Cleveland Sports Forum

CLEVELAND -- It will be a longer-than-usual offseason for the Indians, who find themselves watching the entirety of the postseason from home for the first time since 2015.

Last year, the Tribe had an underwhelming winter, floating both Corey Kluber and Trevor Bauer out on the trade market, but never pulling the trigger (until Bauer was dealt at this year's Trade Deadline). The team won’t have the amount of turnover it had last season, but it certainly has areas to improve upon, especially offensively.

Let’s take a look at five questions facing the Indians this offseason:

1. Will they pick up Kluber’s option?

The 33-year-old got off to a rough start in 2019, posting a 5.80 ERA in his first seven starts, but his season ultimately came to an end on May 1 after a line drive fractured his right forearm. He later strained his oblique while attempting to work his way back, which shut him down for the rest of the year.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner will be entering his 10th big league season, turning 34 in April. The Indians will have the next month to determine if they want to pick up his $17.5 million option. Before this season, it may have been easy to assume that they would exercise the option, but then the organization’s pitching depth was tested.

Guys like Zach Plesac, Aaron Civale and Jefry Rodriguez have proven that a rotation without Kluber, Bauer and Carlos Carrasco would not only be able to survive, but thrive. With as tight of a budget as the Tribe has been working with the past year, an extra $17.5 million could be beneficial in finding a solid hitter, reliever or infielder.

But then again, it’s also Kluber. In his last five seasons prior to 2019, he put up a 2.85 combined ERA while making at least 29 starts each year (not to mention those two Cy Young Awards).

At this point, the answer seems like it would be yes, however the offseason just began and the Indians have more than enough time to weigh all of their options.

2. Who will start in right?

A more specific question that keeps popping up in this category: Will they re-sign Yasiel Puig? There are a few reasons that seems unlikely to happen. For starters, Indians manager Terry Francona has been clear since they acquired Franmil Reyes at the Trade Deadline that they see the 24-year-old as an outfielder.

He may have made only three appearances in right field for the Tribe this year, but the club is determined to work on improving Reyes’ defensive skills to make sure that a young power-hitter doesn’t get pigeonholed into becoming strictly a designated hitter.

With Reyes under control through the 2024 season and Daniel Johnson, Cleveland's No. 16-ranked prospect who hit .306 with an .867 OPS in Triple-A this season, sitting in the Minors, it doesn’t seem to make sense to spend a good chunk of change to bring back Puig. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

3. Who will play second base?

By the way that Jason Kipnis addressed the media after sustaining his season-ending hamate bone fracture, it doesn’t sound like the second baseman is expecting the club to pick up his $16.5 million option. Although he said he would be interested in making a deal to return to Cleveland after he becomes a free agent, the likely scenario is that the Indians will pursue other options.

One path they could go down is moving José Ramírez over to second base and getting anther look at Yu Chang at third. If Ramírez remains at the hot corner, Chang has gotten reps at shortstop, third and second in Triple-A, and he could instead be the one shifted over to second. The club has also gotten to see Andrew Velazquez, who was traded to the Indians from Tampa Bay at the beginning of July, at second base over the last few games.

Should the Indians shop the free agent market, some of their top options could include Howie Kendrick (who will be 36 in 2020), Brian Dozier (33), Brock Holt (32) and Jonathan Schoop (28). When looking at third-base free agents, Anthony Rendon will be the best on the market, but the Indians may need to use Kluber’s $17.5 million option to help make that deal happen. Other free-agent third basemen include Josh Donaldson, Mike Moustakas, familiar face Asdrúbal Cabrera and Todd Frazier.

4. Who will be in the starting rotation?

This may take some time in Spring Training to figure out, especially if Kluber is an Indian in 2020. With Kluber, Carrasco, Shane Bieber, Mike Clevinger, Plesac, Civale, Rodriguez and Adam Plutko all potential options, the Tribe will have to make some decisions. Carrasco could be looked at as a reliever for next season rather than a starter, although it seems as if the team anticipates him returning in a starting role at this point.

5. Where does the bullpen stand?

If Carrasco moves back into the rotation, the Indians could certainly use a hard-thrower in the bullpen. But aside from Tyler Clippard, and possibly Dan Otero if the Indians don’t pick up his $1.5 million option, the majority of the team’s relievers will return in 2020. The Tribe may need to re-evaluate closer Brad Hand to see how he bounces back from his arm fatigue in the second half of this season, but he, Nick Wittgren, Adam Cimber, Oliver Perez, Nick Goody, Hunter Wood and certainly rookie James Karinchak will all be options next year.

Power shift: How the Twins finally knocked the Indians from the AL Central throne

Zack Meisel and Dan Hayes Sep 30, 2019 26
As Cleveland Indians president Chris Antonetti sat in manager Terry Francona’s office one day two weeks ago, he texted his old disciple, Derek Falvey.

“I’m with Tito, and Tito says hello and tells you to stop winning games, so we appreciate any help you can do on that.”

The two teams that spent the summer jockeying for AL Central supremacy attained their win totals in drastically different manners, but they share certain front-office philosophies. After all, Falvey started in the Indians’ organization, rising up the ranks to help fine-tune the club’s pitching development program before jetting off to Minneapolis to rescue the Twins.

Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff, the Indians’ senior decision-makers, never doubted Falvey would make a triumphant leap in responsibility. Falvey accepted the Twins’ chief baseball officer job in October 2016, as the Indians were navigating their way through injuries and drone mishaps to reach the World Series. He remained with Cleveland through that magical postseason run.

Three years later, he’ll have a chance to potentially oversee one of his own, as the Twins embark on their first foray into the Division Series since 2010, and aim to win their first playoff game in 15 years.

The Twins eclipsed the 100-win mark for the first time since 1965. On Wednesday night, Rocco Baldelli’s bunch clinched the division title and popped bottles in the auxiliary clubhouse at Comerica Park in Detroit, the same building the Indians sprayed champagne in 2016, when they notched their first of three consecutive division crowns.

Falvey returned Antonetti’s text on that mid-September day.

“Ha, right back at you. Stop winning. You’ve been making our lives too difficult.”

The Indians’ bid to chase down the Twins ultimately fell short. A combination of winter roster decisions and long-term injuries left the Indians’ roster insufficient early and out of steam late. Meanwhile, the Twins peppered the outfield seats with their patented “bombas” throughout the season, and they surged toward the finish line in September to complete an AL Central power shift.

Though they were uncertain of what to expect from their young core, the Twins’ decision-makers were pleased with an offseason that didn’t capture many headlines but filled in the cracks on the 25-man roster. Falvey and general manager Thad Levine anticipated that a group of veteran additions including Nelson Cruz, Marwin Gonzalez, C.J. Cron and Jonathan Schoop, would complement a talented group that had yet to live up to its potential. But in no way did they expect the birth of the Bomba Squad, a group that on Sunday established an all-time single-season record for team home runs and set the tone for a season in which the Twins stunned the league — including the Indians.

“We went into the offseason appreciative of the gap between Cleveland and ourselves,” Levine said. “We felt with the personnel moves we made, we closed that gap. Then I think when we saw the injuries mount for them early in the season, I think it was at that point we realized this may be a closer dogfight than what we expected. What was exceptionally encouraging was when both teams had their ebbs and flows injury-wise, they got a little healthier, we got a little more hurt, we still maintained that competitive edge.

“At no time did (this team) buy into the hype that we were 11 games up, six games up or even four games up. It viewed itself as, ‘Until the season is over and we’re in first place, it’s the Cleveland Indians’ division.’ I think that allowed for us to maybe sidestep some of the burden that expectations carry.”


(Frank Jansky/Getty Images)
Whether it was early in the season or after they felt they had been slighted in the All-Star selection process, the Twins continued to defer to Cleveland even though they had raced out to an 11 1/2-game lead in the division by June 2. The Twins were confident in themselves, but also knew it wouldn’t be easy to unseat the three-time division champs.

Though the Twin Cities jumped on the bandwagon with a team homering at a record pace, the Twins never got too high on their own headlines. They never seemed to get caught up in the hype, even as fans and media declared every second-half matchup with Cleveland “the most important game of the season.”

“Maybe it was how our team was designed to take each game for what it was, one game at a time and not worrying about what someone else is doing,” All-Star pitcher Jake Odorizzi said. “You start worrying about what somebody else is doing, it takes away the focus of what you’re doing and the fun that we’re having here. Pretty much from start to finish we had a lot of fun this year. It’s easy to keep your focus when things are as good as they were for us this year.”

