The Indians announced Wednesday that a pair of veteran non-roster invitees have been informed that they will not make the Opening Day club: right-hander Justin Grimm and infielder Ryan Flaherty. While the club indicated that the pair is weighing opt-out clauses, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that Flaherty has already declared his intent to exercise his opt-out provision and will become a free agent.
Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal tweets that Alex Wilson is also not going to make the roster and is currently exploring options with his agent. The Indians made clear to all three veterans that they hoped to retain them in Triple-A, though that won’t happen with Flaherty at the very least. Lastly, Cleveland announced that right-hander Tyler Clippard has been released but re-signed to a new minor league deal.
Flaherty, 32, hit .217/.298/.292 through 182 plate appearances with the Braves last year and was long a versatile but light-hitting utility piece for the Orioles prior to his lone season in Atlanta. The left-handed hitter is a career .216/.286/.347 batter in 1452 plate appearances and has experience playing all over the infield as well as in the outfield corners.
Wilson, also 32, has been a steady member of the Tigers’ bullpen over the past four seasons, working to a combined 3.20 ERA with a below-average 5.8 K/9 mark but a quality average of 2.1 BB/9. He’s averaged 6.3 punchouts per nine innings pitched over the past two seasons and logged the second-best grounder rate of his career in 2018 (49.2 percent), but his general lack of strikeouts has led fielding-independent pitching metrics to view him less favorably than his generally solid earned run average. This spring, he allowed just two runs on five hits and two walks with seven stirkeouts in 8 2/3 innings.
The 30-year-old Grimm, meanwhile, allowed one earned run on eight hits and four walks with nine punchouts in 8 1/3 innings with Cleveland this spring. He was once a high-quality setup option for the Cubs but has stumbled to a 6.69 ERA over his past 72 2/3 big league innings. That said, Grimm has continually showed an ability to miss bats in the Majors and in the upper minors.
As for Clippard, the 34-year-old has been sidelined for the past five days by a pectoral injury that was originally believed to come with a roughly two-week timeline. The exact reason for his newly structured minor league pact could come down to a matter of altered opt-out clauses or even altered base salary/incentives, but the Indians reportedly made clear at the time of his injury that they hoped to work out a deal to retain him. It would appear they’ve reached an agreement to do so, and it seems quite likely that assuming Clippard’s injury heals as expected, he’ll emerge as a big league option for the Indians early in the year. For now, he’ll remain in MLB camp and continue rehabbing, per the team’s announcement.
Wilson makes sense in a MLB bullpen.
Doesn’t Kansas City need Wilson and Grimm?
Yes, surprised neither was able to make this Tribe patchwork ‘pen. Both will find work elsewhere.
We already had Grimm. He was so bad we released him. He was too bad for the 2018 royals.
gotta feel bad for Alex Wilson, dudes been pretty solid 4 of the last 5 years, has a 2.16 ERA over 8.1 innings, 5 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and gets cut from an Indians team whos 2nd best reliever is Oliver Perez lol
Every time see Ollie’s name it reminds of a player named “downtown” Ollie Brown. Neither much good, yet both seem(ed) to last forever in the game.
8.1 innings pretty small sample size.
Good luck Ryan.
Mexican League?
From what I’d seen of Flaherty so far in spring, I really thought he might make the team. Guess they want to keep Moroff as utility infielder.
Isn’t Moroff out of options?
Yep
I’d rather have had Flaherty than Moroff but I guess keeping Moroff in the organization was their priority
Gotta justify trading a player for him over the free agent signing that cost nothing.
Wilson not making the roster is undeniable proof the Indians dont care to contend this year.
Wow. NRII doesn’t make team = Indians punting the season. That’s just ridiculous logic.
Look at the division Cleveland is in. It’s pure trash and won’t take much seeing as they’re the most competent of the bunch.
They had a one, perhaps two year window and blew it against the Cubs and Yankees.
So yeah, they could win 10 less games than less year and still win the AL Central, I don’t think they will lose 10 less games than they did last year, though.
Cleveland has a window every year.
They put a very good team together and went all in with Miller going to extras of game 7 of the World Series yet blew it? Their fault the rotation all got hurt and still went that far? Or blew it because the proven arms fell apart when they needed it since then?
Orioles could use flaherty again
We could use the 3 pitchers
Orioles need a #1,2,3 and maybe a 4
Ryan is a career 216 hitter and has made over 6 million dollars in MLB. That is insane. He is awful and teams keep picking him up.
Defensive versatility at its finest
If I were a minor league signing like Wilson I’d try and get a clause where if I pitched to a sub 2 ERA with like a strikeout per inning I’d have to get put on the roster. I hate how guys like him get cut every year after doing everything they had to to make a team.
He’s been a solid reliever for years. He shouldn’t have do settle for a minors deal. Surprised the redsox have scooped him back up given their need for pen help, his relative late inning success, relationship with the organization and low cost.
The Indians see something we don’t because both Alex Wilson and Justin Grimm don’t look bad at all. They won’t last long without a job.
Wilson and Grimm both already opted out.