Cleveland Sports Forum

Bradley and Hentges of course are protected. Kaminsky was not. instead Juan Carlos Mejia RHP 6-4 205 got a spot. He spent 3 seasons in the Dominican Summer League; 2017 in Arizona and Mahoning Valley. Finally visited full season ball halfway into 2018 and pitched well for Lake County, but boy he is raw. Would someone actually have drafted him and stuck on the major league roster for a season? 98 innings for the Captains 89 hits only home runs 21 walks 100 strikeouts. 6 innings in Lynchburg. I have to assume he must have a solid fastball but haven't read anything. His name never came up in the BA Indians chat maybe none of chatters thought to ask about him.

40th spot filled by another trade of an 18 year old for a marginal major leaguer: We got right-hander Walker Lockett in exchange for right-hander Ignacio Feliz [Beneviedo's oldest son?] Lockett, 24, spent most of 2018 with Triple-A El Paso. He had a 4.73 ERA with 118 strikeouts against 33 walks in 133 1/3 innings. He made three spot starts in San Diego, posting a 9.60 ERA. He was the Padres' Minor League Pitcher of the Year in '16 and a fourth-round Draft pick in 2012. The Indians gave up Feliz, a 19-year-old native of the Dominican Republic who posted a 3.00 ERA in 10 starts in the Rookie-level Arizona League this year.

MLB.com's Jon Morosi reports that the Cardinals are "maintaining interest" in Michael Brantley.

The Cards would prefer a corner infielder as they seek lineup upgrades, but they've been connected to Bryce Harper and evidently are considering Brantley, too. Brantley would provide them with the left-handed bat they're looking for.

The 31-year-old batted .309/.364/.468 with 17 homers and 76 RBI in 143 games for the Indians this past season.

Brantley seems like a Cardinals type player.

saw a story yesterday that the Indians and Dodgers are talking. Dodgers want Kluber or Carrasco and Gomes. They have a surplus of outfielders and could deal

Joc Pederson who hit 248/321/522
Puig who hit 267/327/494
Alex Verdugo 22 year old who hit 329/391/472 in AAA and not much yet in 100 major year at bats.

Not sure how they're supposed to help us replace Gomes since their only catcher is a FA and leaving them.

he Indians are unlikely to participate in the 2018 rule 5 draft as they have a full 40 man roster, but they had a bit of a private rule 5 during the past week. On multiple occasions, they have paid a premium (in low minor talent) to access players that teams were not planning on holding on the 40 man roster prior to Tuesday’s rule 5 deadline and before they hit waivers or free agency.
The final one of these deals featured the Indians grabbing Walter Lockett from the Padres in exchange for Ignacio Feliz. Feliz is a right handed starting pitcher that I became very familiar with during the 2018 season as he was initially the ace on AZL Indians 2 before being transferred to AZL Indians 1 mid-season.
A 2016 international free agent, Feliz had a rather pedestrian start to his career with average or below average standard and peripheral stats in the 2017 Dominican Summer League. He came to the United States for extended spring training in 2018, however, and really took off once he began play in the Arizona Rookie League.

With Indians 2, Feliz made 7 starts and allowed just 8 earned runs, striking out 9.5 per nine and walking just 2.6. Following the promotion of Indians 1 ace Yeffersson Yannuzzi to Mahoning Valley, Feliz was moved to team 1 where he had the best start of his young career, striking out 10 in 4 innings while allowing just two hits and one earned run. While he gave up a few runs in his next start, ruining his ERA for his three starts with Indians 1, he had a strong run of seven starts ending with that game with a .180/.252/.230 line and a 1.82 ERA.
Feliz is only 19 and was ranked at #69 in Burning River Baseball’s Indians prospect rankings from earlier this month. He has an outside chance of making it to the big leagues, but any chance will be many years in the future. At the moment, even the most positive of projections would have to have him as a back end of the rotation starter or long reliever. He could obviously improve upon that, but Feliz is far from a high ceiling prospect.
The Indians return continues to show their skin flint approach at revamping the bullpen. Walker Lockett is another straw Mike Chernoff has grasped at with 2019 projections of a 4.73 ERA, 1.73 WHIP, 3.5 BB/9 and 8.5 K/9. Of course, those projections (from Baseball Reference) are significantly better than his actual production in his rookie season of 2018.