Even when Cleveland pulled in front by a half-game on Aug. 12, the Twins never wavered. Backed by the belief that their schedule would soften and their rest and recovery methods would keep them fresh, the Twins thrived down the stretch, going 30-14 after the teams’ mid-August meeting in Minneapolis. The Indians went 22-22 over the same period.

In spring training, Tribe players talked about how they welcomed in-division competition. Last season, they knew they could sleepwalk to the ALDS (and when October arrived, they didn’t wake up). They wanted to be pushed. They just didn’t expect to be shoved to the ground.

In late July, the Indians closed to within one game of the Twins, the confidence in Cleveland’s clubhouse soaring as a four-game set at Target Field approached. Rookies Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale had helped to rescue the Indians’ ailing rotation, while Mike Clevinger and Shane Bieber blossomed into front-line starters. Oscar Mercado had provided a jolt to a once-limp lineup, and José Ramírez had resurrected what seemed destined to be a lost season. Francisco Lindor kept preaching that the Indians were on a mission.

“This team has been circling those games,” Jason Kipnis said at the time. “This team has had one focus and one focus only the last two months and that’s been chasing down these Twins, and we did it even faster than maybe we might have thought.”

But the Twins wouldn’t buckle.

“There probably was an expectation at some point that we would shrink … under the pressure and that their perception of their team potentially being better would ultimately leave them in first place and us in second,” Levine said. “I’m not saying they were being haughty in any stretch.

“I just think it would stand to reason. That’s what the national narrative has been about these two teams. The most popular pick was Cleveland one, Minnesota two in the AL Central. I don’t think there was any other division that was so clear, maybe the Dodgers in the West. But those were the ones everyone said, ‘We can put those in ink, now let’s sort out the other four.’ That’s what we’ve all been waiting for and I’ve been blessed to watch the other team change the narrative.”

On two occasions, the Indians provided the Twins with timely bulletin board material. The most recent round occurred when Clevinger called attention to shortstop Jorge Polanco’s 2018 suspension for PEDs. Polanco tagged Clevinger for a decisive home run during the Twins’ victory in the opening game of a Sept. 14 doubleheader at Progressive Field.

Earlier in the year, the Twins couldn’t help but notice when Cleveland owner Paul Dolan told The Athletic Cleveland that his team thought it might have a built-in buffer over its most formidable foe, as the Twins produced only 78 victories in 2018 after earning a wild-card spot in 2017. When discussing whether the state of the AL Central influenced the Indians’ approach to last offseason, Dolan noted that the club “could theoretically have moved (a starting pitcher) to get some upper-level talent that would have the effect of extending our window, taking our payroll down a little further and if it took a few wins off of our expected wins this year, we probably have that buffer. We didn’t do it, as it turns out, but that was part of the calculation.”

“The only message we knew was their owner said in spring training they could give away whatever and still win the division,” Odorizzi said. “We know that’s not the case. It was something along those lines. Some of the quotes, we saw. He was wrong.”


(Frank Jansky/Getty Images)
The Twins wound up with 101 wins and an eight-game advantage in the final standings, as the Indians sputtered to the finish line. The Indians amassed two more wins in 2019 than they did in 2018, but the Twins’ emergence left them exchanging hugs and catching flights home from the nation’s capital on Sunday evening.

“You can’t predict the baseball season,” pitcher Dan Otero said. “Every season takes on its own personality, its own roller coaster, adventure. This year, we’ve had to deal with a lot of off-field stuff that we maybe haven’t had to deal with in the past. We’ve had to deal with a team in our division that’s a really good baseball team. They don’t just hit home runs. They’re a really good baseball team. They have good pitching. They have good relief pitching. They have great outfield defense. They’re a great team.”

The Twins think they owe it all to their business-like approach to every game. Sure, it’s cliché as hell and they know it. But the Twins’ staff made sure the team prepared for every game with the Detroit Tigers similar to how they would a meeting with the Indians, Houston Astros or the New York Yankees. It’s a method Francona preaches as well.

“That’s Rocco more than anything,” Falvey said. “It’s a view that 162 games is a lot of games. Every game is just one game. Everyone kind of tends to make it bigger than that externally and I understand why. But I do think that’s kind of the mindset you have to have in a clubhouse.”

That wasn’t the only ingredient.

Cruz’s impact on the clubhouse can’t be overstated. Baldelli wanted his players to have freedoms in their arrival times, in the clothes they wore to batting practice and for their minds to be free of questions and distractions. For that to work, he needed a strong veteran presence to keep players in line.

Cruz was at the forefront on and off the field.

“When you need something really positive, when you need a pick-me-up, when you need a big hit, he’s probably the right guy,” Baldelli said.

Another key was how rest and recovery led to a zillion different lineup combinations. Baldelli didn’t want his team dependent on any one player. He began the season rotating starters in and out of the lineup to provide rest, but also to instill a belief within that the Twins could win with anyone. That confidence grew as the team’s young core — Mitch Garver, Jorge Polanco, Max Kepler, Byron Buxton, Miguel Sanó, Luis Arraez and the bulk of its bullpen — all took massive steps forward in their development.

“We had learned to win with almost every combination of our 12- to 13-man position player group,” Levine said. “They’d all stepped up and shown our drop-off from our A group to B group to C group was really small. These guys were really rising to the occasion.”

That fueled a ton of winning, and added to the Indians’ frustrations.

The Twins not only put a dent in Cleveland’s chances of winning the division on Sept. 14, they refused to let up. Over their final 13 games, the Twins went 10-3 and prevented the Indians from gaining ground.

As much as he loves competing, Falvey still admits its strange doing so against his old pals. Antonetti describes it as a friendly rivalry. As their exchange demonstrated, this year, Falvey got the last laugh.

“It’s weird,” Falvey said. “I can’t tell you it’s particularly easy to navigate mentally for me. Only because when you’ve been in this game for the time I’ve been in this game — I haven’t been in it for that long — you build relationships with people and you have friends and you care about them. When the game starts, you’re competing like crazy. When the game ends, you still care about those people on the other side. I don’t feel any differently about the people I’ve built close relationships with. I feel the same way about our people. They’re friends. We’re close.

“Ultimately, we’re all competitors. It’s a little strange to be competing directly with people you care that much about. But I know I’m proud of what they’ve done in the face of some adversity, for sure, this year and I hope they’re proud of us, too.”

(Top photo: Raj Mehta / USA Today)

Final Thoughts: The autopsy of the 2019 Cleveland Indians
Zack Meisel 3h ago 11
WASHINGTON — Most players had filtered out of the visitors clubhouse at Nationals Park on Sunday evening, either to catch the team charter back to Cleveland or another flight to their residence or vacation destination.

A hobbled Roberto Pérez packed up his belongings. Carlos Santana gorged on a postgame meal in the kitchen. Corey Kluber watched football on a tablet at his locker. Nick Goody held out an empty hand as Carlos Carrasco shuffled through a wad of cash to leave for the clubhouse staff.

One attendant noticed a couple of reporters standing in the center of the nearly vacant room.

“Now what?” he asked. “What is there to report on?”

“Well,” I said, “the Browns won today.”

He said he often rooted for teams with abysmal track records and that he appreciated the Browns’ plight. And for that reason, he said, the Nationals — who notched their eighth consecutive winning season, but have yet to win a playoff series during that stretch — deserve our pity.

The Nationals, though, don’t own the league’s longest championship drought (they’ve only existed since 1969, and much of that was as the Montreal Expos). That dubious distinction belongs to the Indians, whose hex has persisted for 71 years.

A 93-win regular season only earned them some early-October tee times. Before September ended, Franmil Reyes had returned to his home in Orlando. Nick Wittgren could RSVP “yes” to an upcoming wedding he previously thought he couldn’t attend.

Terry Francona often says a team is what its record says, but for this club, that 93-69 standing requires more context than usual. This was far from an ordinary season.

This is the autopsy of the 2019 Cleveland Indians.

1. The Indians had exhausted all other options. No rookie should have to make his debut at a frenzied Fenway Park, especially with only three starts at Triple A under his belt.

Corey Kluber and Mike Clevinger were sidelined. Carrasco wasn’t himself, and the reason behind that condition would be revealed about a week later. Francona’s lineup was limping (and bunting) its way through the May schedule.

And the Indians were turning to a 24-year-old less than three years after they selected him in the 11th round of the amateur draft. Zach Plesac’s name didn’t appear on any of the club’s top prospects lists. He had a collection of friends and family members — including his brother, who flew in from Alaska — in the stadium’s green seats. Plesac delivered an impressive debut, confirmed by the complimentary note David Price left at the rookie’s locker after the game.

