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The Indians need Carmona to anchor the staff while they rebuild and as they move back into contention (Photo: AP). |
Carmona, Sizemore are not on trade block
A report from a Baltimore news outlet on Tuesday made mention that the Indians and Washington Nationals have discussed a deal that would send right-handed pitcher Fausto Carmona and outfielder Grady Sizemore to the Nationals. The report cited an anonymous big league scout who told the reporter that the scout had "heard" of some "conversations taking place" between the Indians and Nationals.
The report is completely false and mostly speculation.
I've learned through several sources connected to the Indians that they in no way have had any discussion with the Nationals about Sizemore and Carmona, and that they certainly are not looking to trade either of them right now. It is no mystery that at some point they will probably entertain offers for both players, but right now they have no intention whatsoever to trade them as they need them for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.
Besides, there is no reason the Indians should have a need to trade Carmona. Typically when a team trades a player for financial reasons, they are looking to get out from under a bad contract or they want to get something for a player before they leave via free agency. Neither of those two scenarios applies to Carmona as he is under the Indians' control for four more seasons and he has as team friendly a contract as you will see.
There is no long term monetary commitment to Carmona as 2011 is the last guaranteed year of his contact that calls for him to make a little more than $6 million this season, which is peanuts for a pitcher of his caliber. After this season he has three club options for 2012 ($7 million), 2013 ($9 million), and 2014 ($12 million) that the organization can pick up or decline as they see fit before he is eligible for free agency after the 2014 season.
At this point the Indians can just go year-to-year with Carmona and have no long term financial obligation to him beyond each season. If at any point he is deemed too expensive or unproductive, they just decline his option the next offseason and let him become a free agent or try to trade him. But if he continues to perform well, they pick up his option.
As for Sizemore, it is no secret that he is eligible for free agency after the 2012 season, so trade talks should start to come more to the forefront with him this season. But any trade talks involving him right now are extremely premature and would only be to lay a foundation to a deal for later this year or next year after he proves he is healthy from microfracture surgery on his knee.
Right now no one is going to pay anything of value for Sizemore until interested teams can dispatch their scouts to watch him play and evaluate his health and ability this season. Also, the Indians are certainly not going to take a bath on him right now just to dump his salary.
The Indians still plan on contending in 2012, so they are going to be counting on Sizemore to be a big piece of the puzzle for the offense. If he proves he is not healthy this year they have the option of declining his $9 million club option for 2012, so like Carmona they can just go year to year with him the next two seasons without any long term financial commitment. If he is healthy and produces, then they will surely pick up his option for 2012.
Another thing to note with Sizemore which hurts his trade value right now is that if traded that 2012 club option becomes a player option. This would mean he controls whether his option for 2012 is picked up, and if he declines it he would become a free agent after the 2011 season. This will surely be a big sticking point for any team looking to acquire his services later this year.
Donald at third?
Infielder Jayson Nix is the frontrunner to land the Indians' opening day gig as the regular third baseman when the season starts, but the Indians have several other options at their disposal they plan to look at and use at third base over the course of the 2011 season. One of those alternatives is infielder Jason Donald.
Donald played a lot last year with the big league club and showed flashes of potential with the bat hitting .253 with four homers and 24 RBI in 88 games in his Major League debut. He is also considered a solid defender with the versatility to play any of the three infield spots at third base, shortstop, and second base. While he is penciled in as the starting second baseman in Cleveland to open the 2011 season, he has worked out a lot at third base in the offseason to prepare for some possible playing time there this coming season.
After Nix and Donald, the Indians have several other options such as infielders Luis Valbuena, Cord Phelps, Jack Hannahan, and maybe even Jared Goedert who could fill in at the position this year.
Bottom line, no matter who is tabbed the starter at third base to start the season it should be a position in flux all year where several players get playing time until top prospect Lonnie Chisenhall is hopefully ready to take over full time duties by the end of the season.
Who's on second?
What the Indians do at third base this year will have an impact at what happens in the short term with second base. While Nix is the frontrunner at third base and Donald at second base to start the season, as the season moves along several changes are expected in a year where the Indians will look to incorporate more of their higher level minor league talent. As a result, it is very unlikely that both Nix and Donald will still be the starters at both positions by the end of the season.
Two of the Indians’ top second base prospects Cord Phelps and Jason Kipnis will go to spring training as potential candidates to fill the position at some point during the year. They have no chance to open the season with the big league club for roster and developmental reasons, but they will get a good four to five weeks to show their skills to the major league staff. Since the major league staff does not see many of the Tribe's minor league players play over the course of the season, spring training offers the players a great opportunity to showcase their talents and to put them in the discussion for a callup later in the year.
If a need arises at second base, Phelps would likely get the first shot. He had a very solid campaign at Double-A Akron and Triple-A Columbus last year (.308 AVG, 8 homers, 54 RBI) and is pretty close to being major league ready. Unless Donald or Nix is injured, Phelps will open the 2011 season in Columbus where he can continue to fine tune his defense at second base and also play some third base and get comfortable there so he can be an option at either third base of second base this season in Cleveland.
