MLB Trade Deadline: Recapping Thursday’s Cleveland Indians News and Rumors
Just two days remain before baseball’s non-waiver trade deadline, and if you think you’ve seen a lot of rumors so, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
For four days we’ve been keeping you posted with all the latest buzz around the Cleveland Indians and their reported trade targets, and in the last 24 hours we’ve seen such a steady stream of news and updates—including the Indians’ first midseason “buy” trade in years— that yesterday’s facts are now completely out of date.
As we head towards the busiest weekend of the MLB season, here’s a list of Thursday’s Tribe-related trade market happenings:
-The Indians made their first trade acquisition of the season, sending Abner Abreu and Carlton Smith to the Chicago Cubs for right fielder Kosuke Fukudome. It’s hard to call the deal a big win when Fukudome isn’t a high-impact player, but he’s a clear upgrade over Travis Buck and Austin Kearns and the Indians didn’t give up too much to get him. (more…)
MLB Trade Deadline: Recapping Wednesday’s Cleveland Indians Rumors
Just three days remain until baseball’s non-waiver trade deadline, and the Hot Stove is on high boil. Rumors are swirling non-stop, as they will be for pretty much the rest of the week.
On Tuesday, I compiled a fully sourced analysis of 10 of the Cleveland Indians’ rumored top trade targets, which I updated yesterday to reflect changing conditions in the trade market. But both lists are now tragically out of date.
Here’s a summary of Wednesday’s news, deals, and whisperings about the Indians and the players they’re targeting:
-The Indians officially missed out on Carlos Beltran. The best hitter on the market was traded to the San Francisco Giants Wednesday, ending weeks of speculation about the possibility of him coming to Cleveland. It’s possible that Beltran’s no-trade clause was the problem—agent Scott Boras apparently scared the Indians off, and Beltran blocked a deal that would have sent him to Pittsburgh—but he said he was never approached about one. (more…)
Jason Kipnis’ First MLB Hit Gives Indians Walk-Off Win
We all know the Cleveland sports cliché: just as everything looks like it’s going right, it all falls apart. Indians, Cavs, Browns, whoever—their hot streaks seem to be designed for the sole purpose of setting up heartbreak.
After the Tribe’s comeback, walk-off 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Progressive Field Monday night, it seems like things are inverted. The Indians team doesn’t give us false hope and burst our collective bubble—it lets us down only so it can build us up. (more…)
Indians Promote Top Prospect: How Good Will Jason Kipnis Be?
Big news out of Cleveland on Thursday as Indians promoted their third infield prospect of the season: second baseman Jason Kipnis.
Kipnis, 24, isn’t quite as high-profile a prospect as Lonnie Chisenhall was, but he’s up there for sure. In the 2011 edition of their annual pre-season Top 100 list, Baseball America ranked Kipnis the organization’s third-best prospect (after Chisenhall and Alex White) and the 54th-best prospect in the game. He moved up to No. 31 on BA‘s midseason list, released earlier this month.
Looking at how Kipnis has been demolishing Triple-A pitching, there’s reason to be excited about him joining the Tribe’s lineup. In 90 games this year, he’s hitting .281/.363/.485 with 12 homers, 54 RBI, and 64 runs scored. He’s shown impressive plate discipline (10.9% walk rate), speed (12 steals in 13 attempts) and pop (.726 Power Factor).
So how will he fare in the major leagues? (more…)
Cleveland Indians Must Be Careful as Trade Deadline Approaches
Believe it or not, it’s already the end of May. We’ve passed the one-quarter mark of the 2011 MLB season and we’re rapidly approaching the one-third checkpoint.
The latter is a significant milestone in the season: For managers and front office personnel—or at least, writers who like to pretend they know what managers and front office personnel do—the baseball season is unofficially divided into three parts.
The first third is devoted to figuring out the team’s strengths and weaknesses and overall ability. The middle section is for making adjustments: contending teams trading for missing pieces and the others building for the future. Finally, the last third is the pennant race and a chance for teams who are out of the race to start looking at youngsters for the future.
For the first time in years, Cleveland is closing out the first third of the year looking like a contender. As such, the Indians—believe it or not—are heading into Hot Stove season as likely buyers.
The task of adding at the Trade Deadline is a much more complicated one than is selling. Last year, for example, it didn’t make sense for the Indians to keep any of the veterans whose contracts were set to expire after the season—there was no hope of contending and none of them were part of the team’s long-term plans.
It was a clear-cut, black-and-white situation. Just getting a bit of salary relief or a low-end prospect in return helped the franchise more than keeping guys like Kerry Wood and Austin Kearns around to finish out the year (though, of course, Kearns came back).
But for teams who are buyers, it’s not as easy to chart a course of action. (more…)