His numbers in AAA as a starter last year are a little more comforting, especially since most pitchers are able to increase their strike out rate with a move to the bullpen. He walked just 2.2 per nine and struck out 8 while with El Paso in the high offense Pacific Coast League. His career 4.15 ERA through nearly 500 minor league innings makes him seem no better than many of the Indians internal options, however, including some who were left exposed to the rule 5 draft when they included Lockett on the 25 man roster.
On an individual level, this trade doesn’t look like much, but it continues a trend for the Indians as they try to balance their minor league system. It has been particularly bottom heavy for awhile, but went to the Sir-Mix-A-Lot extreme this year when they added a second AZL team to go with the 1.5 DSL teams and short season team. With so many players at the lower levels, the Indians would either have to promote players more quickly (which they did with a few 2018 draft picks like Nick Sandlin and Richie Palacios) or cut more players at the break between short season and A ball.
Rather than cutting players from the bottom, however, they have taken to trading those closer to the top like Feliz, Tahnaj Thomas, Dante Mendoza and Gionti Turner going all the way back to the trade of Jhon Torres and Conner Capel for Oscar Mercado during the 2018 season. These are all players who are many years away from the big leagues, but still have some value on the trade market.
While none of the players returned in these deals look to be superstars, or even MLB regulars, they do help the Indians replenish their upper minor leagues for a moment. At the end of the season, five players from the RubberDucks became free agents as well as 13 from the Clippers. Some of these holes will be filled internally, but with so many of the Indians top prospects still below A ball, it won’t be by the most elite Indians prospects (with the exception of Triston McKenzie). When you note that the 2018 Clippers featured Mitch Talbot, Miles Jay and Adam Wilk, the players coming back in these deals look a lot better.
This, however, begs the question of why the Indians front office values these players who aren’t good enough to be on the 40 man rosters of the Padres, Pirates and Rays, over their own players like Kieran Lovegrove and Josh Martin (who were allowed to leave as a free agent when he wasn’t added to the 40 man roster earlier this year) and Henry Martinez (who will be exposed to the rule 5 draft in December). Do the Indians have so little trust in their drafting and development that they’d rather take a flier on anyone else’s castaway than give someone in house a chance? It certainly seems that way.

The above from Burning River Baseball

Yan Gomes - C - Indians
According to Andy Martino of SNY, the Mets have had talks with the Indians about acquiring catcher Yan Gomes.

The 31-year-old backstop was one of the top offensive performers at the position in 2018, slashing .266/.313/.449 with 16 homers and 48 RBI. The Indians are reportedly looking for young outfielders in return for Gomes, who is under team control through the 2021 season, which makes the Mets presumably a terrific fit with their wealth of talent in the outfield.

the Mets presumably a terrific fit with their wealth of talent in the outfield

.

Let's investigate the wealth:

They have 25 year old Brandon Nimmo who hit 263/404/483
25 year old Michael Conforto 243/350/448



Jay Bruce, and Jose Bautista don't count. Juan Lageras has bounced from AAA to the majors for a few seasons with a 667 OPS.

None of that wealth of OF talent is in the minors. Just checked the BA Mets Top 10, midseason edition, and there was one OF on the list, a kid in rookie ball.

So I think I'll be happy to take Nimmo for Gomes. Still not quite certain what we do about catching after he's gone. Eric Haase and Roberto Perez are a below average pairing.

Check the Mets for relief pitchers and whether they need a 2nd basemen who would be a leader on a team that needs one. Callaway is a big fan of Kipnis.

The only problems with Kipnis are his contract and his injury history. Talent-wise he's a Major League player that many teams could use....even the Indians. Contract-wise he's an albatross.

Tribe may have to eat a major portion of that foolish contract.

A note on those 2 outfielders civ.

Michael Conforto was coming off shoulder surgery and is their star in the making. He hit much better in the 2nd half and is close to untouchable. Check out his 2017 before the shoulder issue and you'll see why.

https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?p ... osition=OF

Nimmo had a surprising season and would be more available. Lefty hitter with speed (in the past) who actually showed surprising pop with speed just average.

https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?p ... osition=OF

I know nothing about their minors/prospect outfielders.

those are the only two who impress.

