In an interesting turn of events, the Indians have said that Branyan will actually be the regular first baseman, though Matt LaPorta will still get a lot of time at first base, likely starting there when a left-hander is on the mound. LaPorta is expected to see a lot more time in left field this year than originally anticipated, which is a bit unexpected as it was felt he would primarily play first base this year. It appears that the Indians are simply keeping their options open with him at first base and left field, and also slowly transitioning him to first base rather than just throw him in there full time.
LaPorta is expected to play everyday, and outfielder Michael Brantley is also expected to be on the opening day roster as well playing everyday. From the sounds of it, we may have somewhat of a moving chairs setup with the lineup again this year. And, considering that Branyan is expected to be the regular at first base and that LaPorta and Brantley are also expected to be regulars, it looks like the Indians may in fact not have a 4th outfielder on the roster after all. With Grady Sizemore and Shin-Soo Choo entrenched in center and right field, it appears that LaPorta and Brantley would be the two other outfielders and because of his versatility Brantley could seemingly play everyday as the fourth outfielder.
We'll see how things shake out, but with the Branyan signing it is an interesting development to watch this spring with how the playing time will be doled out this coming season.
Everything on this site is free, but for those interested in making any monetary contributions to help support the stability and growth of this site please click on the "Donate" button below.
13 comments:
Hey Tony,
It really seems odd that the Reyes move went down now. Was this prearranged when the roster move was made last year? Seems like reyes and Scott Lewis are the forgotten men.
From what I understand, Reyes had an out clause in his contract at the end of spring training where if he was not on the indians 40-man roster he could leave and go elsewhere. The Indians think he could be back sometime after the All Star break and did not want to lose him, so they DFAed Gimenez a few days ago (he cleared waivers) and then put Reyes on the roster and then immediately moved him to the 60-day DL, which then opened a spot for Branyan. Fun with roster spots!
I can't imagine that Brantley and Laporta would both be on the team. Branyan's a regular and Brantley and Laporta are going to play every day? That's obviously impossible. I've got to figure that Brantley's pushed out. It's not like he tore up AAA pitching last year, so I can't say that he couldn't use some more time there. Having Laporta rotate between 1b and OF seems like a terrible idea though. His defense will almost certainly suffer at both positions, and his offense might suffer with it. I always figured Wedge was the proponent of all this "versatility" flip-flopping, but I guess it's Shapiro who's forcing it down everyone's throats. Branyan's the Derosa of this year, a man without a position, with Laporta playing the part of Peralta from last year, getting awkwardly bounced around between positions. At least they didn't give up 2 good pitching prospects for Branyan, and I suppose if they can trade him for prospects like Perez and Todd in June that wouldn't be too bad. It's very bizarre though, when the Indians are supposed to be building for next year, they make this move which totally messes with the development of their top 2 (or 3, if you count Brown, who could just as easily replace Brantley in the outfield) young position players so they can temporarily "upgrade" the offense with Branyan. If they're concerned about Laporta's ability to handle 1b, what better time to get him experience at 1b than right now?
Tony,
Do you think it might be more about concern for Laporta's hip (which they seem to think was aggravated by the move to 1st last year) than any innate ability to 'handle' 1st?
Yeah, I am gonna stand by my belief that Brantley will be on this team come opening day. As Bay mentions, there is some concern by the Indians with LaPorta
s health and you can throw in the likes of Branyan and hafner in that mix as well. So the Indans are being very vague on purpose in public comments on who they think makes the team. Remember, the Indians consider "everyday" as a guy who gets 500 or so plate appearances, not a guy like Sizemore who is in there for 650+ PA. So, it is very possible that Branyan/Hafner/LaPorta/Brantley can be "everyday" guys among three poisitions in LF, 1B, and DH if all are getting 450-550 PA.
I agree that I am not too happy about moving LaPorta back and forth between LF and 1B. In any case, it will be interesting to see how this shakes out this spring.
Probably late for this observation but I am not going to be surprised if they ease Branyan into some play at 3B. He is not a good 3B defensively but you work with what you have. I also believe that Brantley will start if LF as you do but I do expect a learning curve in which Brantley returns to AAA to work on the transition. If Brantley does not need refinement time then so much the better. The Indians then have a choice between to below average defensive options in LF, Brown and Branyan. So much depends upon the play of the rest of the lineup that I do not feel comfortable with hazarding a guess which it will be if that happens.
Well, things can always change....and in this case they have. After digging around, it is apparent that Brantley will indeed go back to Triple-A to start the season. But while he surely could use more seasoning, the true reason is to control his service time clock. By having him open in Triple-A and play the fist 6-7 weeks there it will give the Indians an extra year of control on him. Same with Brown. The pickup of Branyan the player is not all that good a move, but the pickup of *someone* to push Brantley/Brown to AAA to give the Indians a whole extra year of control is good roster management and something small market teams need to do in order to extend the life of a young players career with them before they ultimately reach FA.
Tony, I agree that Brantley will be down in Columbus in part because of service time, but having said that, he clearly has not done even close to enough to earn a major-league job, and there is something to be said for making a guy earn it. His OPS-MLE for last season was 624 -- 624! -- and in no month did it break 700. You wouldn't want a guy that green even in CF, let alone in a corner spot.
I don't think there is as much concern about Brown, as candidly, even if he ever earns an everyday job in the majors, he isn't going to be an expensive impact player. He's the type of player we'd probably ship off after a few seasons, like Crisp or Garko, and frankly, that level of value is his ceiling.
I like keeping LaPorta in LF and can't really get why others don't. Even if he was playing 1B, we've got three semi-gimpy guys for two everyday jobs plus occasional pinch-hitting. That's 475 PA apiece, and we'll be lucky if any two of those three guys can even reach 475!
In sum, I think we're looking at those three guys plus either Kearns or Duncan making the roster, and that's just fine.
Forgot one detail ... the key service time number with Brantley is 90 days, because if he spends that many in the minors, then he's not likely to hit arbitration for an extra year. As noted above, having him spend another 90 days in the minors shouldn't be controversial by any stretch of the imagination.
Jay, it really does mostly have to do with service time. Can't go into more detail than that on how I know, just trust me on it.;-)
Also, the service time issue is not necessarily about delaying his arbitration clock. It is mostly to delay his free agent clock. He has 34 days of service already, so if he spends about 6-7 weeks in Columbus it should leave him with less than 172 total service days after this season, to which he is now not a free agent until after the 2016 season rather than 2015. Avoiding the extra arb year for Super 2 is a lot harder to predict/avoid and not as much an issue at the moment, and would require be spent about 2/3s the season in Columbus to avoid that.
As for LaPorta, I like him more at 1B. We have few if any options internally at 1B, where we have a plethora of options for left field.
Nevermind my Super 2 comment....he would only need a half season not 2/3s season.
Hey Tony, I was just wondering if Chris Gimenez received a non-roster invite to ST with the outrighting? It seems to be the Indians' usual MO, as they did it with Aubrey, Marte, and others. But I have not heard anything about Gimenez.
Thanks!
Brian, Gimenez cleared waivers and was outrighted to AAA Columbus but is still in big league camp as a non-roster invitee.
Post a Comment