This free agency signing period has been nuts, and as a fan it's been an absolute blast to follow.

NFL free agency beats the snot out of baseball hot stove. Just another case of MLB just not being able to get their crap together. They could make it into a big spectacle too. Draw a lot of fan interest. But instead draw it out over months and nobody pays close attention anymore.

Francisco Lindor (calf) will play in a minor league game on Wednesday.

Lindor has been rehabbing from a strained right calf sustained during a February workout and has yet to take part in spring action. Making progress, though. In Wednesday's minor league game, the star shortstop is expected to receive three at-bats, run to first base and played controlled defense. Lindor may well still end up missing games at the start of the regular season, but good to see him making progress. He should be viewed as a first-round pick for fantasy purposes, even with the injury concern.

He batted 3 times and struck out 2. And was in the field for a few innings.
Brad Zimmer also appeared as a hitter, 2 walks in 3 at bats. Did not play the field

The Indians have informed Matt Joyce that he will not make the Opening Day roster.

It's a courtesy that teams often do for veteran players so that the player has a chance to catch on elsewhere. Joyce might do just that, although it's no given that he'll be able to find someone willing to guarantee him a roster spot.

indians optioned RHP Chih-Wei Hu to Triple-A Columbus; re-assigned INFs Ernie Clement and Mark Mathias, RHPs Henry Martinez and Josh Smith and OF Daniel Johnson to minor league camp.

They have lopped off seven players every week; so the 65 have now been reduced to 44. This time the demoted included two [Johnson and Clement] who impressed but have not been AA yet. Two who had a chance coming in [Joyce and Hu] but were awful.

Some of the remaining trims will be easy, e.g. they're still carrying 5 catchers but everyone knows that Federowicz and Navarro and almost certainly Haase will not make the roster. Kind of amazing that Mike Papi is still around but he certainly will not open in Cleveland. Mike Freeman is another utility IF type but Flaherty and Stamets are both ahead of him.

Zimmer and Salazar will open the season on the DL. And Cody Anderson is not ready to return to the majors. Plutko returns to Columbus as our "6th starter"

So delete those 10 and the tally is 34. Long shots for Jordan Luplow and Trayce Thompson and Brandon Barnes unless Tito elects to keep one as a RH OF spare part and farm out Mercado.
The only interesting decisions are around Hanley and Mercado.

nearly all the rest of the 6 required moves will come among the long cast of relievers plus one or two infielders depending on Lindor's status.

The in-game rule change that will really make a significant difference both in game management and roster makeup is the "3 batter minimum" expect at the end of an inning. This will not be good news for Mike Rcpczynski and his ilk

3 batter rule not until 2020

They are going to do it in the minors this year though. See if there are any unforeseen problems with it.

Indians optioned RHP Cody Anderson to Triple-A Columbus.

Indians reportedly agree to deal with CarGo

26 minutes ago

The Indians have agreed to a deal with free-agent outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, MLB Network insider Jon Heyman reported Saturday night. According to Heyman the deal includes a non-roster invite to Spring Training with a $2 million base salary and $1 million in incentives. The club has not confirmed the deal.

CarGo does indeed have deal with Indians. NRI. 2M base plus 1M incentives.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 16, 2019

Gonzalez hit .276/.329/.467 with 16 home runs in 132 games with the Rockies last season. The 33-year-old has 231 homers over his 11-year big league career.

And more good news. Lindor with 2-4 in a minor league game today with a double and homer. Also played 3 innings at SS. (Has he homered in 3 straight games now?)

Wow - ok if HanRam shows he can hit and now CarGo, those are legit bats.

Farewell Tyler Naquin. He may possibly make the opening day roster and then be disappeared after a couple weeks when Gonzalez is ready. Or they could be nice to Tyler and, like they did with Joyce, give some time to try to hook with another team even more desparate than we are for outfielders.

The Indians FA strategy of wait and wait and [and wait] and sign is still in place. whether picking up one veteran at the very tail end of his career and one clearly on the downside will look out is not going to involved a lot of financial risk. And perhaps Mercado and later Johnson will be available to step up when and if Hanley and CarGo prove to have gone past their expiration dates.

Since I don't pay any attention to the National League, I know practically nothing about Gonzalez. He certainly has had a nice long career. Everything says he's a far better hitter at Coors than elsewhere. Checking his recent splits sure as hell confirms that:

2018
HOME 315/360/580
AWAY 241/302/361

2017
HOME 323/403/520
AWAY 203/274/332

2016
HOME 320/375/591
AWAY 276/324/420

2015
HOME 299/355/617
AWAY 243/294/464

Maybe we should play our home games in Denver. Otherwise he looks like NO improvement over the range of mediocrities we have been auditioning for outfield spots this year.

if we open up with a starting lineup of all Lefties, I'm sure that means Greg Allen will at least be playing everytime a lefthander is on the mound in one spot or another.