Even though Kipnis had an outstanding year last season (.307 AVG, 16 homers, 74 RBI) and an impressive performance in the Arizona Fall League (.295 AVG, 3 homers, 19 RBI, .966 OPS), he is still just entering his second year playing the position after being converted from the outfield after the 2009 season. His bat is major league ready, but he needs at least a good half season in Triple-A to shore up his defense and prove he can be a reliable major league defender at second base.
Valbuena was the starter at second base to open the 2010 season and could still factor into the position at some point this year as well. He had an awful 2010 season at the plate in Cleveland (.193 AVG, 2 homers, 24 RBI), which was a surprise after his promising year in 2009 (.250 AVG, 10 homers, 31 RBI). There is still some belief he will get back to his 2009 level as an offensive performer, which as a utility player would be quite good, and is the role he likely will initially make the team in to start the season.
Clock management
Don't expect any players that have no service time or less than 30 days of service time to make the opening day roster for the Indians at the conclusion of spring training. The Indians are in a non-contending year and they have several options at almost every position they need to get a look at, so they are not desperate to start any rookies with the big league club at the outset of the season.
Those with little to no major league service time who will be at big league camp and could see time in the big leagues this year are right-handed pitchers Corey Kluber, Josh Judy, Zach McAllister, Vinnie Pestano, Zach Putnam, Bryce Stowell, and Alex White, infielders Lonnie Chisenhall, Jared Goedert, Cord Phelps, and Jason Kipnis, and outfielders Ezequiel Carrera and Nick Weglarz.
All of these players except maybe Goedert are almost certain to start the 2011 season at Triple-A Columbus. This is partly because of depth reasons as the Indians have other options above these players that the organization will initially want to get a look at, but the other reason is to finish off their development and manage their service clocks.
Managing service time is especially important for small market teams like the Indians as by starting a rookie with no big league service time in the minor leagues for just three weeks and then calling them up in late April gives the organization at least one whole additional year of roster control. So instead of a rookie making the team this year out of spring training and becoming a free agent after the 2016 season, they would not become a free agent until after the 2017 season.
There are also financial benefits of holding zero to little service time players in the minors until early-to-mid June so they avoid Super 2 status and don't hit arbitration early and thus become more expensive much sooner.
Parting Shots
First baseman Nate Recknagel was recently released by the Indians from their player development system. He was the odd man out in what figures to be a battle for playing time at first base and designated hitter at High-A Kinston and Double-A Akron. In three seasons with the Indians covering 180 total games the 24-year old hit .259 with 19 homers, 97 RBI and had a .775 OPS. ... An on-line report noted that SportsTime Ohio and WKYC-TV3 would only be airing 135 games this year. This is not correct as 155 games will be televised. … Triple-A Columbus and Double-A Akron will play two exhibition games before the start of their season. They will play in Akron on April 4th and in Columbus on April 6th. … Former Indians farmhand left-handed pitcher Kaimi Mead has been signed out of independent ball by the Colorado Rockies. He was released by the Indians last spring.
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3 comments:
Those rumors are killing me, it seems like everyone outside of Cleveland thinks that Sizemore and Carmona will be shipped off for a bag of balls.
Is there a possibility of Carmona getting a contract extension? I would love to see him stick around, when he's on his game he's one of the better pitchers around. Keeping him in Cleveland long enough for guys like White, Rondon, and Pomeranz to come up would offer a ton of stability.
Tony,
Not sure how much Phelps will be able to work on his IF defense at Columbus. Kipnis and Chisenhall will be getting the lions share of activity at 2B and 3B. Phelps would seem to be relegated to UIF, LF and DH.
Indians seem to be getting to the point where their surplus of 2B will start inhibiting the development of some of these players.
That includes Jason Donald, who appears will be jerked around between 2B and 3B, thereby precluding him from become a master of either position.
Llama, why give Carmona a contract extension? He is signed for the next four years. An absolute great contract for the Indians as there is no long term risk as he has three club options after this year and not too expensive where if he stays healthy and performs well (not great, just well), then he is a bargain. Giving him a contract extension would call for us to have to pickup the option years and add a year or two of guaranteed money. Org likes to stay away from deals longer than four years...so this would be way out of their comfort zone and not make a lot of sense considering the current contract setup. Maybe in two years they consider an extension where they pick up the last two years and add 2-3 years to the deal.
As for Phelps, from what I understand there is more than ample time for him to play at 2B and 3B in Columbus. Chisenhall is expected to play 5-6 games a week at 3B and Kipnis 4-6 games a week at second base. Phelps will have no probem getting at least 3-4 games a week in the field, maybe more, plus with the DH should get in another 1-2 games. Lots of moving parts and guys to play DH, but as we have seen in the past no one will play more than 6 games a week. Most of the guys are going to sit 1-2 games a week....which creates the playing time for others. And of course injuries and callups always plays into this where it never really is an issue. A good problem to have though. I think Phelps won't be long for Columbus if he gets off to a good start and Donald, Nix and/or Valbuena struggle.
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