Checking Mets 2nd basemen;

Jeff McNeil, a 26-year-old rookie hit .329 .381 .471 .852
who took over for only 32 year old Asdrubel Cabrera traded to the Phillies; before he left his stats were solid 277 .329 .488 .817

Hard to see why they would have any interest in Kipnis

More Ken Rosenthal

Chisenhall’s deal also includes a series of performance bonuses: $250K each for 250 plate appearances, 300-350-400, $500K each for 450-500-550-600.Ken Rosenthal added,


@Ken_Rosenthal

Source: #Pirates sign free-agent OF Lonnie Chisenhall to one-year, $2.75M contract.

Bob Nightengale @BNightengale
Teams talking to the Cleveland #Indians say the Indians are much more inclined to trade Trevor Bauer than Corey Kluber or Carlos Carrasco. Bauer has 2 years of club control left, but the only one of the starters with cost uncertainty. He has two arbitration years left before FA.
9:21 AM - Nov 27, 2018

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Exploring a Possible Indians/Padres Trade

10 mins ago James Clark

The Cleveland Indians and San Diego Padres match up very well in a potential trade. The Indians need outfielders and the Padres need starting pitching. Can the two sides iron out a deal and what exactly could a trade look like between these two teams?

There are several reports that the Cleveland Indians are looking for outfield help for the 2019 season.

Hunter Renfroe specifically is someone who has been linked in reported discussions between the two sides. Renfroe is coming off a season where he put up a .805 OPS and 26 homers in 117 games for the Padres. His value has risen as he, at times, was the most consistent offensive player on the Padres’ roster last season. Mammoth outfielder Franmil Reyes is also a possible target as he would make an excellent DH in the American League. La Mole put up a .828 OPS in 87 games.

There is no doubt that the San Diego Padres need to move an outfielder, as they presently have quite a few men who are capable of being major league starters. Manuel Margot, Franmil Reyes. Franchy Cordero, Hunter Renfroe, Wil Myers, and Travis Jankowski have all proven what the can in the minors. They all need consistent at-bats at the major league level. They need to play.

With Lonnie Chisenhall signing with the Pirates on Tuesday morning, the Indians lost an outfielder from their 2018 season. Michael Brantley is a free agent and not expected to return. Rajai Davis is also a free agent and probably will not return. The Cleveland Indians, plain and simple, need outfielders for next season. Tyler Naquin, Leonys Martin, and Bradley Zimmer are the only men on the 40-men with major league outfield experience. You could argue that there are plenty of free agents available for the Tribe to pick through on the open market, but the team might be on the lookout for cost-controlled, young talent instead.

Franmil Reyes and Hunter Renfroe both make sense for Cleveland on many levels. But what could the Indians offer the Padres?

The obvious answer is starting pitching. As the Padres desire a top of the order starter. Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, and Carlos Carrasco would all be treasured by the Padres in a trade. Each hurler would be an expensive trade target though. Renfroe or Reyes would be a great starting point, but the Friars would need to sweeten the deal in order to pry a pitcher from the Indians rotation.

So where does this leave the two sides? I have seen some possible scenarios where the Padres take on Jason Kipnis and the $17 million he is owed for next season, including a buyout for the 2020 season. Kipnis could play second base and ease an injured Luis Urias into a starting role, but I doubt the Indians would just part with the veteran infielder as a salary dump. Kipnis is coming off a season where he put up a .703 OPS and will be 32 years old next season. This could work in a possible deal, but you would have to think the Indians would want to obtain some prospects from the Padres in return for a pitcher.

Josh Naylor and Austin Allen are two highly regarded prospects who are stuck behind tremendous depth in the Padres organization. Naylor, a first baseman is close to being major league ready, but the Padres have at least four more years invested into Eric Hosmer. The left-handed hitting Naylor played some outfield this past season in double-A and held his own, but he is clearly a first baseman. Allen is stuck behind Austin Hedges and Francisco Mejia behind the plate. Luis Campusano, Luis Torrens, and Blake Hunt are also right behind him in the minors. Allen could be dealt and it would not hinder the growth within the farm system.

In recent days there are reports that the Indians are likely to part with Trevor Bauer over any of their pitchers. Bauer is only under contract for two more seasons and is unwilling to negotiate on an extension. The Padres might be able to wrestle the right-handed pitcher away from the Indians with a clever package of prospects and a current major league option in the outfield.

December is near, and the hot stove is just starting to heat up. Keep a close eye on the Indians as they look to improve a team that is the favorite to win the AL Central once again in 2019. They are in a position to make a deal and the Padres match up very well in a potential deal.