Monday the Indians went 0-for-2 in the free agent department, as the club lost its second free agent thus far in 2018 late Monday night with outfield Lonnie Chisenhall inking a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the deal is for $2.75 million for one year, not bad for a player who has only played in 111 games over the last two seasons.
Earlier on Monday, the Indians lost third basemen Josh Donaldson to a one-year deal worth $23 million to the Atlanta Braves.
It’s not known if the Indians had any interest in bringing back Chisenhall considering they are going to need some bodies in the outfield, but with the injury woes he’s had the last two seasons, likely if the team did have interest in bringing him back, it wouldn’t have been for the price the Pirates shelled out for him.
Last season Chisenhall appeared in just 29 games as he suffered from calf injuries for most of the season. In those 29 games he hit .321 with one homer and 9 RBI.
He missed almost the entire second half of 2017 with the same calf issues, but managed two seasons back to appear in 82 games, hitting .288 with 12 homers and 53 RBI.
Overall in his eight seasons, all with the Indians, he hit a career .268 in 688 games, with 64 homers and 296 RBI.
With the MLB Winter Meetings closing in, the Indians are expected to continue to lose most of their free agents, which include the likes of Michael Brantley, Cody Allen and Andrew Miller.
The team is still in the process of looking at the roster and figuring out if trading one of their top starters to stockpile players and young talent might be the way to go as well.
The outfield, which is an area of major concern, right now includes the following players under contract – Greg Allen, recently acquired Jordan Luplow, Leonys Martin, Tyler Naquin, Bradley Zimmer, also recently picked up Oscar Mercado, and potentially Jason Kipnis if the team wants to keep him in the outfield as they did at the end of 2017 and 2018.
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