The Indians were desperate. They had reached a point in which they felt their only move was to launch a widespread migration from Columbus to Cleveland. If nothing else, they could devote the 2019 season to youngsters conquering the customary growing pains.

2. The Indians’ early-season spiral landed them at 29-30, and at that juncture, a 93-win season seemed implausible. They needed a telescope to spot the Twins in the standings. But the kids proved they belonged. José Ramírez rediscovered his MVP-caliber hitting stroke. Clevinger returned to restore order to the front of the rotation. And even after the Twins fended off every Indians attempt to reclaim their division crown, Cleveland still found itself in the thick of the wild-card race as summer faded.

Is it, then, fair to qualify a non-playoff season as a success?

Is it fair to evaluate the season as an overall disappointment?

Yes.

This was no typical journey through 162 games. There can be a more nuanced analysis of the 2019 Indians season than simply handing out a pass/fail grade. There have been and will be a wide range of sentiments shared about this season, and that only furthers this point.

The Indians’ Opening Day lineup included Leonys Martín, Hanley Ramírez, Brad Miller and Eric Stamets. By August, Yasiel Puig, Franmil Reyes, Oscar Mercado, Francisco Lindor and Jason Kipnis had joined the fray. There was a ton of roster turnover.

Pre-June 1: Indians ranked 13th among 15 AL teams in wRC+, at 78 (an all-encompassing offensive figure, in which 100 is league average), and posted a team OPS of .685

Post-June 1: Indians ranked sixth among 15 AL teams in wRC+, at 102, and posted a team OPS of .793

3. For fans, the entire season probably felt like a ride on the Millennium Force. There were unparalleled surges of energy. And there were moments that made you feel like vomiting.

The team qualified for the postseason in each of the previous three years, so falling short in 2019 was bound to leave many unfulfilled, regardless of the obstacles that surfaced along the way. Even the players felt that way, as many said it stings even more not to play in October because of the adversity the club overcame. They crafted a script to a box-office thriller, only to drop the final few pages into a sewer drain while dashing to the director’s office.

“It would’ve been extremely rewarding to do it with this group,” Shane Bieber said, “which I’m sure you’ve heard, but it’s the truth. We’ve been through a lot. A lot more than most teams do, especially injury-wise. It seemed like the hits kind of just kept coming throughout the season. … You never anticipate that kind of stuff. You always hope for a healthy season, but you know some adversity is going to come. We just had to face a little bit more of that this season. It would’ve been a little bit more rewarding to be able to do it with this group. But to think of the lineups we had and the roster we had throughout the year and how much it changed and how we won this many games still is definitely something to reflect on.”

It’s not a worthwhile exercise to try to compare the injuries and hurdles teams faced, but it should be noted that the Yankees and Twins have survived their own hefty shares.

Leadership and roster depth contribute to how a team copes with such situations. Lindor and Clevinger emerged on the former front. Ownership’s payroll mandates and the front office’s misses — Hanley Ramírez, Carlos Gonzalez, no contingency plan for the absences of Lindor and Kipnis or for the struggles of Martín and Bauers — factored into the dismal start.

4. Once they arrived at their nadir, the Indians went 43-17 in their next 60 games to pull ahead of the Twins for about five minutes. It’s extremely difficult to maintain a .717 winning percentage for much longer than that. Some will say the Indians ran out of steam; Francona used that terminology this week. And for some players, that’s accurate. But the Indians also just regressed to the mean. The bullpen, long due for a bit of a slide, was a prime example (and Brad Hand’s second-half slumber only added to that).

They started 29-30. Then they went 43-17. Then 2-7. Then 5-1. Then 3-6. Then 4-0. Then 0-2 (in the doubleheader against the Twins). Then 7-1. Then 0-5. A season full of streaks.

“This whole year has been a grind for us,” Clevinger said. “I think if anything, looking back, if we take this same grind, this same mentality to our offseason work and start the year off with that same mentality, we can do some special things. But it’s going to take that kind of grind that we had at the end of the year or the middle of the year, and we need that.”

The five-game losing streak to end the season will remain fresh in the players’ minds for a while.

“I didn’t hit,” Lindor said. “Santana didn’t hit. Mercado didn’t hit. That should do it.”

Lindor said he won’t watch any of the postseason action, other than the at-bats of his best friend and former teammate, Yankees third baseman Giovanny Urshela.

Said Clevinger: “We were on the run and I just wanted to play in the playoffs. I wanted to have a streak where — I think all of us, the ones that have been here the whole time have every year been to the postseason or been a part of the postseason. You don’t want that to come to an end. That was the big, driving motivator was I wanted to pitch in October. That was the big thing.

“It sucks. I don’t know. It’s hard to process right now. It’s going to give me more motivation all offseason and I hope it does for the rest of this clubhouse.”
(Greg Fiume / Getty Images)
5. Three AL teams lost at least 103 games. Three teams won at least 101. It’s a league of haves and have-nots, and the divide has never been more glaring.

Some will point to the Indians’ 18-1 record against the Tigers with the intent of undermining the Indians’ season. The Astros went 18-1 against the Mariners. The Yankees went 17-2 against the Orioles. Those clubs also fared better against the rest of their competition, and because of it, they’ll play games later this week.

The Indians went 8-11 against the White Sox. They dropped three games to the Orioles and two of four to the Marlins. In 25 years, hundreds of thousands of Baltimoreans will claim to have attended their team’s back-to-back 13-0 drubbings of the Indians in late June.

The Indians’ record against teams with winning records, while a fluky stat, was nothing to boast about, either. How they fared when they had now-unemployed hitters occupying lineup spots is immaterial. But those games still counted the same, so the early-season shortcomings against Tampa, Oakland, Chicago, Kansas City and Atlanta can’t be overlooked.

Expect to hear an endless loop of declarations next spring calling for the team to “come out of the gate strong” and to “treat every game as critical from day one.”

“I’m proud of all the young guys that came up and stepped up and helped us win (93) games,” Lindor said. “I’m proud of them. I’m proud of them overcoming a lot of things throughout the year. I’m not happy. I’m happy for them. I’m not happy how we finished. So, it’s just a matter of coming back next year and winning I guess 102 games or something to try to be in the playoffs.”

6. Do you remember anything about the 2018 season, other than the Indians’ lifeless sweep against the Astros and Lindor’s Puerto Rico homecoming blast? At least this season provided memorable moments (Carrasco’s return, the All-Star Game festivities, the three-team trade) and some second-half intrigue.

7. It would be surprising if Puig or Kipnis returned. It would be surprising if Kluber did not.

Puig said all the right things Sunday morning, that he would “love to” remain with the Indians and has forged a strong bond with Lindor, Reyes and Ramírez (whom he pretended to lunge at Sunday morning, which nearly had Ramírez leaping out of his flip-flops). He credited Santana for helping make him a “better baseball player and a better person.” It also seems as though both sides knew this was a two-month marriage from the moment they said “I do” (well, the Indians were standing, horrified, at the altar while Puig was fighting the string quartet).

Plenty can and will change between now and mid-February, but the Indians seem intent on using Reyes in right field. Francona indicated that first base was not in the plans.

8. On one hand, it would seem the Indians have some trade chips if their rotation candidates include Kluber, Carrasco, Clevinger, Bieber, Plesac, Aaron Civale, Adam Plutko and Jefry Rodriguez, with one of their top prospects, Triston McKenzie, also lingering on the back fields of the team’s Arizona complex. That could help them land a second or third baseman or an outfielder.

On the other hand, they needed every one of those starters this season, so maybe they shouldn’t sacrifice their depth. The organization certainly has proved its ability to develop pitchers (something we’ll investigate on a much deeper level soon at The Athletic).

After last season, it was difficult to chart a path for the Indians to improve in 2019. Now, provided the organization doesn’t repeat last winter’s missteps, that task doesn’t seem as daunting. Re-signing Michael Brantley might have made the difference in the Indians’ ultimate outcome in 2019. They can’t afford to allow one squandered opportunity to serve as the deciding factor in the club’s October plans next year. They have assembled too much young talent to jeopardize wasting any of the limited time they have remaining with Lindor in the fold.

9. No matter one’s sentiment toward how this season unfolded, the Indians — though they stumbled into it earlier than they anticipated — did convert what seemed destined to be a retooling year into something more productive and fruitful. The young players either skipped their growing pains altogether or they endured them while contributing to a summer resurgence.

“Are we where we want to be? No,” Francona said. “But we’re not gonna quit until we get there. And I think we have guys who feel the same way, so we’ll keep plugging away.”

The Indians will return to Progressive Field in 178 days, if Mother Nature permits. And then, they can begin their march, yet again, toward that elusive title. Until then, the Nationals’ clubhouse attendant will be rooting from afar.

