Cleveland Indians: Tribe, smart for taking a chance with Hanley Ramirez
It’s official: Hanley Ramirez is now a member of the Cleveland Indians. (Minor league deal with a non-roster invite). What does this mean for the Tribe?
Hanley Ramirez is the newest member of the Cleveland Indians. Are you excited? I am. But judging by the replies to the official post from the Cleveland Indians, a lot of you are not. That’s fair. The Indians haven’t gone after any big names this offseason, and now they sign a guy who was cut from the World Champions last year.
Hanley isn’t a guy that will make an All-Star roster anymore, but he’s certainly worth taking a chance on. The guy is a career .290 hitter and averaged .286 just two years ago. His OPS has been above .800 just once since 2014, but the same can be said for other Tribe hitters (looking at you Roberto Perez).
The point of this is to give the Indians some pop in that lineup. If he’s effective, Hanley would make a great DH for the Indians, allowing Santana to stay at 1B and Jake Bauers to put in work in the outfield.
The Indians have had a few non-roster invitees make it to the big leagues recently. The most notable being Rajai Davis last season. It’s safe to assume Ramirez is okay with spending some time in Triple-A considering he wasn’t even playing for most of last year.
He wasn’t as effective as the Red Sox would have liked him to be in 2018, but that’s not to say he can’t pick things up in Cleveland. If the Indians can even get the 23 homers he gave Boston in 2017, they should be happy about that. He’d likely be batting toward the bottom of the order, but I think when you stick him in the Indians lineup, it gives them more depth.
Overall, I’m a fan of this move. It’s low risk, and the Indians have a chance to get a great player into their lineup that everyone seems to be complaining about. It’s okay to be excited about Spring Training because it means we get to watch Hanley get another chance.