Now that the offseason has officially arrived, there’s plenty of speculation as to what teams will look to do in terms of free agents and signing their own players.
The Indians are in that mix, as they announced on Friday they officially picked up the option on pitcher Corey Kluber while declining the option on second basemen Jason Kipnis and reliever Dan Otero.
MLB.com today put out a list of the most pressing need for each team, and to the surprise of no one who watched the team this past season, they feel that the outfield is the position of need for the Tribe in 2020.
Here’s what the site had to say:
Yasiel Puig was a good fit in Cleveland after he was acquired in late July, but he’s a free agent and seems unlikely to return. The Indians will need to replace his power (although he hit only two home runs for them) to fortify the lineup.
The site also pointed out a pair of players that the Indians might look at in free agency, one being 27-year-old Nicholas Castellanos, who Indians fans have watched the last seven seasons with the Tigers before he was traded during 2019 to the Cubs.
Castellanos last season in 151 games total hit .289 with 27 homers and 73 runs batted in with 58 doubles.
Another possible free agent target they say is Kole Calhoun, who is 32 years old and has played the last eight seasons with the Angels in Los Angeles.
Calhoun last season hit just .232, but hit 33 homers with 74 runs batted in. He’s a lifetime .249 hitter with 140 homers with 451 runs batted in.
There’s no doubt the Indians have a hole or two in the outfield to fill, how they do it will be one of the more interesting things to watch for this offseason.
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C Fisher
November 2, 2019 at 10:43 am
Why focus on the stats from 1980’s baseball cards? What a lazy article… what’s their projected payroll w/o doing anything? Base it off that… it’s it’s $110M after arb we aren’t doing squat (aside from veteran maybes and a relief pitcher), it’s its less then maybe something more. But assuredly if they wouldn’t give a two year deal to Brantley how they gonna get the lesser and probably more expensive Castellanos?! Then you mention Calhoun? Really?
Daniel Levy
November 3, 2019 at 7:40 am
Puig is exactly the type of player that they need to resign. He hits with power, has a great arm in the outfield and is a huge team player. Ditto for Lindor. Potential WS teams don’t trade away HOF-quality guys to save $20 million per year. They need to do everything possible to pay him big – $30-35 million per for the next 5 seasons. While I love what Kluber has done for the team, he was on a down slide last year before he broke his arm. I’m not convinced it’s worth $20 million per year to keep him when we have so many strong younger pitchers. Lindor is #1 for signing by a mile. Trading him for prospects is such a Shapiro thing to do — an admission that they’ll never compete for a title.