Thanks to everyone who has followed along during this chaotic season. We have some great stuff in the works for the coming days, weeks and months, and spring training will arrive before you know it.

(Top photo: Matt Marton / Getty Images)

For this season I liked this quote:

Some will say the Indians ran out of steam; Francona used that terminology this week.

In my mind this is exactly it. As an athlete, and a fan of individual sports, I know that digging yourself a large hole is a difficult thing. And often times you can rally and get right back in the thick of things, like the Indians did. But that's one thing. It's another thing to STILL keep that up. You've spent so much energy getting to that point, that you tend to then run out of steam. You are only human(s). There is only so much emotion, so much energy. Tito's been around - he knows.

On the other hand we all know this to be true - we:

did convert what seemed destined to be a retooling year into something more productive and fruitful. The young players either skipped their growing pains altogether or they endured them while contributing to a summer resurgence.

All of us who followed closely can't deny this - we saw it with our own eyes. It was borderline miraculous that that many young kids could do what they did.

Wait til next year!

let's offer McKenzie to some team that didn't notice he missed the entire season. But we do have plenty of pitchers who have value.

Meisel: 10 things I’ll remember about the Indians’ 2019 season

Zack Meisel 1h ago 4
CLEVELAND — I’ll remember Oliver Pérez hopping over the chalk at the end of each appearance. I’ll remember the way Tyler Clippard tucked his T-shirt into his shorts before pregame long toss. I’ll remember all of the bunting. I’ll remember Mike Clevinger’s insistence that he’d return quicker and stronger than anyone believed — and he was right. I’ll remember Jordan Luplow destroying southpaws, all of the bunting, the club’s 19-5 thrashing of the Yankees in the Bronx, teammates gravitating toward newcomer Franmil Reyes, Leonys Martín’s return, all of the bunting and Eminem’s “Without Me” blaring after every single victory.

More than anything else, though, I’ll remember these 10 moments from the Indians’ 2019 season.

10. Oscar’s No Slouch
Francisco Lindor thought Oscar Mercado had no shot. White Sox manager Rick Renteria dubbed it “one of the best catches I’ve ever seen.” Reyes actually declared it “the greatest I’ve ever seen.”

And Shane Bieber?

“I couldn’t really believe it. I kind of put my hands on my head and I’m like, ‘Holy…’” Bieber noticed the TV camera pointing at his face. “… smokes.”

Mercado’s leaping catch and elbow drop into the center-field grass preserved the Indians’ slim lead with the bases loaded in the ninth inning on Sept. 4. Nick Wittgren had taken over for Brad Hand and, thanks to the highlight-reel play, he escaped further damage to secure the victory.

“You’re not going to be perfect all the time,” Mercado said, “but one thing you can control is your effort, and that’s something I tried to always give when I was out there.”

Mercado joined the Indians in mid-May and pieced together an impressive rookie season that included a .761 OPS, 15 homers, 15 stolen bases, 25 doubles and nine defensive runs saved in center field.

“He had ups and downs,” Terry Francona said, “but every time he had a down, he fought through it and got back to the up, which I think says a lot about him and his makeup. I think he still has a lot to learn, which is not a knock on him. He’s young and kind of raw. I think there are things he can do that will even be better than what we’ve seen, and I’m looking forward to that.”



9. The Wild Horse has left the barn
A weekly, 30-minute compilation of Yasiel Puig’s on-field antics would be a ratings bonanza for any TV network. That was never more evident than when Puig kept waving to the Twins’ outfielders as he circled the bases during an August series in which the Indians erased their deficit in the division standings.

“I like to be like that, running the bases like crazy,” Puig said. “That’s the reason people call me the Wild Horse.”

Puig then revealed he used to race actual horses in the streets in Cuba. He also chased chickens around Cienfuegos, his hometown.

But why the waving?

“I like to wave at people,” Puig said, “like, ‘Hi, what’s up? I’m running no matter what. I’m going to make this base and you’re not going to throw me out.’”

8. New Kids on the Block
Zach Plesac’s twin brother traveled from Alaska to watch his major-league debut at Fenway Park in late May. Aaron Civale’s brother flew in from Hilo, Hawaii, to watch his debut at Progressive Field in June.

Both pitchers made the journeys worthwhile. Plesac limited the Red Sox to one run over 5 1/3 innings, which earned him a complimentary note from David Price. Civale blanked the Tigers for six innings. The two filled in admirably when the Indians sorely needed starting pitching help this summer. The Indians selected Plesac, Civale and Bieber in the 2016 amateur draft.

“It’s obviously a huge organizational success,” said GM Mike Chernoff, “and I think sets up a foundation for the future for us.”

‘We’re up to something special’: How the 2016 draft saved the 2019 Indians
(Quinn Harris / USA Today)
7. A Grand Return
He took one round of live batting practice. The scar on his hand resembled a centipede. And when he stepped into the batter’s box during a game for the first time in a month — a much swifter return than anyone anticipated — José Ramírez launched a grand slam to right field. Two innings later, from the other side of the plate, he belted a three-run homer to left. That’s the stuff of legend.

When Ramírez returned to the dugout on each occasion, he passed through an assembly line of soft high-fives.

Said Ramírez: “I was telling everyone, ‘Be nice. Be kind. Little by little.’”

Ramírez’s late-2018 funk extended through the first couple of months this season, but he hushed his critics with a torrid July and August, when he posted an OPS of 1.020 and 1.077, respectively. Then, he broke the hamate bone in his right hand.

He appeared in three games during the final week — and hit three homers — before the Indians shut him, and others, down for the season. He didn’t shut down his personality, though.

After a game in Washington last weekend, Ramírez walked past a few reporters and yelled: “Too many questions!”

One reporter replied: “Do you have any answers?”

Ramírez: “No hablo Inglés.”

Another reporter: “Hablamos Español.”

Ramírez: “I speak Chinese.”

Never change, José.

José Ramírez and the Indians’ Road To Somewhere

6. The Midsummer Classic
Remember Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s iconic display of power during the Home Run Derby? Or did derby winner Pete Alonso, swatting pitches tossed by Cleveland native Derek Morgan, overshadow Guerrero’s epic round? That event was as captivating as ever, one high note in a week full of them as Progressive Field hosted the All-Star Game festivities for the first time since 1997. A parade of former Indians returned to Cleveland to participate, including Jim Thome, Omar Vizquel, Kenny Lofton and Carlos Baerga. Thome and Charlie Manuel stood behind the batting cage at home plate before the Futures Game, just like old times.

An All-Star Week for the ages full of moments Cleveland can treasure

5. Trevor’s Long Toss
After Trevor Bauer’s infamous Heave Heard ‘Round The League, a colleague texted Francona: “He came in long tossing and he’ll go out long tossing.” Bauer, of course, garnered attention (and, ultimately, a trade to Cleveland) for his unconventional long-toss routines, among other things. And, sure enough, a few days after he launched a baseball over the center-field fence at Kauffman Stadium, the Indians dealt him to the Reds.

Bauer was not the first player in league history to react in such a way to his removal from the game, but it sure was a sight to behold. Mercado had his back turned in the mound when a baseball suddenly appeared and clanged off the batter’s eye. Mike Freeman, casually awaiting Francona’s arrival, was startled and jumped back. Francona pointed Bauer to the dugout tunnel, where the manager would share how he truly felt about Bauer’s actions.

Trevor Bauer’s Long Toss

4. Bieber Fever
Some guy wearing a No. 57 uniform stood in the middle of the infield, surrounded by video cameras, league officials and two pick-up trucks. It sure looked like Bieber, given the red numerals on the jersey. But the All-Star Game broadcast apparently mentioned that Michael Brantley was being named the MVP of the Midsummer Classic, which sparked some confusion. Bieber was handed the MVP trophy and held it high above his head. That wasn’t Brantley wearing a disguise. It was, in fact, the 24-year-old pitcher with barely a year of big-league service time under his belt. Bieber pitched a perfect fifth inning, striking out Willson Contreras, Ketel Marte and Ronald Acuña in order.

Bieber, once a college walk-on at UC Santa Barbara, emerged as a frontline starter this season, leading the Indians with 214 innings and 259 strikeouts. He posted a 3.28 ERA and a 3.32 FIP, and led the AL in walk rate, complete games and shutouts.

