Indians GM Mark Shapiro spoke to the press today. A few notes:
- Shapiro does not feel comfortable with his team’s upper-level starting pitching, which consists of Cliff Lee and Fausto Carmona (and maybe Jake Westbrook when he’s ready). The Indians may have $15MM or so to work with, but Shapiro wouldn’t say whether he’d lean more toward free agency or trades.
- Other needs: closer and infield help. We ran through most of the candidates in the Offseason Outlook. Given the flexibility of Jhonny Peralta and Asdrubal Cabrera, Shapiro could look for help at second or third base.
- Shapiro hinted that Casey Blake could be a good fit back with the Tribe. He won’t be pursuing Manny Ramirez.
