Cleveland Indians News: Jerry Sands Clears Waivers, Heads Back to Columbus

Indians shouldn’t have DFA’d Jerry Sands

In today’s edition of Hey, Hoynsie!–Paul Hoynes was asked about the indecisiveness of the

with Jerry Sands, as well as what to do with the struggling

. You can read more about it

here, and the rest of today’s questions.

But we’ll cover the Sands/Swisher question, as I have to disagree wit Hoynes on this.

First off, Sands cleared waivers after being designated for assignment for the second time this season. For as well as he’s hit in his time with the Indians this season (9-for-27, one home run and two doubles), no team has claimed him either time. So what the Tribe see in him might be right if no one else is willing to take a chance.

My problem is his simple explanation. Hoynes says “there’s a reason he’s not in the big league’s right now,  just as there was a reason the Indians signed Swisher to a four-year, $56 million contract.”

Ok, so what’s the reason? Poor performance? No. Everyone at his position is playing better? No, that’s not it. And the reason the Tribe paid Swisher that money? Well, whatever it is, they overpaid. Not unusual in free agency, but handing a guy $14 million a year at his age was a terrible idea. Let’s not fall back on that and play it as ‘Swisher is better than Sands’. That’s simply not true right now.

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Granted, Swisher and his money aren’t going anywhere. And coming off double knee surgery with the numbers he’s putting up? No one will take him in trade without the Indians eating most of the contract. And his knees seem a better fit for first base, but Tito isn’t going to sit Carlos Santana–so here we are. And Sands is only 27, so he’s by no means washed up. He could be hitting his stride for all we know.

The Indians were lucky with Shaun Marcum after waffling with him, and so far he has fallen in line as the best No. 5 starter option that they have at this point.  Now that they’ve had the same stroke of luck with Sands, maybe in the near future they’ll reconsider Sands future. Playing Swisher strictly because of his contract is poisonous. I watched it for years with the Chicago Cubs and Alfonso Soriano. You found yourself trying to justify it. He wasn’t terrible. Far better than Swish right now.

Next: Five key players that will propel the Indians to the top