Meisel's take:
Final Thoughts: The fallout from the Indians’ trade-deadline decisions
Zack Meisel 2h ago 9
CLEVELAND — Here are 14 final thoughts following the Indians’ trade-deadline dealings.
1. Mike Clevinger and Trevor Bauer shared a last meal at Lucky’s Cafe on Wednesday afternoon.
Bauer, Clevinger and Shane Bieber have developed a close friendship during the past two seasons, a bond founded on competitiveness. They assist each other. They tease each other. And they never sugarcoat when they’re around each other, whether Clevinger is pointing to the radar gun, Bauer is pointing to his strikeout total or Bieber is pointing to his All-Star Game MVP prize, a new Chevy Silverado.
Bauer had advanced past the initial shock of the three-team trade — more so the timing (reporters and teammates simultaneously learned of the transaction while in the clubhouse) and destination (a playoff long shot that had hardly been mentioned as a likely suitor) than the fact he was dealt. So, there was no tiptoeing around the topic at lunch.
“I was like, ‘Hey, look at the return you gave us with you leaving,’’’ Clevinger said. “‘You see how many guys came over here?’”
2. The three hurlers had countless conversations about the trade deadline the past few weeks. They knew the Indians might attempt to deal from a source of depth (assuming — and this is a bit of a risky assumption — Corey Kluber and, perhaps, Danny Salazar can provide a lift) to address their lineup. They knew Bauer’s name had been bandied about in trade rumors for months.
“It kind of seemed like we were getting away from it,” Bieber said, “and then all of a sudden last night, it just happened. That’s the business side of it. You can never get too sold out on whether something’s going to happen.”
3. Bauer has contended for weeks that the whispers never bothered him, never disrupted his daily routine. But it would be human nature to concern oneself with the possibility of such a life-altering event surfacing at any moment.
“You never know what’s just a front,” Bieber said, “just saying it to say it or saying it to try to get it more out there and to be more comfortable with it.”
4. Bieber bid farewell to his locker mate Wednesday morning, as Bauer packed up his belongings. They shared a quick moment, but, naturally, Bauer had a videographer capturing the day’s events, which made it “kind of weird.”
“Classic last note to leave on,” Bieber said, laughing.
5. Bauer’s exit meeting with Terry Francona was also abrupt. By the time Bauer met with Francona and Chris Antonetti, the pitcher had heard from his agent about the trade.
“We wished him well and he went on his way,” Francona said.
Based on Francona’s description, this congregation was a bit less heartfelt than the one in which he, Antonetti and Michael Brantley all had tears escaping their eyes last fall.
“There are times when it’s probably more difficult than others, that’s probably safe to say,” Francona said. “Last year, when we talked to Brantley in his exit meeting, there probably wasn’t a dry eye — his or ours. Sometimes it’s emotional and sometimes it’s not quite as emotional. That’s just being honest.”
6. Francona said he voiced concerns to Antonetti and Mike Chernoff about how Bauer’s untimely long-toss session in Kansas City might spoil clubhouse chemistry. Francona had said he was considering further discipline for Bauer beyond a league fine, though that’s a moot point now. Bauer declined to comment on that topic when asked Wednesday evening. It seems as though that relationship might have reached a boiling point.
(Denny Medley / USA Today)
7. The Indians are thrilled with their return for Bauer, as they addressed short- and long-term needs in the batting order and stocked the farm system with a few more prospects. Still, they had to hold their breath Tuesday night.
Antonetti and Chernoff were sitting in Francona’s office and tuned to the Reds-Pirates game, only to see Yasiel Puig involved in a fracas on the field. Antonetti had flashbacks to 2011, when they neared completion of their deal for Ubaldo Jimenez. Jimenez inexplicably labored through a 45-pitch inning in San Diego, and then took a physical so the trade could be finalized.
“We’ve almost come to expect it,” Antonetti said, laughing. “We would have preferred for that brawl to not happen, but it’s part of the deal.”
Antonetti said the Indians have not heard from the league about potential discipline for Puig.
8. Francona has only been around Puig once, for the 2014 Japan All-Star Series.
“People that I respect in the game have really been overboard in their praise in what he can be,” Francona said. “I need to talk to him. I need to ask him what’s important to him.”
What’s important to Francona is he now knows whom to cower behind if the benches clear at any point in the next two months.
“If something ever happens,” Francona said, “I’ll be behind him every step of the way.”
9. Puig and Franmil Reyes were expected to land in Cleveland on Wednesday night and join Francona’s lineup Thursday for the series finale against Gerrit Cole.
Perhaps no one is more eager to observe the new-look lineup than Ty Van Burkleo. The Indians’ hitting coach said some front-office members selected video for him to watch to start to learn about his new sluggers. Van Burkleo said it’s all about getting to know the newcomers and their tendencies and preferences. He knows one thing: They can mash, as they have combined for 49 home runs this season. Van Burkleo joked that all he needed to do was tell them to swing at strikes.
“Everybody said we’re getting a man in every sense of the word,” Francona said, with regard to Reyes. “With Puig, a lot of people feel like we’re going to get the two best months of his career. I hope that’s the case.”
Another endorsement Francona received about Reyes: “We think we have a kid who has leadership capabilities and was revered in that clubhouse in San Diego.”
10. The lineup clearly received a facelift, but can the starting rotation survive Bauer’s absence? Salazar will start Thursday, his first start in 674 days. He’s stretched out to about 70 pitches and his fastball was clocking in about 91-93 mph during his minor-league rehab stint. Instead of piggybacking Salazar, Adam Plutko will start this weekend against the Angels.
