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news and updates—including the Indians’ first midseason “buy” trade in years— that yesterday’s facts are now completely out of date.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…)
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…)
Indians Promote Lonnie Chisenhall: How Much Will He Help Cleveland?
Tribe fans rejoiced Monday when the Cleveland Indians announced they had called up the organization’s top prospect, Lonnie Chisenhall. He didn’t disappoint in his MLB debut last night, going 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI in the Indians’ 5-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Chisenhall’s call-up was exciting, no doubt, and he made a great first impression. Cleveland fans have every reason to enjoy seeing the promotion of a future franchise player. But as the Indians try to hang on at the top of the AL Central standings, the poignant question is: How much good will Chisenhall do?
In 65 games with Triple-A Columbus this year, Chiz hit .265/.352/.427 with seven homers, 44 runs, and 44 RBI. With a 110 wRC+, he was 10% better than the average International League hitter. That’s good for the minors, but how will he fare against MLB pitching? (more…)
Cleveland Indians Prospect Watch: Should Tribe Call Up Lonnie Chisenhall?
When the Cleveland Indians sent third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall back down to the minors after Spring Training, Tribe fans were disheartened.
The consensus top prospect in Cleveland’s farm system and one of the most promising minor leaguers in the game before the season, Chisenhall hit .500 with a 1.451 OPS in 12 games this spring before his reassignment. It wasn’t a surprise decision—the Indians brass didn’t completely rule out giving him a spot on the Tribe’s Opening Day roster, but GM Chris Antonetti had made it clear that he wanted Chisenhall to get more seasoning in Triple-A—but it was a disappointing one nonetheless.
But Indians fans quickly forgot their sorrows when Jack Hannahan started tearing the cover off the ball. The 2011 Tuffy Rhodes Award winner looked like an All-Star in April, hitting .273/.349/.481—35% better than the average MLB hitter, according to wRC+—while playing Gold Glove-caliber defense.
Through that first month, he earned 0.8 WAR, putting him on pace for 5.9 WAR over 162 games. Even forgetting about Chisenhall’s development and arbitration clock, going with Hannahan looked like a smart move.
But, in a cruel inversion of the nursery rhyme, April’s flowers turned to May showers. He completely fell off the wagon in May, falling to a .184 average and a .484 OPS. Even factoring in his solid glove, Hannahan has been basically replacement level (less than 0.1 WAR) since the end of April.
Interestingly, Hannahan’s decline has coincided with the start of call-up season. Every year, at least a handful of the game’s top prospects (like Cord Phelps last week) come up to get their first tastes of the big leagues around when school gets out. In other words, it’s about the time of year when we expected Chisenhall would get the call.
With the Cleveland’s once-comfortable AL Central lead now completely gone, the team could use a boost, and it just so happens that the organization’s top prospect would be able to fill one of the biggest holes in the Tribe’s lineup.
And so, the question is: should the Indians call up Chisenhall? (more…)
Lonnie Chisenhall Demoted: Why the Cleveland Indians Might Not Regret It
In case you missed the memo earlier this week, the Cleveland Indians dropped the hammer on Lonnie Chisenhall, officially cutting their top prospect from the Opening Day roster. Sending Chiz to Triple-A isn’t a sign of no confidence—it was the plan all along—but still, it’s disheartening to see a guy who was hitting .478 with a 1.452 OPS not make the team.
Indians GM Chris Antonetti said the move wasn’t about manipulating Chisenhall’s service calendar—everyone “felt Lonnie still had development left to do,” he said:
The landscape is filled with guys who have had good years. They get progressed too quickly to the big-league level. Then they’re back at Triple-A, back in the big leagues, back in Triple-A.
“We want to do everything possible to avoid that. There are no certainties, but when Lonnie comes up, or any player comes up, we want to make sure he’s as well positioned as possible to succeed.”
I’m not saying keeping Chisenhall down was the right decision, and I’m certainly disappointed that I won’t get to see him play until his eventual call-up. But there is a silver lining—one that we fans won’t be able to truly appreciate for several years.
The following is a (fictional) newspaper story from November 1, 2016 that will never be published thanks to this decision. (more…)
