially replaced Mastny/Mujica from the ‘08 version of the pen with Wood/Smith. On paper, that looks like a huge upgrade…though we all know bullpens can be fickle mistresses.
Read Keith Law’s analysis on the trade on ESPN, and he had mildly nice things to say about Valbuena…that he’s got nice hands, doubles power and a “problem” body (i.e. he likes the buffet table). Sounds like the 2nd coming of Ronnie Belliard to me (which, honestly, if Valbuena becomes anything like Belliard, that would ba A-OK with me).
Oh, and nice analysis AMC…completely agree with you on the OF log-jam and keeping closers away from Detroit.
We may have solved the OF logjam, but we still have a mess in the infield…
The Tribe is mostly interested in salvage projects for the pitchings staff (lower cost/hopefully big return). Any thoughts on signing Carl Pavano for the back end of the rotation? It fits their m.o. pretty dead-on.
I like this trade as well. IMO instead of the middle infielder, a good hitting third baseman would be nice. Marte is a bust. BTW the last injury prone pitcher we Shapiro took a chance on (Millwood) turned out pretty good for us. Hopefully we can strike gold again!!!
Based on our past experience with Seattle-bred middle infielders (Omar Vizquel, Asdrubal Cabrera) I can’t wait to see what Valbuena brings to the table… I’ll gladly give Shapiro the benefit of the doubt on this trade.
And–I didn’t read all the comments, forgive me if this has been pointed out–with an apparent middle infield logjam, this could be the precursor to another deal. Could Shapiro find a way to get value for Barfield?
First off, the signing of Kerry Wood is great to see-well worth any risk. Wood has (still) an ELECTRIC arm, and a true closer must have the ability to turn out the lights. Kudos on this pending announcement, well done.
Keep in mind this spend is on a single player for a short-term contract, and given all of the salaries that fell off last year’s payroll put this all in perspective. The Tribe will REMAIN in the BOTTOM QUARTILE they reside in regards to TOTAL PAYROLL. Such is the Dolan plan. Therefore, what else will happen in regards to a major league infielder, starting pitcher, and outfield help?
Is Shin-Shoo Choo this year’s Franklyn Guitierez?
The Indians traded for their infield help because that kid can platoon with Carroll at second and probably be effective, he was a .300 hitter in the minors and doesn’t strike out much. The pitcher is really good by the numbers at least. Maybe we take a chunk of change, something like 8 mill a year, and toss it at a guy like Pettitte or Sheets or someone in that tier of pitchers. I don’t want just a guy, I want someone who can actually help us. Oh or Smoltz! If he’s healthy.
The bullpen is pretty much complete. When you consider the wealth of talented young pitchers in our minor league system (Adam Miller, as well as the handful of arms we recieved through last year’s mid-season trades), in addition to the five solid arms we currently have (Woods, both Raffys, Lewis and Joe Smith, as well as potentially Masa Kobayashi), I like what we have going. On paper, this has to be one of our strongest bullpens in recent years, and I think that Woods makes all of this possible. If healthy (granted, that’s a pretty big “if”), he’ll be our best closer in recent memory.
I think we need to switch our attention to acquiring a solid middle infielder. Brian Roberts, Dan Uggla and Orlando Hudson are all available… call me crazy, but Jamey Carrol doesn’t exactly inspire cofidence.
The bullpen is pretty much complete. When you consider the wealth of talented young pitchers in our minor league system (Adam Miller, as well as the handful of arms we recieved through last year’s mid-season trades), in addition to the five solid arms we currently have (Woods, both Raffys, Lewis and Joe Smith, as well as potentially Masa Kobayashi), I like what we have going. On paper, this has to be one of our strongest bullpens in recent years, and I think that Woods makes all of this possible. If healthy (granted, that’s a pretty big “if”), he’ll be our best closer in recent memory.
I think we need to switch our attention to acquiring a solid middle infielder. Brian Roberts, Dan Uggla and Orlando Hudson are all available… call me crazy, but Jamey Carrol doesn’t exactly inspire cofidence.
Joe Smith is from Wright State University – it is where I go to grad school in Dayton.
[...] we have the deal that sent Franklin Gutierrez to Seattle, ultimately landing 24-year old Joe Smith from the New York [...]