Cleveland Indians: Daily Rundown – January 4th, 2019

We finally got some interesting MLB news and the Cleveland Indians actually made a roster move on Thursday. Let’s get you all caught up on everything.

Happy Friday, everyone. We made it! The baseball gods have rewarded us all by finally giving us some interesting bits of news, including some moves made by the Cleveland Indians. We’re just under two months until Spring Training, so I suppose this is as good a time as ever to get the news cycle rolling.

Let’s start with the move made by the Indians on Thursday. It wasn’t a big splash, but the Indians signed relief pitcher Justin Grimm to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite. Cleveland is desperate for bullpen depth, while this isn’t quite the answer, Grimm probably has a good shot at making the cut, at least in my opinion. They need all the help they can get out of the bullpen.

Tribe inks Grimm to minors deal with ST invite / Mandy Bell, MLB.com

In some other news around baseball, the Phillies made a big splash by signing David Robertson to a two-year deal. They look like they’re building something big there in Philly, as they try to contend with the Braves at the top of the NL East. The Phillies already added Andrew McCutchen and Jean Segura. Now they’re supposedly pursuing either Bryce Harper or Manny Machado. Second-year manager Gabe Kapler is going to have himself a fun team to run in 2019.

Phillies add potential closer with the signing of free agent David Robertson / Jim Salisbury, NBC Sports Philadelphia

Lastly, we have some news that just dropped this morning. It seems that no matter how close the Rays are to contending, they just can’t fill seats. The Rays announced that while they will be adding premium seating to the lower levels, they will no longer seat fans in the upper levels. I lived in St. Petersburg for a bit, I can say that the experience at Tropicana Field is among the dullest you can get at any sporting event. Hopefully, this is another step in the process of the team finding a new stadium. It’s a pretty interesting read when you consider the future of the Rays. Check it out here.

Tampa Bay Rays eliminate upper-deck seating, reduce capacity to 25,000 / ESPN

I’m glad to see the news cycle pick up just a little bit. It feels like Spring Training is just around the corner, and I couldn’t be more excited. Terry Francona has said the Indians still have work to do before then, I can’t wait to see what happens next.