From walk-on to workhorse: The blossoming of Bieber Fever
(Jason Miller / Getty Images)
3. A Trade & A Chaotic Clubhouse
Bauer, Bieber and Clevinger all huddled together at Bauer’s locker after the Indians’ 2-0 loss to the Astros on July 30, which seemed strange. Bauer’s face was the color of someone who fell asleep on the beach without first applying sunscreen. When reporters filed into the room for postgame interviews, Bieber quickly popped to his feet to discuss his outing, away from the conversation taking place at Bauer’s locker. During that interview, word spread that Bauer had been dealt. Players zipped across the room in search of information about the deal. One person heard Puig was included. Another heard that the Padres were involved. One by one, teammates approached Bauer for a hug or a handshake. It was a surreal, slow-motion unfolding of a trade, out in the open. As Bauer packed a book bag and walked out of the clubhouse that night, Santana stopped him at the doorway for one, final farewell.

Inside the Indians’ clubhouse during the Trevor Bauer trade

2. American Boy
Carlos Santana’s youngest daughter might not have enjoyed the morning as much as her father did, but April 19, 2019, was a day the first baseman will never forget. It’s the day he started saying one of his favorite phrases: “I’m an American boy.” Santana was one of 84 people granted U.S. citizenship in downtown Cleveland that morning, the day after the Indians returned from a three-city trip that concluded in Seattle. Santana’s baby daughter, Luna, cried during much of the ceremony, which had the magistrate judge laughing. Santana was one of four Indians players to attain his citizenship this season, along with Puig, Oliver Pérez and Hanley Ramírez. A couple of weeks before he passed his test, Santana pulled up a list of study questions and went head-to-head with his manager. Francona answered seven of 10 questions correctly. Santana answered nine of 10 correctly.

The scene from Carlos Santana’s citizenship ceremony

1. I Stand For Cookie
When Carlos Carrasco entered the Indians’ clubhouse on June 4, Bauer greeted him with a lengthy hug. It seemed a bit out-of-the-ordinary, but the two were close and there was no reason to think anything of it. Later that afternoon, Francona held a team meeting, about two hours before first pitch. Word had already started to spread. Those closest to Carrasco already knew he had been diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia. Carrasco called Jason Kipnis after his doctor visit the previous day, and Kipnis helped walk him through some of the confusing or daunting or complex terminology.

Carrasco implored the Indians to include in their press release that he expected to return to the mound in 2019. A few weeks after the diagnosis, he played catch to soothe his mind, to be around his teammates and to keep his arm in shape. And on Sept. 1, in one of the most emotional scenes in recent memory, Carrasco returned to the mound before a cluster of family members in Tampa, where he resides in the offseason. Every time he pitched in Cleveland in September, fans offered him a standing ovation.

But the moment that stands out the most, the one that will forever send tingles down the spine of anyone who visited Progressive Field or watched the broadcast on July 9, is the Stand Up To Cancer segment during the All-Star Game. Carrasco joined his teammates on the field, as they all held signs that read: “I Stand For Cookie.” Tears flowed. Hugs followed. In the moment, baseball seemed so trivial, yet so powerful. The image of Carrasco in his jersey top and dark jeans, embracing his teammates, is unforgettable.

You are welcome civ and HB

Three Indians minor leaguers to watch heading into 2020
By Emily Waldon 2h ago 2

As Lake County Captains play-by-play voice Andrew Luftglass called the final out on the road in Fort Wayne, Ind., the win solidified not only the Captains’ first trip to the postseason since 2014 but also one of the strongest seasons the club had seen in quite some time.

Behind manager Luke Carlin, the eighth manager for the Indians Class A affiliate since 2010, the Captains concluded the season at 74-64, making it their third season with 72 or more wins since 2010 and only their second season with more than 72 wins during that same stretch of time.


Emily Waldon
✔
@EmilyCWaldon
The @Indians Class A @LCCaptains are playoff bound! #Indians @TheAthleticCLE

https://twitter.com/EmilyCWaldon/status ... 7884030976

After the first half of the regular season, we profiled three Indians prospects who spent time in a Lake County uniform: Will Benson, Tyler Freeman and Ruben Cardenas, who has since been traded to the Tampa Bay Rays. Each provided a look into the Indians’ philosophy for developing their young talent.

Following suit in the second half, we sat down with three more Indians Midwest League players to break down their development and how their futures project within the Indians’ farm system.

___________________________________________________________

Ethan Hankins, RHP
Age: 19 Height: 6-6 Weight: 200 Bats: R Throws: R

2019 line*: 0-3, 4.64 ERA, 21.1 IP, 20 H, 11 ER, 12 BB, 28 K, 1.50 WHIP
(*Low-A numbers)

There isn’t much that rattles Ethan Hankins.

Hankins is confident. The 6-foot-6 right-hander worked his way around the Georgia travel ball and showcase circuit, and was positioned to go as the first high school right-hander in the 2018 MLB Draft. Hankins dazzled at the Team USA 18-and-under World Cup, with 27 strikeouts spread over 12 innings.

Hankins’ stock took a hit, however, when he suffered some muscle-related shoulder tightness, causing him to be sidelined for a month.

In addition to some health concerns, Vanderbilt had come calling, creating some questions regarding Hankins’ signability. Regardless, the Indians saw the risks as worth taking and they selected Hankins out of Forsyth Central High School in Cumming, Ga., with the 35th overall pick for a price tag of $2,246,022, more than the slot value of $2,016,400.

The Indians held Hankins to only six innings of work during his rookie league season in 2018 before setting him loose in 2019. Working 38 2/3 innings for the short-season Mahoning Valley Scrappers, Hankins had a 1.40 ERA and 1.06 WHIP.

The Indians rewarded Hankins with a promotion to the Midwest League on Aug. 8, but the transition didn’t appear to faze him.

“I think the talent is a hair better here,” Hankins said. “I just feel like the approach at the plate is completely different. You get guys in the New York-Penn League, or in the Arizona Rookie League, where they don’t really have an approach. They’re just looking for a fastball because, for the most part, everybody in those leagues just has a dominant fastball. Or if you have a dominant fastball, that’s the only thing you kind of have. That’s the biggest difference for me.”

Hankins added a slider to his repertoire, which already included a fastball, curve and changeup.

“I’ve been throwing it for the past year, kind of inconsistently,” he said. “It’s just kind of been there, and I need to start throwing it more to get more feel for it. The slider’s such a feel pitch. Especially, being so new to it. I’ve changed my grips, probably 10 or 20 times this year.

“It’s just finding something that has fit for me and what kind of shape I want to have on it. All this technology stuff, like, what numbers are going to work best for me, working off my other pitches, and all this tech stuff that I’m into, but it’s a really nice resource that we have, and slider’s come a long way.

“I feel like for my slider, it’s mostly just getting the feel for it. As I’ve thrown it more and more and more, I’ve been able to locate it more, and better each time I go out there. So, it’s just something that, over time, I feel like it’s going to come.”

Hankins’ heater isn’t lacking any confidence.

Sitting 94-96 mph with an ability to ramp up to the upper-90s, Hankins’ fastball displays some natural life to it.

“Honestly, I just have a really good feel and a sense of commanding it,” he said. “I’ve always been able to locate my fastball. Obviously, on my best days, I locate it really well.

“I never really use the movement that it has to an advantage, I mean, I do in a sense, but I have a lot of natural ride on my fastball, so it’s going to appear that it’s rising up. So, that’s why you see me go up a lot, because that plays like it’s right down the middle to a guy that’s hunting for a fastball, but they kind of, I don’t want to say guess, because it’s looking like it’s down the middle to them, but really it’s above their bat.”

With 21 1/3 innings of work for Lake County, the Indians could send Hankins back next season to polish off the edges of his 4.64 ERA. Entering 2020, Hankins has his focus on just honing what he has, knowing the confidence he’s developed in his pitch mix.

“I feel like my command with my fastball will be there, and I just need to trust that,” Hankins said. “I feel like that’s one huge thing that I need to take with me, because, I mean, I trust my fastball, and I have confidence in it. There’s no doubt about it. That’s why I utilize it so much and that’s why I feel so comfortable and have so much confidence in it. I just need to be able to translate that and have that trust in all those pitches.”



Bo Naylor, catcher
Age: 19 Height: 6-0 Weight: 195 Bats: L Throws: R

2019 line: 399 AB, .243/.313/.421, 97 H, 60 R, 18 2B, 10 3B, 11 HR, 65 RBI

When Bo Naylor received the news of his assignment to Lake County for the 2019 season, his first thought, as is the case for most players, was about the weather. However, Naylor’s Canadian roots helped prepare him for the infamous Midwest League conditions.

“I really underestimated how cold it could get,” he said, “but we pulled through.”

In the offseason, Naylor resides in Mississauga, Ontario, but recently, he’s been adjusting his schedule to be able to travel to warmer places to train.

