Cleveland Indians: Big Deals Being Made Everywhere, But Not Here

The offseason is barely underway, and already the Cleveland Indians find themselves a bit behind. The Tribe weren’t going to sign any of these big names, but their competition did–and things won’t get any easier.

It’s a little bit strange to say the “last-place” Detroit Tigers, but it’s very much the truth. Last season was supposed to be the year the Cleveland Indians would unseat the Tigers for the AL Central. The Tigers were indeed cast aside–to the bottom, actually–but it wasn’t the Indians who did the casting. Now, just a few short weeks into the offseason, the Tigers are making it known they don’t plan to stay where they are. 

They’ve gone out and signed Jordan Zimmerman, traded for Francisco Rodriguez as well as signing Cameron Maybin. And we’re over here in Cleveland like “Hey, we signed Joba Chamberlain to a minor league deal”. And it’s this divide that shows that the Indians are in a different league playing an entirely different game.

Now, the Tigers big “moves” don’t assure success. Just take a look at the 2015 Chicago White Sox. By most accounts, they “won” the offseason. They didn’t translate into actual wins, however. The Indians didn’t meet the lofty goals of World Series Champs as set forth by Sports Illustrated (Damn you, SI), but they beat the team that won the offseason. Wait, does that mean anything? Is there a trophy at least?

Now, the Boston Red Sox have dropped a cool $200 million for the services of David Price. Dang it, I think the Indians were about to make a push. Kidding of course. Teams should use free agency to compliment a team, not to build it. Right now it feels like both the Tiger and the Red Sox, as well as last year’s White Sox are doing just that. Now, the Indians can’t really brag about winning free agency–looking at you Brandon Moss, Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn–but the money isn’t there to try and keep up with the Joneses.

So what is a city to do that is desperately looking forward to baseball already (Thanks, Browns, seriously)?

The Indians can go one of a few different ways about this. The first is to spend very little this offseason and ride what they have into 2016. From there, start bringing up more of the “kids”. Some might not be ready, but more evaluation can be done in the spring as they can get a longer look at them against better quality pitching. Yes, it’s a rebuild if you want to call it that. But it might not take that long.

The other route would be to use trades to acquire some of the missing pieces. Yes, that means a pitcher. No, we can’t get Bryce Harper for them. Any of them. The core may have solid WAR numbers, a Cy Young and more, but the fact is some are overvaluing them while others undervalue. The realistic expectation falls in the middle I suppose. But young, controllable pitching can fetch a solid package. Even more so with two of the biggest free agent names off the market already. I guarantee that phone started ringing right after Price signed.

Many teams have already charted their course for the offseason, and the Indians need to do the same as we get ready for the Winter Meetings. There needs to be a clear and concise plan for 2016. Not a last minute signing of a free agent that probably won’t meet expectations (do they ever?).

Next: Indians sign Chamberlain to minor league deal

Standing pat isn’t going to cut it if they believe they can compete for the AL Central. They can’t come out of the meetings without either saying “yes, we’re likely to deal one of our starters”, or “No, this is the team we’re going with.”. The latter would be my idea of surrender, essentially wasting players and contracts like Jason Kipnis, Michael Brantley and Corey Kluber. But hey, I guess there’s always LeBron..until he decides the grass is greener elsewhere again.