Grading The Cleveland Indians Offseason Thus Far

While I thought Encarnacion would sign for less than 20 million per year after he turned down virtually the same thing with Toronto and the market not being as hot with a lot of other free agents signing first, the Indians got him for less than Oakland was offering. To get the number one player at their number one position of need is an A grade signing.

I still can’t think of reasons to not like this signing and while not on the same magnitude, I get giggly like I did when I found out LeBron was coming back to the Cavs and look what happened there.

Outside of Encarnacion, the front office has made a bunch of small moves that likely won’t show much of an impact this year. The first one of note would be claiming Tim Cooney off waivers from St. Louis.

A former third round pick of the Cardinals, he posted a 3.16 ERA in six starts for the Cardinals in 2015 before missing all off last year with a shoulder injury, an obvious concern for a pitcher.

If he checks back as healthy the club could use him as a starter in AAA or have him compete for a spot in the bullpen as a lefty where they only had Andrew Miller last postseason.

The second one was trading cash considerations for Nick Goody, a right handed reliever from the Yankees who has a career 4.67 ERA in 34.2 innings. The last one is the signing of another former Blue Jay, 1B Chris Colabello.

The 33-year-old firstbasemen enjoyed a breakout year in 2015 hitting .321 with 15 HRs in just over 100 games for Toronto. His success was short lived as he was suspended shortly intro a struggling 2016 season for 80 games due to PEDs and never returned to the majors.

It may be unlikely that he makes the major league roster off the bat, but if the team can convince him to accept an assignment to Columbus instead of electing free agency, he could provide depth as that possible 1B to replace Carlos Santana if he does not resign.

Cleveland has done virtually everything correct this offseason from a major viewpoint. They let the correct players walk in free agency and tendered all their guys except for Jeff Manship to keep the roster intact. They then signed the best possible free agent for the team in Edwin Encarnacion.

The fanbase is excited for the 2017 season and the club should hopefully have Brantley, Carlos Carrasco, Danny Salazar, and Trevor Bauer back and healthy.

The only minor negative glare on the team would be not signing a matchup lefty that Tito can use out the bullpen. In 2016, that spot was a constant rotation of players including TJ House, Kyle Crockett, Ross Detwiler, and Tom Gorzelanny.

I understand free agency is expensive and relievers get good money too, Marc Rzepczynski got two years 11 million, and Mike Dunn three years 19 million for example, but that is the only need to solidify.

If they could find that one guy willing to take a one year deal worth two to four million why not take the shot at going all in at this point?

Boone Logan, Travis Wood, JP Howell, Zac Rosscup, and Chris Capuano are five names still out there that could come in and be a stable left hander for the bullpen. Signing one of them could change the offseason grade form an A to an A+.

That is truly the only thing I can gripe about with the front office and that is getting nitpicky. Looking at 2017 and beyond, you have to be excited about the potential of this team.

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