Naylor was awarded the MVP in 2017 and 2018 for the Canadian junior national team, which grabbed the Indians’ attention and landed him above-slot as their top pick in 2018 for $2,578,138. A bat-first profile, Naylor was one of the purest high school hitters in his draft class and the same ingredients have carried over, albeit still in raw form.

With 2019 as his first full season, Naylor leaned on his tightknit relationship with his brother, Josh, for advice on the minor-league navigation process. Josh Naylor, also a first-round pick, was selected by the Marlins in 2015 before his trade to San Diego the following year.

“Josh told me, ‘There’s going to be a lot of challenges, and a lot of factors that are not going to go your way, but it’s all going to be for a great story in the end,’” Naylor said. “So, we’re sure that we’re pulling through because it is tough, mentally and physically exhausting.”

With an advanced ability to command the barrel through the zone, Naylor’s strength has translated to the Midwest League, although it took a bit for the pieces to fall into place. While he’s listed at 6-0, that appears a bit generous. Naylor is more on the compact side.

Throughout the first half of the season, Lake County hitting coach Jason Esposito got to watch firsthand how much mental growth plays into the development process.

“He’s done a really good job at the plate as far as controlling the strike zone,” Esposito said. “I mean, they’re all very young. I think our organization does a good job of training and getting them into the rhythm of seeing strikes and seeing balls. I think the ability of our hitters to see a ball and see a strike and swing at the strikes and take the balls, I think that shows in many of our games right now. And, you know, they’ve just been making a lot more contact, a lot more solid contact. I think that’s the only way to get better as the season goes on. The more you kind of get some of the rhythm and he sees more of the pitching, I think he’s going to adapt really well.”

Naylor expressed his gratitude for Esposito’s guidance this season.

“It’s just the energy and the positive vibes that he put on all of us,” Naylor said. “I think that ultimately helped me stay positive and, of course, everything else has to come, because it’s my first season. You want to have a good first season outside of the game as well and he’s really helped me be appreciative of everything that’s come.

“I really had to get back to what I had known before I got drafted. I feel like before that happened, I was always known as a player that grounded the ball a lot and for this league, I’m just getting back to my approach and when I came back, I think that really helped.”

Between the first and second half, Naylor nearly doubled his home run count, in addition to raising his slugging percentage from .389 to .447. Since 2018, Naylor has raised his ISO from .128 to .178.

There is still a two-point spike in his strikeout percentage, but for Naylor, who has been fashioning his game after Buster Posey and Salvador Perez, the instincts that have served him well to this point are giving him the confidence to keep looking ahead.

Naylor’s long-term future behind the plate is still a bit of a question mark, where his above-average arm complements an average defensive resumé. Regardless, Naylor is focused on his growth and letting the rest of the puzzle come together.

“I’m just working on the little things because they make all the difference in this game,” Naylor said. “I’m really just staying with my approaches and my routines and being deliberate in everything that I work through. I feel like that’s just going to help me continue to be the player that I am, and continue to better myself for every game and every season ahead.”



Jose Fermin: infielder
Age: 20 Height: 5-11 Weight: 160 Bats: R Throws: R

2019 line: 393 AB, .293/.374/.379, 115 H, 75 R, 12 2B, 2 3B, 6 HR, 41 RBI

While Jose Fermin might be one of the more off-the-grid Lake County success stories from this season, teammate and best friend Tyler Freeman credits Fermin as the primary cause of Freeman’s improvement at the plate.

“Jose’s walked more than anyone I’ve ever seen or that I’ve played with,” Freeman said. “I asked him about it and he told me, ‘You’ve got to shrink your zone to what you know you can hit and focus on that one zone.’ I really focused on that, and so far, the results have been showing.”

Fermin’s career-high 12.7 percent walk rate from 2018 dropped to 9.2 percent with Lake County this season, though that might be attributable to the adaptation to a new league.

Ask Fermin about Freeman and his face lights up. The quick-twitch 5-11 infielder has been inseparable from Freeman since they first met at the Indians Arizona complex.

“I think it was on the first day in Arizona,” Fermin grinned. “And then when we played in the field together, it was like, ‘I love this kid.’ The way that we were communicating in the field, yeah. And then, I think it was right after we became best friends and we were roommates this season.

Fermin, who signed as an international free agent in 2015, isn’t viewed for power potential as much as he’s viewed for his contact rate. In his transition to the Midwest League, Fermin’s strikeout percentage increased from 8.4 percent in 2018 to 8.8 percent this season.

“I remember the beginning of my career, I used to swing at everything,” Fermin said, laughing. “I thought, ‘All right, I’m looking for a fastball. I don’t care what it is, I’m swinging.’ And then, it started, I think, last year. It took cage work, working in the cage. I started realizing the pitch. And then I took that to the games and I was getting better results.

“I just kept doing the ‘Look for a pitch that I can drive, and then pitches in the corners, just take those cause you’re not going get a barrel all the time.'”

Fermin grew up a fan of Alex Rodriguez for how he worked at the plate. He also appreciates his interactions with another All-Star shortstop, Francisco Lindor.

“I remember I was asking about sinkers, because that was my biggest challenge last year,” Fermin said. “He was just telling me about moving on the plate, move more forward so you hit that pitch before it breaks down. He was talking a lot about the pitch you want to hit, like, ‘All right, all right, sinker, we have a sinker thrower. Just gotta see the pitch up, you know? Don’t swing at what you want to swing at.’”

At 20 years old, Fermin isn’t expected to fill out much more, although he could sneak in some muscle. More of a line-drive contact bat, Fermin knows how to use his ability to get on base to help overshadow anything he currently lacks in natural power. He did triple his home run count last season, from two to six.

Defensively, the Indians have moved Fermin around, from second base to third base to shortstop since the start of his career in 2016.

“I used to play second base too when I was younger in the little leagues,” Fermin said, “so, I mean, it wasn’t that hard to adjust.”

After flirting with .300 at the plate for the Captains, Fermin’s profile has demanded people pay attention and the development in the seasons to come will tell the rest of the story.

(Photo of Ethan Hankins: Brace Hemmelgarn / Getty Images)

Jake Bauers must buy in with the Cleveland Indians to find success in 2020
Today 5:06 AM

Jake Bauers' first season with the Cleveland Indians

By Joe Noga, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Some end-of-the-year player exit interviews can end up being a feel-good rubber stamp at the conclusion of a long major league season. For the Cleveland Indians and young outfielder/first baseman Jake Bauers, that was not the case.

“We had a long exit meeting with him the other day, and a really productive one,” manager Terry Francona said Wednesday. “Because we want Jake to be a big part of what we’re doing going forward.”

If that’s going to happen in 2020, Bauers, who turns 24 on Sunday, is going to have to buy in.


By any measure, Bauers had an up-and-down year in his first season with the Indians after being acquired from Tampa Bay in the same trade that brought Carlos Santana from Seattle and sent Yandy Diaz to the Rays. He hit .226 with 12 home runs and 43 RBI in 117 games, including a one-month stint at Triple-A Columbus.

Bauers’ walk rate dropped from 13.9% in 2018 with Tampa, which was in the top 8% of the league, to 10.6% with the Indians. And his strikeout percentage shot up to 27.2%. His on-base percentage was more than 100 points higher on the road than at home and hit .206 and struck out 70 times with runners in scoring position.

Along the way he hit for the cycle at Detroit on June 14 and blasted a 450-foot home run off Oakland’s Fernando Rodney, the longest by an Indians hitter since Edwin Encarnacion hit one 452 feet in August of 2017.


Bauers bounced back and forth between left field and first base, leading to some inconsistencies in his daily routines throughout the season. It’s something Francona addressed in their meeting.

“I give him a lot of credit for being open, to listening to maybe some things he didn’t necessarily want to hear, and doing it in an extremely mature way,” Francona said. “He’s in a good place. Now we’ve got to keep that moving.”

The Indians need to figure out a way to get Bauers committed to everyday routines. On days after he would collect a few hits, by his own admission he would skip hitting in the cage. And on days he went 0-for-4 he was less than receptive to hearing from coaches.

Francona says Bauers needs the consistency of routines to fall back on in order to stay away from the highs and the lows. “Because we think he has the ability,” Francona said. “When you look at his bat speed, there’s a ton there. We just need him to be more consistent.”

Interesting story on Bauers and rather disappointing. He's young enough to improve but not if he's too immature to learn from his coaches.

Here's the thankyou you antiticipated TFIR!

I like Hankins a lot. He's No. 2 on my Tribe Top Prospect List and Naylor is in the top 5 too.

Fermin is a maybe; not moving up quickly, but one of our many quality middle infielders.

