SUNDAY: The Indians have selected Gonzalez’s contract, per a team announcement. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Jefry Rodriguez to the minors and transferred righty Mike Clevinger to the 60-day injured list.
SATURDAY, 11:37AM: Gonzalez is expected to join the roster before the Indians’ Sunday afternoon game against the Royals, as per Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
9:29AM: The Indians will select the contract of outfielder Carlos Gonzalez from Triple-A, according to reporter Jorge Urribarri (Twitter link). As per the terms of Gonzalez’s minor league deal, he’ll now earn a guaranteed $2MM for making the Major League roster, plus another $1MM is available in incentive bonuses. Cleveland’s 40-man roster is full, so at least one more move will need to be made to accommodate Gonzalez on the MLB roster.
With the promotion, Gonzalez won’t have to face a decision about an April 20 opt-out date in his minors contract, though it seemed pretty likely that he would be back in the big leagues relatively soon given the unsettled state of the Tribe’s outfield. The man they call “CarGo” also did his best to force the issue by posting a 1.004 OPS over 29 Triple-A plate appearances.
Gonzalez signed with Cleveland in mid-March, ending what had been a pretty quiet trip through free agency for the 33-year-old, as least in terms of known rumors. The veteran was forced to settle for a non-guaranteed pact in the wake of a season that saw him hit .276/.329/.467 with 16 homers in 504 plate appearances for the Rockies — respectable numbers on paper, if still below-average offensive production (96 wRC+, 98 OPS+) considering the Coors Field factor.
On a more positive note, Gonzalez was worth 1.7 fWAR after a sub replacement-level (-0.1 fWAR) season in 2017, and he also had his best year on the basepaths in years, as per a +3.6 grade in Fangraphs’ Base Running metric. Gonzalez also had something of a rebound defensively, with a +6.9 UZR/150 over 1004 1/3 innings as a right fielder in 2018 and a +2 Outs Above Average rating via StatCast, though the Defensive Runs Saved (-8) metric was much more negative about his glovework.
Cleveland entered the season with one of the shakier outfield situations in baseball, especially among contending teams. While Leonys Martin has been a bright spot in center field and Tyler Naquin has performed well as the regular right fielder, Jake Bauers, Jordan Luplow, and Greg Allen are all off to dreadful starts. Gonzalez figures to take the bulk of right field time from Naquin, though it leaves something of an imperfect fit since Gonzalez, Naquin, and Bauers (the top corner outfield options) are all left-handed hitters. This situation figures to lead to fewer at-bats for Hanley Ramirez in the DH role, as Ramirez may only see action whenever the Tribe faces left-handed pitching.
Now they can bat Santana at leadoff where he belongs.
If Naquin is off to a hot start why wouldn’t CarGo start in left and replace one of the guys who’s struggling?
Exactly!
Naquin struggles and it looked like he was going to be the odd man out but now he got hit. Will be interesting to see who goes down. Luplow?
Struggled and now got hot..damn autocorrect
I have to imagine it’s Luplow. And with Rodriguez coming up to start, my guess is that Stamets is going down and they’ll brave it with Miller at short.
Or they could just DFA Miller and keep Stamets at short, which would also make room on the 40-man for CarGo.
Clevinger and/or Salazar will go to the 60day IL to open up space on the 40 man roster.
Isn’t Luplow out of options?
Salazar is already on the 60 so it would have to be Clevenger or Zimmer if they think he will be out that long still.
I just looked that up because I thought he was out of options too, but I was wrong, Luplow has 1 option remaining.
You’re right, Salazar is already on the 60. I read an article the other day, and I thought they said Salazar would be bumped. it’s possible they said Zimmer and I got it mixed up. Either way Clevinger would definitely need 60 days so he’ll most likely get bumped.
Luplow would seem to be the logical candidate except that it would leave them even more lefty-leaning than they already are.
My choice to cut loose would be Hanley “I blew it with the bases loaded twice yesterday” Ramirez.
Honestly, I’d like to see Stamets sent down and someone else fill the slot until Lindor is back.. He’s not helping on offense or defense.
Huh? Stamets not helping on defense? The dude is awesome with the glove. Haven’t you watched any games?
Truth be told, I haven’t seen any games, just have been listening on the radio. I seem to remember his name coming up a number of times where he couldn’t come up with the ball, but it wasn’t counted as an error. This was mostly at work, so I could be wrong. But he isn’t helping on offense, 21 k’s in 34 at-bats.
The errors were probably by Moroff. That guy’s even worse, and Luplow isn’t much better. Should have kept Erik Gonzalez.
I agree. I also think Yandy too, surely they could have traded someone else.
I agree, Yandy never should have been traded. Could you imagine having him instead of Hanley as our DH?
Never enough RH bats, but still they trade one of the better, more patient hitters they had. But I am happy he’s getting steady play time in Tampa.
He already has 2 in 33 chances and he might as well be using an icicle as a bat. Not ready for prime time…
Indians are back to throwing stuff up against the wall and hoping something sticks.
Francona is simply remarkable – able to continue to win with the rosters he’s given.
Agree. It is easy to point to the problem…ownership. Now watch all the “experts” talk about how great an owner Dolan is.
With Gonzalez not joining the roster until Sunday it seems to be one of the outfielders goes today for Rodriguez today and then he gets optioned for Gonzalez tomorrow. Just a question of who.
So the options for who goes today for Rodriguez to start (who gets sent down after the game for CarGo tomorrow):
Naquin: would make sense but is hitting now?
Bauers: Also hitting now, also our only backup 1B
Allen: Seemingly likely, but would leave us with Naquin being the only backup CF
Luplow: Is only being used as a platoon bat, would leave us without anyone besides Allen to pinch hit against lefties
Hanley: Would make sense, but also his money is guaranteed and it’s early in the season to be eating guaranteed money like that
Allen is safe due to being a switch hitter with speed, so off the bench he has value. Sucks that his stronger side is what they already have enough of though. They could keep Maquin and the inevitable slump comes, or send him down hot and sell it to him that he’s playing every day and watch him continue to take against AAA pitching.
Apparently Luplow was the unlucky winner of a trip to Columbus. The fascinating move is swapping Edwards for Cody Anderson. Which raises the question of are they converting Cody Anderson to reliever full time. Would be a weird time to do that since Clevinger. Plutko, McKenzie and Salazar are all down and the starting pitching depth is thin already. Of maybe he’s just a piggyback for today and they’ll swap him for another reliever (Goody?) tomorrow.
Please, not Goody, at least not until he gets better than he currently is.
I think they brought Anderson up because the night before they blew the whole bullpen when Carrasco couldn’t get out of the first inning and they weren’t sure what they’d get out of Rodriguez. So if Rodriguez gets shelled they could go to another guy that could give multiple innings instead of just a guy that can go a few outs.
Anderson probably takes Clevenger’s rotation spot with Jefry sent down.
They won’t need a 5th starter for several weeks due to the schedule and days off. They intent to vary an extra reliever.
Intend to carry…
Hanley’s not making much at all, and he’s still overpaid. Kick him to the curb.
Now that the Dodgers are out of the race, can’t wait to follow Cleveland!
Well, turns out CarGo played left and right fields in Columbus. That will help.
Finally. CarGo will mash.