Kluber could return within the next month. If he fares well in a sim game Saturday, he’ll likely make a minor-league rehab start next week. A few of those and he’ll be back in the mix. Kluber’s health and effectiveness could prove critical to the Indians’ chances this season. It’s a risk the Indians knew they were taking.
“The goal isn’t to have the best pitching staff,” Antonetti said. “The goal for us is to build the best team that’s capable of winning the World Series. And to do that, we knew we may have to trade from some areas of depth to address other needs.”
Clevinger didn’t seem concerned.
“That’s one place we had depth,” he said. “That’s why we knew that probably a piece we’re gonna move is gonna be one of our staff, whether it’s up here or in the minor leagues. We’ve got depth all over when it comes to that. So we’ll be all right.”
It helps to have a defensive savant behind the plate in Roberto Pérez.
11. It also helps that the Indians have created a pitching pipeline. Bieber has blossomed from wide-eyed rookie to burgeoning front-line starter in a year. Zach Plesac has soared through the Indians’ system to offer seismic contributions during a season in which Kluber, Clevinger, Carlos Carrasco and Jefry Rodriguez have been sidelined.
Bauer aided that cause. Count Plesac, Bieber, Clevinger, Nick Goody, Adam Cimber and even Neil Ramírez among those whom Bauer helped during his Cleveland tenure.
Bieber suggested Bauer knew Bieber’s mechanics better than Bieber did. He would help him with sequencing and with pinpointing certain keys that indicated how to return to his ideal delivery when his mechanics got out of whack.
“A lot of times, it was him telling me what he saw and then I could feel it,” Bieber said. “So, he’s an extra set of eyes and he definitely hasn’t just done that for me. He’s done that for everybody. He’s definitely left a lasting impression.”
But Bieber said he has already started to pay it forward, sharing certain tidbits he picked up from Bauer with other pitchers. One of his pupils is Kyle Nelson, his offseason roommate, who has posted a 2.29 ERA, with 53 strikeouts in 35 1/3 innings, for High-A Lynchburg and Double-A Akron this season.
“I think the development of our pitchers we’ve had in our system at the major-league level and guys who have come through our minor-league system allows us to contemplate trades where we’re trading from pitching to be able to address other areas of our team,” Antonetti said. “Without the development of those guys, we couldn’t consider deals like this.”
(Adam Glanzman / USA Today)
12. Logan Allen, Clevinger’s close friend and offseason training partner, will head to Triple-A Columbus. He entered the season as a consensus top-100 prospect.
Chernoff’s take: “We were on him during the draft and have followed him throughout his minor-league career. He got to the major leagues this year and has been up and down between Triple A and the big leagues. We feel like with his pitch mix and potential continued development, he could be a middle-of-the-rotation type starter.”
And Chernoff on Akron-bound Scott Moss, a 24-year-old southpaw acquired in the trade: “(A) really interesting, fourth-round pick for Cincinnati a few years ago with a great three-pitch mix that we feel like can continue to develop and potentially be a starter for us down the road.”
Moss has a high walk rate this season, but other numbers (ERA, hit rate, home-run rate, strikeout rate) catch the eye.
13. Antonetti hinted that the club had made progress on other deals Wednesday, only to reach the deadline without any additional agreements.
“One of the things we’ve learned over the years is there’s no such thing as being close,” Antonetti said. “You have a deal or you don’t. I would say that there were a number of times (Wednesday) where we thought we were either at the finish line or crossed it and it didn’t happen.”
The Indians had conversed with other clubs about Bauer (and Kluber) dating nearly nine months. They were content to play the role of the tortoise in the race to that finish line if they didn’t receive the sort of return they had envisioned. It required a third team to net the Indians the immediate help and long-term solutions they coveted.
They didn’t have to deal Bauer to a team they might encounter in October, which Chernoff acknowledged “sweetened the deal.” They didn’t tap into their farm system to swing a trade (though some pitching help wouldn’t have been frowned upon). They’ll have some expendable pieces they can dangle on the trade market this winter.
14. The Indians operate with the lens of short-term and long-term improvements, not buying and selling, as Antonetti stressed Wednesday. Every team expects to get the better end of every deal it makes, so it boils down to whether a team is improving immediately or in the future. Every player has an assigned value, based on talent level, projection, club control, salary and other criteria. Now, those factors aren’t the end-all, be-all in a trade, because standings, payroll, positional depth and farm system quality all influence decisions. But it helps to explain how the Reds and Mets, a couple of sub-.500 teams, wound up with Bauer and Marcus Stroman, respectively. It’s all about relative value.
The Indians certainly enhanced their expectations for 2020 and beyond with this trade. They control Reyes through the 2024 season. Kluber and the rest of the pitching staff could determine whether the front office nailed both objectives — short- and long-term solutions — in one fell swoop.
“If there wasn’t the right deal, we wouldn’t have moved forward on it,” Antonetti said. “Now, how we maintain our patience, it’s a difficult thing because we all want things to happen immediately. We have enough practice at trying to do it and have enough checks and balances in place that we’re trying to make sure we’re appropriately diligent in how we move through things.”
Bauer understood it, even if it still proved difficult to stomach. It’s not always so anticipated, though. Clevinger was lifting weights in 2014 when he learned he was headed to the Indians.
“It felt so personal at the time,” he said. “I was 20 years old and I felt like it was them giving up on me. I remember looking back and seeing the business side of things and it’s just not the way it is. It’s like stocks. It doesn’t matter about your feelings. It’s about winning.”
(Top photo: Rick Osentoski / USA Today)
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