Cleveland Indians: Tribe acquires Oliver Drake from Brewers

In a stunning move on Saturday morning, the Cleveland Indians have made a trade for a reliever, adding in righty Oliver Drake.

The Cleveland Indians needed bullpen help and I’m not entirely sure Oliver Drake qualifies as help. He was the worst performing member of the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen that has produced good results so far.

In 2018, Drake has a 6.39 ERA in 11 appearances with a 5.7 BB/9 and a 1.73 WHIP. These are terrible numbers.

He wasn’t that good in 2017 either, pitching to a 4.66 ERA in his time between the Brewers and the Baltimore Orioles.

What can we expect from Oliver Drake?

Not much, honestly. His primary use is as a “poor man’s lefty”. He’s a right handed pitcher but he has reverse splits where he actually performs better against left handed hitters. This is made possible by a pitch that he won’t call a screwball, but is basically a screwball.

Against lefties, Drake allows a .247 batting average. But against righties, it’s much worse, with hitters getting a .351 average on him. Weird splits for a right handed pitcher, but he can find a niche with that skill set.

You can expect a lot of frustration when watching him pitch. He’s been struggling lately but perhaps a change of scenery will bring about a better performance.

What did we give up for Drake?

The Indians sent cash considerations to the Milwaukee Brewers for Drake. It’s not clear how much, and it never is, but anything is too much to give up to get Drake. Whether Mike Chernoff has to buy Brewers GM David Stearns lunch the next time they meet or whether it was just a dollar, it can be construed as an overpay.

What’s his role on the Indians?

Drake will assume a 40 man roster spot that was recently vacated in the latest series of roster moves. He needed a 40 man roster spot and DFA’ing Gio Urshela left the Tribe’s 40 man roster at 39, giving the Cleveland Indians the room necessary to add Drake.

For the 25 man roster, a corresponding move still has not been announced. One name that might garner some consideration for being sent out is Zach McAllister. Although he’s had success in the past, McAllister has a 9.00 ERA this year with four home runs allowed. He’s out of minor league options and would need to be DFA’ed as well.

Drake is more of an early relief option than a late inning one. With Andrew Miller still on the mend and Nick Goody on the shelf as well, the Tribe could use some late inning relief help for the time being. However, I would not trust Oliver Drake in the late innings.

Did the Indians need relief help?

Oh very much so.

The Indians are going to need Oliver Drake to come in and help improve this bullpen with Andrew Miller and Nick Goody out. That was a scary sentence.

The Indians have made a few changes to their bullpen over the past few days, bringing in Ben Taylor, Evan Marshall, Alexi Ogando, and now Oliver Drake. This might be an upgrade over whoever he takes the roster spot of, but it’s a marginal upgrade at best.

Next: Catching up on the latest roster moves

The Cleveland Indians will try to give Drake a chance to succeed in his new environment, but he’s not a dependable arm in my book.