How will Cleveland Indians react to NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton joining the New York Yankees?
By Paul Hoynes, cleveland.com
phoynes@cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Does this mean Aaron Boone doesn't have to start managing the Yankees until, oh, let's say, Sept. 20?
Boone, who played third base briefly for the Indians, was recently named manager of the Yankees. He's never coached or managed at any level, but it may not matter with the early Christmas present GM Brian Cashman just delivered to him.
Giancarlo Stanton is coming to the Bronx. The big man from south Florida has been traded to the Yankees by their old shortstop Derek Jeter.
He comes with a contract that is big in dollars and long in years. The Yankees could be absorbing as much as $265 million of the $295 million that Jeter, as new CEO of the Marlins, has been trying to get out from under. Stanton has 10 years left on the 13-year contract he signed with Florida, including an opt out clause in 2020.
Stanton's jump into pinstripes means a couple of things for the baseball community:
If he was part of the logjam preventing player movement in terms of trades and free agent signings this winter, well, consider the logjam cleared just in time for the winter meetings that start Sunday in Orlando, Fla. The clog started to clear earlier in the week when the Angles signed Japan's Shohei Ohtani.
On a more localized note, the decision by Dick Jacobs, late owner of the Indians, to move his team out of the AL East and into the new AL Central in 1994, has never looked better.
The Indians finished last season with the best pitching in the AL. They led in overall ERA, starting rotation ERA and bullpen ERA. Corey Kluber won his second Cy Young award in four years. Carlos Carrasco, who joined Kluber as an 18-game winner, finished fourth in the voting and Trevor Bauer won a career-high 17 games.
But with all due respect to Kluber and the staff, it is a good thing to be in the AL Central when you can face the rebuilding White Sox, Twins, Royals and Tigers. The AL East presents steeper challenges.
Not that the Indians didn't handle them well last season. They went 49-32 in the AL Central and 22-12 in the AL East on the way to winning 102 games. That included a 5-2 record against the Yankees.
That Yankee lineup did not have Stanton and his 59 homers to go along with Aaron Judge's 52 and Gary Sanchez's 33. The Yankees, who led the AL with 241 homers last year, became a lot more dangerous on Saturday.
So playing them seven times in 2018 - all before the All-Star break - is much less taxing than having to face Stanton, Judge and Sanchez 19 times a season as their four rivals in the AL East do.
Still, it would be wrong to start hyperventilating over the arrival of Stanton. The Tribe's new pitching Carl Willis just arrived from the Red Sox so he has plenty of experience preparing for the Yankees. Even in the painful ALDS loss to the Yankees, the Indians did a great job against Judge and a good job against Sanchez.
Judge, the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP runner-up, hit .050 against the Tribe in the ALDS. He struck out 16 times in 20 at-bats.
Sanchez struck out 10 times in 23 at-bats, but hit two homers and batted .174.
Stanton, meanwhile, has hardly been the Man of Steel. He may look like it at 6-6 and 245 pounds, but this year was the first time since 2011 that he's played more than 150 games. Just for the record, the NL MVP hit .281 with an MLB-leading 59 homers and 132 RBI. He posted a 1.007 OPS.
No doubt a lineup with Stanton, Judge and Sanchez will ruin a lot of pitcher's days and nights. But with power comes something else - strikeouts. No one supposedly cares about strikeouts anymore, but Stanton struck out 163 times last season, while Judge went down swinging 208 times and Sanchez 120. While the projection of production is formidable, so is the amount of time that they will do nothing at all.
The Indians, as a reminder, led the AL in strikeouts last season with 1,153. Yankees hitters finished 10th in strikeouts.
Right now, it is best for Indians decision makers Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff to let the Stanton storm swirl past and address their own issues.
Chief among them will be trying to get a handle on the Carlos Santana situation. The switch-hitting Santana has drawn a lot of interest. The Red Sox were in on him early, but they've also been linked to Eric Hosmer and J.D. Martinez. After finishing last in the AL in homers in 2017, and seeing Stanton go to the Yankees, they're going to have to do something to add power.
The Phillies, Texas, Seattle and San Diego have shown interest in Santana as well. Santana has a qualifying offer attached to him.
The Indians need help in the pen as well. Bryan Shaw isn't expected to return and Joe Smith might join him. They could use another late-inning reliever to go with Andrew Miller and Cody Allen, who will both be eligible for free agency at the end of the 2018 season.
On top of that, the Indians still haven't said what they plan to do with Jason Kipnis and Michael Brantley. Kipnis, an All-Star second baseman in 2015, ended last season in center field. Just where he'll be at the start of 2018 is unknown.
Brantley, an All-Star left fielder last season, is recovering from left ankle surgery. He's been injured the last two years and the Indians may move him to first base if they don't re-sign Santana.
Antonetti, the Indians president of baseball operations, said the organization will have a better idea of where Kipnis and Brantley fit by January or early February.