CLEVELAND -- The offseason has come early for the Indians. Now, it’s time to leave 2019 in the rearview mirror. With postseason moves on the horizon, here’s everything you need to know in order to begin preparing for 2020.

Which Indians are free agents?

Tyler Clippard, Ryan Flaherty, Dioner Navarro, Yasiel Puig and Adam Rosales.

When is the deadline for qualifying offers?

The deadline to receive qualifying offers is five days after the World Series ends. However, none of the Tribe’s free agents will receive one.

Which players have options?

Options for reliever Dan Otero ($1.5 million) and second baseman Jason Kipnis ($16.5 million) are not expected to be picked up by the Tribe. [and weren't] However, the Indians announced on Wednesday that they do intend to exercise their option for Corey Kluber ($17.5 million).

Because lefty Oliver Pérez made more than 60 appearances for Cleveland this season, the club automatically picks up his $3 million vesting option.

Who is a non-tender candidate? When is that deadline?

Cleveland has seven players eligible for arbitration this offseason: Francisco Lindor, Danny Salazar, Kevin Plawecki, Nick Goody, Cody Anderson, Mike Clevinger and Tyler Naquin. There’s no doubt that the club will tender Lindor’s and Clevinger’s contracts. The biggest question is what will the Tribe do with Salazar? [easy answer to that one!]

Last November, the Indians decided to tender Salazar’s contract, signing the 29-year-old to a $4.5 million deal for 2019 with expectations that he’d be healthy enough to contribute this past season. But that contribution lasted just one outing.

After another injury-plagued year that went from rehab of Salazar’s surgically repaired shoulder to a strained groin in his season debut at the beginning of August, it wouldn’t be too surprising if the Indians decided to non-tender him this time around.

Another candidate, although a less likely one, would be Naquin, who will be working his way back from mid-September ACL surgery. The expected timeframe for his return is seven-to-nine months (April-June 2020), though that could shift as his rehab process continues. His injury may give the Indians a reason to debate non-tendering his contract, but it seems more likely that he’ll stick around.

These decisions will need to be made by Dec. 2.

Who needs to be added to the Indians’ 40-man roster to avoid the Rule 5 Draft?

The Indians have a handful of Minor Leaguers who will be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft this season. The two headliners who will need to be moved to the 40-man will be pitcher Triston McKenzie and outfielder Daniel Johnson, both Top 30 prospects for Cleveland, per MLB Pipeline.

McKenzie entered the year as the team’s No. 1 overall prospect, but dropped to No. 2 after a full year on the injured list. The 22-year-old strained his upper back in Spring Training and then suffered another setback with a pectoral strain that never allowed him to leave Arizona. However, the Indians still feel positively about his future.

“As he’s finishing up his rehab, he will basically have a normal offseason and come into Spring Training unrestricted,” Indians general manager Mike Chernoff said. “This is a big offseason for him and then a big Spring Training next year to see the steps that he can take without having pitched a whole lot this year.” [not a winter ball assignment? I'd assume they'd want to make up for lots of lost time]

Johnson was promoted to Triple-A on May 25 and he hit .306 with an .867 OPS in 84 games with Columbus. The 24-year-old was traded to the Indians from the Nationals along with Jefry Rodriguez in exchange for Yan Gomes and the Tribe seems excited for the outfielder’s future.

[They'd be stupid not to put Ka ai Tom on the 40 man roster after his super 2019. May or may not be a big leaguer, but he certainly should be protected.

What kind of help will the Indians look for this offseason?

The biggest priority is finding a third or second baseman. Because José Ramírez informed the Indians that he’d be OK with playing either second or third next year before he left for the offseason, the team now has some flexibility in its strategy. Finding an infielder with a solid bat would be an enormous pickup for the Tribe.

The Indians could also take a look at bolstering their relief corps, though all but Otero and Clippard are expected to return next season. [Olson, Goody, Cole??? Why bother] A likely addition of No. 21 prospect James Karinchak will bring some velocity to the mix and he could be the missing arm they need, especially as he gains more experience.

The decision is a done deal now..

Corey Kluber, the looming decision and finding silver linings
By Zack Meisel Sep 30, 2019 19
WASHINGTON — By the time Corey Kluber takes the mound next season, nearly 11 months will have passed since his most recent big-league start.

He’ll be nearing his 34th birthday. A few gray hairs have already sprouted up in his thick beard. Yet, given the length of his absence, Kluber surmises he’ll experience the jitters of a rookie making his major-league debut.

Will he don an Indians uniform during that outing? The club holds a $17.5 million option on him for the 2020 campaign.

Kluber told The Athletic he hasn’t yet discussed the decision with the front office, but he has engaged in preliminary dialogue with the coaching staff about potential offseason throwing regimens that would prepare him best for next year.

“I think I generally view things as, if I don’t have control of them, I don’t waste my energy worrying about them,” Kluber said. “When that time comes, if they want to sit down with me and discuss that kind of stuff, I’ll think about it then.”

The Indians began exit interviews with players Sunday morning in a room adjacent to the manager’s office at Nationals Park. They’ll wrap up the meetings Monday at Progressive Field.

There’s plenty to discuss with Kluber, who made only seven starts in 2019 because of a pair of injuries. The safe bet is the Indians will exercise the option rather than sever ties with an asset they valued highly enough a year ago to resist a trade, despite a mandate to trim payroll. They did pick up Michael Brantley’s $12 million option two years ago, even though Brantley underwent ankle surgery that October. The one uncertain variable is the departure of minority owner John Sherman and how that might influence the balancing of the club’s checkbook this winter.

A broken arm cost Kluber three months of the season, and during his final minor-league tune-up before being activated from the injured list, his left oblique begged for mercy. So, he watched from a distance as his teammates made one final push for a postseason berth. Instead of carving up hitters with cutters and sinkers, he spent September testing his agility in the pool and long tossing with the team trainer.

Kluber caught himself before he described his summer as “boring” — he preferred not to use that term. But the didn’t disagree with the suggestion of “monotonous.” He said it was frustrating to suffer such an untimely setback in mid-August, and that “it sucked not being able to contribute,” no matter how much he marveled at the blossoming of the Indians’ other young pitchers.

“People have gone through a lot worse stuff than my injuries,” Kluber said, “so I’m not going to feel sorry for myself. It’s not going to help me heal any faster. It’s not what I wanted, but it’s the situation.”

Now, he’ll have a full offseason at his disposal. He said he’ll “definitely make some adjustments with the way I structure throwing in the offseason.” He won’t feel as though he needs to hibernate or bury his right arm in a tub of ice for a few weeks. He probably won’t need to slow-play spring training as he has in past years. After all, he didn’t suffer any shoulder or elbow trauma, or anything that should reappear.

“Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise for next year,” Terry Francona said. “I mean, we leaned on him pretty heavy for six years.”

From 2014 to 2018, only Kluber and Max Scherzer racked up 1,000 or more innings, and both nearly totaled 1,100. Kluber also made nine postseason starts during that stretch. In four of those five seasons, he finished in the top-three in the balloting for the AL Cy Young Award.

The injuries, though, limited him to 35 2/3 innings, and the results in that sample weren’t particularly encouraging (5.80 ERA, .824 opponent OPS). Perhaps a fresher arm next year will make Kluber’s 2019 a mere footnote rather than a turning point in his career.

“I’ll definitely find a way to talk myself into it being a positive,” Kluber said, “because I don’t want to dwell on the negative stuff. Maybe having a full offseason, that’ll be a benefit. There’s opportunity to work on things that maybe I haven’t been able to work on in a while because of the innings. Maybe that’ll pay off in the long run, too.”

Meisel: My 2019 Indians MVP ballot

Zack Meisel 3h ago 4
CLEVELAND — The Indians employed 54 players in 2019, from Aaron (Civale) to Zach (Plesac) and from (Greg and Logan) Allen to (Bradley) Zimmer.

That number hasn’t been higher since the 2002 season, a year of transition for the franchise in which the club relied upon 59 players, including real people named Roy Smith and Greg LaRocca and Heath Murray. Even Brady Anderson made a forgettable cameo.

The 2019 Indians were nothing like that 2002 team, a jumbled mess of veteran holdovers from the glory years and overmatched, inexperienced kids. The 2019 Indians needed 54 players to survive the rash of injuries that plagued the clubhouse and the outbreak of the hitting flu that infiltrated the lineup in the early months.

That’s 54 players (plus coaches, bullpen catchers, coordinators and an entire front office, of course) contributing to a roller coaster ride that came to a halt at the 93-win mark, just short of a postseason berth.

