For the first time in years, the Cleveland Indians should have some serious money to play with in the offseason. Travis Hafner’s albatross of a contract is finally coming off the books. The Grady Sizemore gamble proved to be a $5 million bust. The same could be said for Derek Lowetoo. All three, by the way, happen to be the highest paid players on the team.
Photo Courtesy of Keith Allison via Flickr.com
Add the $1 million-plus wasted on Johnny Damon, the $3 million on Casey Kotchman, the $1.5 million spent on Kevin Slowey, who isn’t likely to return at that price, and the contracts for veterans Jose Lopez and Dan Wheeler, neither of whom is still with the club and franchise is shedding just about $30 million from its 2012 payroll. Or in other words, just about 45%.
Sure, $2.75 million is owed as a buyout for Hafner, and several other players – Asdrubal Cabrera, Ubaldo Jimenez, Justin Masterson, Shin-Soo Choo and Chris Perez, depending, of course, if the latter two aren’t dealt – are due raises either through arbitration or their already signed contracts, probably something around an added $11 million. Meaning: if the Indians keep the payroll in close proximity to 2012’s, which is no guarantee, the front office could have about $15 million or so to upgrade the team.
It’s not close to many of the other team’s, but, hey, that’s a lot of money for Cleveland.
And one of the first decisions that will have to be made is whether or not to pick up Roberto Hernandez’s $6 million option.
Hernandez has been anything but consistent during his seven-year career, going from failed closer to near Cy Young winner to replacement level pitcher to league average starter and, finally, missing the majority of this season because, well, he wasn’t who he said he was.
With just over 14 innings under his belt this season, the front office is going to have to decide if he’s worth the gamble. So what do they do?
Look at the baseball landscape the past few years, $6 million doesn’t get you nearly the type of starting pitcher you think. Last offseason, pitchers that signed in the neighborhood include Joe Saunders, Aaron Harang, Paul Maholm, Bruce Chen, Wei-Yin Chen, Erik Bedard, Chris Capuano and Freddy Garcia. The year before included the likes of: Kevin Correia, Javier Vazquez, and Harang. It’s a vanilla group that resides somewhere between replacement level and league average – exactly where Hernandez fits in.
So in that respect, he’d be worth it.
But just look at next year’s rotation and tell me where would he fit?
Three spots are definitely locked up with Jimenez, Masterson, and Zach McAllister. And the fourth is almost there too, with the emergence of Corey Kluber, who’s sporting some solid peripherals (7.87 K/9 and 2.32 BB/9). As for the fifth spot, the team has Jeanmar Gomez, Josh Tomlin, David Huff, and the recovering Carlos Carrasco; all of whom could come awfully close to matching, if not exceeding, Hernandez’s production – just for a lot cheaper.
And don’t sleep on Carrasco either. Prior to his injury, he was on pace for league average production (two wins above replacement).
So what are Indians going to do with Hernandez?
Well, they’re going to respectfully decline his option. Not because it’s too much; there’s simply no room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For attempted humor, snarky comments, and baseball updates follow the site on Twitter, @ReleasePoints.
Or if you’re at work or just looking to kill more time check out the site’s homepage here or the Archives tab here.
releasepoints.wordpress.com 
Leave a comment