Indians Sign Mastny

The Indians today announced that they have signed right-handed pitcher Tom Mastny to a minor league free agent deal, and he will report to early apring training minor league camp on March 2nd.

Mastny, 29, returns to Cleveland after spending the 2009 season in Japan pitching for the Yokohama Bay Stars. He went 1-5 with a 5.69ERA (61.2 IP, 39 ER) in 15 games for the Bay Stars. Before going to Japan he spent the previous four seasons in the Indians system appearing in a career-high 51 games for Cleveland in 2007 (7-2, 4.68 ERA).

The Borneo, Indonesian-born righty has made 80 Major League appearances with Cleveland, going 9-5 with five saves and having an ERA of 6.13 (94.0 IP, 108 H, 64 ER, 51 BB, 85 K). Mastny was originally drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 11th round of the 2003 amateur draft out of Furman University.

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More On Mastny

Here are some additional details regarding the sale of Tom Mastny to the Yokohama Bay Stars in Japan:

- Mastny is excited about the deal and feels it can help jumpstart his career which he feels had stalled last season. He feels he never got comfortable last season, and with a job up in the air in Cleveland next year and him likely on the Cleveland-Columbus shuttle all year because he has two options left, he wanted more stability and something to provide a spark to his career, and to him this was it.

- The Japanese team actually had been pursuing Mastny, and when they got wind of it Mastny and his agent pursued signing with them. Eventually, the Indians front office was brought into the mix and the Indians obliged by agreeing to send sell him to the Japanese club for cash. This deal was 100% driven by Mastny and his new team in Japan.

- Japanese clubs actually have scouts in the USA all the time scouting minor league teams and pro teams looking for potential fits and players who they deem signable. Most of the time these are players at the tailend of their major league career or players stuck in a rut with another organization on the shuttle between the big leagues and Triple-A.

- Mastny’s contract is for one year and his new club has a team option on him for 2010. After his contract is up, he is free to come back to the major leagues and sign with any team he wants.

- Japanese teams can only have a maximum of six foreign players on their roster, with a max of two pitchers and a max of four positions players.

- He is expected to move back into a starters role, which is a role he wanted to get back into after spending the last three years in the bullpen for the Indians.

- During his time in Japan, he will be afforded an interpreter much like what the Indians gave to Masa Kobayashi last year.

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Mastny Officially Sold To Japanese Team

As was rumored yesterday, today the Cleveland Indians officially announced that they have sold the contract of right-hander Tom Mastny to the Yokohama Bay Stars of the Japanese Central League. Mastny, 27, split the 2008 season between AAA Buffalo and Cleveland. He went 2-2 with a 1.78 ERA in 28 games for Buffalo (35.1 IP, 26 H, 7 ER, 12 BB, 43 K, .206 AVG) and with the Indians he was 2-2 with a 10.80 ERA in 14 games (1 GS, 20.0 IP, 28 H, 24 ER, 11 BB, 19 K, .318 AVG). The Indians 40-man roster is now at 38 players.

If you are Jeff Stevens, Tony Sipp, Adam Miller and John Meloan, you have to really love this move as Mastny and Mujica were favorites to win one of the final two bullpen spots, but now it appears one of the aforementioned four may win a bullpen job now out of spring training.

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