So who was most valuable to the cause? Not just which players logged the highest WAR total, but who wielded the most influence on this season developing into what it ultimately became? There’s plenty of subjectivity to this, but here’s my Indians MVP ballot. (I’m sure there will be disagreements, so feel free to drop your own ballot into the comments section below.)

5. (Tie) Mike Clevinger and Francisco Lindor
José Ramírez received consideration for this spot, given how much the offense seemed to hinge on his production. Oscar Mercado, too, for his timely emergence. Even Jordan Luplow, given his gaudy numbers against lefties. Instead, Clevinger and Lindor share the vote.

The case for Lindor: A .284/.335/.518 slash line, a third consecutive season with 40-plus doubles and 30-plus home runs, 22 stolen bases, 4.4 WAR. He was often the club’s catalyst on offense and a primary leader in the clubhouse.

The case against Lindor: This is nitpicking, and as fluky as this statistic can be, Lindor posted an uninspiring .202/.295/.312 slash line in 133 plate appearances with runners in scoring position. Also, he registered his worst month in September (.218 average, .705 OPS), including two hits in his final 25 at-bats in the final week. He acknowledged the team’s late fizzle stemmed from the lack of hitting atop the order.

The case for Clevinger: He missed 10 weeks of the season, yet ranked seventh among American League pitchers in WAR. He ranked third in ERA (2.71), first in FIP (2.49) and fifth in strikeout rate (12.1).

The case against Clevinger: He missed 10 weeks. He returned long before anyone anticipated — well, aside from himself — but he could have stolen some of the national attention granted to Cy Young Award front-runners Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander.

4. Ruben Niebla
“OK, I remember Phil Maton and Jon Edwards and Andrew Velazquez, but Ruben Niebla? Doesn’t ring a bell.”

Well, that’s because this is … cheating, somewhat. Niebla last pitched in 2000 for the Chico Heat of the independent Western League. But he has worked for the Indians for 19 years, now as the organization’s pitching coordinator. Ask any starting pitcher on the Indians’ roster to name a member of the organization who played a vital role in their ascent to the majors, and they’ll first point to Niebla. (I did. And they did. Much more coming soon on that topic to The Athletic site near you.)

He oversees each pitcher’s development plan. He helps streamline communication between levels and coaches. And he was a key cog in Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale helping to rescue a beleaguered rotation this summer. The credit doesn’t all fall on Niebla’s plate; the Indians stress that everything they do is collaborative, and there’s an entire network of player development staff members who assist with the pitching pipeline that saved their season. (Again, more coming soon.)

But for this exercise, we’ll let Niebla represent that group, and that group represents the contributions that Plesac and Civale (and even Clevinger, Shane Bieber and Adam Plutko) made. Plesac and Civale had limited exposure to the Triple-A level, yet the big-league spotlight never seemed too bright, leading Bieber to declare that “they kept us in the race. They definitely pulled more than their own weight.”

“When you think about the major steps forward that some of our young pitchers have taken in the past two years,” GM Mike Chernoff said, “whether it’s Bieber who wasn’t in spring training the year before, or Plesac and Civale this year, the same thing. Or even Clevinger, the steps forward he took last year and really even improved on that this year — I think it’s obviously a huge organizational success in that way and I think sets up a foundation for the future for us.”
3. Roberto Pérez
The average MLB team totaled 12 passed balls this season; the Indians totaled two. That credit falls upon the shoulders of Pérez, who was not charged with a single passed ball all season (993 2/3 innings). Think that’s impressive? He also led all players — at any position — in defensive runs saved, with 29. Nationals outfielder Victor Robles racked up 22, as did Padres catcher Austin Hedges. Brewers outfielder Lorenzo Cain was the only other player in the majors to reach 20.

Pérez ranked near the top of the leaderboard in pitch framing. Oh, and he ranked second in the majors in caught stealing rate (41 percent), behind only Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto.

So, it’s difficult to argue against Pérez being the top defensive catcher in baseball — or, at the very least, near the top of the list. Then add in the fact he socked 24 home runs this season and posted a .774 OPS and a 98 wRC+. All of that from a guy who posted a .188/.278/.315 slash line the three previous years.

In 2019, Pérez was a league-average hitter with some pop in his bat who dominated every other aspect of his position. Plus, he guided some inexperienced pitchers through their first tour of the big leagues.

“He’s extraordinary at leading a pitching staff,” Antonetti said. “So we went in knowing that was a core strength of his and what he was able to do was, with consistent, regular at-bats, produce at offensive levels that he hadn’t yet done. He put together one of the best all-around seasons for a catcher, not only in the American League, but in baseball.”

Will his performance earn him his first Gold Glove?

“No doubt. He’s winning it,” Lindor said. “If he doesn’t win the Gold Glove, then there’s something wrong with the system. And I know the system’s not wrong, so Pérez will win it.”

2. Shane Bieber
Had I said before the season that only one Tribe starter would log more than 200 innings (and five or more in all but two starts), lead the league in walk rate, complete games and shutouts and post an ERA between 2.83 and 3.68 every month, who would you have guessed?

Corey Kluber? That sure sounds like one of his seasons from 2014-18.

Carlos Carrasco? No one would have scoffed at that suggestion.

Trevor Bauer? He was a trendy Cy Young pick who regularly pitches deep into games.

Clevinger? That wouldn’t have sounded far-fetched by any means.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Bieber was the answer.

“Personally, it’s been an extremely fulfilling season,” he said.

From college walk-on to All-Star Game MVP in five years. From No. 5 starter to front-line starter who is bound to receive some Cy Young tallies in about five months.

Three of those first four pitchers were sidelined for an extended period of time this season. The fourth was inconsistent and then ousted. Bieber was a model of consistency, an example for Plesac and Civale and a reason the front office could deem Bauer expendable and feel encouraged about the club’s future.

“There’s a pretty good chance he’s going to be in our five-man rotation next year,” Terry Francona joked, before adding that Bieber will likely follow the Kluber program, which includes a lighter spring training load. “My guess is Bieber will come back stronger than ever and he’ll probably figure out a way to be even better next year.”

Said Bieber: “I didn’t think I had the greatest start and then to be able to kind of refine everything and become more consistent and then just the way the whole All-Star thing happened and a lot of things just turned out a lot better than expected — so I’m extremely grateful for the opportunities this year presented, and fortunately I was able to make the most of them.”

1. Carlos Santana
Stick a battery in Santana, push a button and he’ll utter the same phrases. He’s happy. He’s comfortable. Cleveland is his “sweet home.”

What else would he need to say? He kept it no secret how thrilled he was to return to Cleveland and how that sparked a career year in his age-33 season. Santana tied his personal best with 34 home runs and he set career highs in batting average, slugging percentage, OPS, hits and runs. He walked as many times as he struck out. He earned his first All-Star nod and he participated in the Home Run Derby.

When the Indians’ lineup scuffled in April and May, Santana ditched his typical sluggish start to carry the offense. In the clubhouse, it was like he never left, and he even provided guidance for Yasiel Puig and Franmil Reyes upon their arrivals.

Aside from an empty October, it was a dream season for the homecoming king.

“I can’t literally count how many times he would come up to me,” Antonetti said, “and say, ‘Thank you for bringing me back here. I’ve never been happier. I’m so happy.'”

(Top photo: Jason Miller / Getty Images)

We have a special group of guys AND front office personnel in this organization.

And to see them pretty much totally rebuild their pitching staff this season with young kids was just amazing. Oh, of course and then trade one of them for a future slugger they needed and promising minor league pieces.

I'm just picking my jaw back up after reading the list of Roberto Perez's defensive stats this year. Just for starters, how do you go 993 innings and not have a single passed ball. And how valuable is that to a pitching staff - they can throw any pitch they want without worrying the catcher won't get it. Crazy.

One of the more fun seasons I've seen.

Was Perez's defense significantly improved this year? I always thought he was a solid defender but we had some very negative comments here last winter on his work behind the plate.

The average MLB team totaled 12 passed balls this season; the Indians totaled two. That credit falls upon the shoulders of Pérez, who was not charged with a single passed ball all season (993 2/3 innings). Think that’s impressive? He also led all players — at any position — in defensive runs saved, with 29. Nationals outfielder Victor Robles racked up 22, as did Padres catcher Austin Hedges. Brewers outfielder Lorenzo Cain was the only other player in the majors to reach 20.

Pérez ranked near the top of the leaderboard in pitch framing. Oh, and he ranked second in the majors in caught stealing rate (41 percent), behind only Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto.

So, it’s difficult to argue against Pérez being the top defensive catcher in baseball — or, at the very least, near the top of the list.