The Indians have placed catcher Roberto Perez on the 10-day injured list with a fractured right ring finger, selected the contract of fellow backstop Rene Rivera, and designated outfielder Ben Gamel for assignment, Mandy Bell of MLB.com was among those to report.
Perez suffered the injury April 13 on a crossup with reliever James Karinchak, but it has become enough of a problem for him to land on the IL three weeks later. Perhaps thanks in part to the injury, the defensively adept Perez has recorded an unproductive .131/.274/.295 line with three home runs in 73 plate appearances this year.
The Indians will now pair catcher Austin Hedges with Rivera, whom they signed to a minor league contract last month. Rivera, 37, is a journeyman who hasn’t hit much in the majors since he debuted in 2004, and he totaled a mere 24 plate appearances with the Mets from 2019-20.
Gamel was another minors signing for the Indians in the offseason, and though he made their Opening Day roster, the 28-year-old didn’t do enough to hold down a spot. He wound up going 1-for-14 with a double and six strikeouts against three walks before the Indians sent him down on April 17.
Gamel has one more minor league option left, and considering he has put up passable offensive numbers throughout his career and lined up at all three outfield positions, he could catch on someplace else via trade or waivers in the next week.
oh, so Tito does know how to dfa, Bauers should have been the first one
Isn’t Bauers redundant when Naylor can play 1B and OF, or am I missing something?
They’ve been keeping Naylor in RF, to try to solve their continuing issues in putting out quality outfielders (along with Eddie Rosario). Until they recalled Harold Ramirez, less at bats for Bauer meant more at bats for either
1. Amed Rosario playing CF, moving Luplow over to RF
2. More at bats for Ben Gamel
Bauers will probably be DFA’d once any of the outfielders, Nolan Jones, or Bobby Bradley get hot in AAA.
Bauers has started to turn it around at the plate. I think they just want to give him one last chance to prove himself.
Bauers instead gets rewarded by being inserted in the #2 spot in the lineup tonight. Probably because he actually hit a HR last night.
Francona’s musical chairs lineups this year have been mind boggling.
@ sufferfortribe 2;
Take a step back and look at that roster…..
Tito is doing that same as the Rays and other small market teams do – putting out the best line-up he can each day depending on the opposing pitcher. Other than José Ramírez, Franmil Reyes, Cesar Hernandez, and Eddie Rosario, what position players on that roster look like they can play even semi-regularly? (And Tito has exercised enormous patience to get Reyes to be as productive as he’s become as a DH.)
The Indians are a small market team built on pitching. It’s important that they minimize the runs against them as they don’t have consistent hitters – they tend to score runs in spurts. So Catcher’s that can handle a staff, call a game, and play D are far more important than those that don’t do those things well, but might hit .250. As for the D around the field – E. Rosario and Luplow are decent ML corner OF’s, while Hernandez and José Ramírez are excellent ML defenders at 2B and 3B. The rest of the players on the roster range from inconsistent to poor at SS, CF, 1B, and the other corner OF’s.
This is another transition year for the Indians as they continue to rebuild on the fly. No way they can afford to pay José Ramírez so he’s probably gone. You want solid line-up’s? Wait to see who they get for Ramírez, who they bring up from the minors the next 2 years, and if Andrés Giménez proves to be a starter at SS in the major leagues.
And if you want to criticize Tito……
Understand that he’s the best manager in MLB today. No one could be getting anything close to what he has out of those teams since he took the job.
Make no mistake – you are witnessing the best manager in the history of the Cleveland Indians. There odds are slim that you’ll see one as good in your lifetime once he retires. He goes into the HOF as a manager the first year he’s eligible.
I liked Gamel. Old school player
I was surprised to learn Gamel had an option left when they optioned him down. But with Daniel Johnson and Bradley Zimmer, they already have 2 lefties that can play CF.
Horrible for the Indians. Bill James really has to adjust his formulas and lower the defense fetish in WAR, because there’s no way Austin Hedges is a replacement-level player with his lack of offense.
Bill James isn’t responsible for pitch framing becoming a huge thing. That’s the thing that keeps Hedges employed, because you can mathematically show that the amount of strikes he steals adds up to some significant value.
The way you solve that particular problem is robo umps.
Good point, I wonder how that will impact careers of defense-first players like this if/when we move toward an electronic strike zone or robo umps.
Bill James ruined the game for many of us, by making it too technical.
Gamel to the Pirates.
Pirates, Os, or Tigers, then independent ball.
And then Professional surfing dude for Mr. Spicoli and his gnarly dreads. Good thing the Indians didn’t still have Brad Hand. Could imagine the clubhouse chatter.
“I’ve been thinking about this Mr. Hand. If I’m here and you’re here, doesn’t that make it our time?”
Hedges and Rivera are two Padres retreads. Hedges came after Rivera had some production for them. Can’t believe either is still in the MLB. Catching depth is not good.
Tribe’s just waiting on the arrival of Noah Naylor.
Oh I can believe Hedges is in the majors, I just can’t believe a team on as strict of a budget like Cleveland is would spend that much on a no bat backup catcher.
Bummer for Perez. Saw a recent Indians telecast and it appears Karinchak is one of the dimmest guys in baseball based on ongoing conversations between Tito, Perez and the pitching coach. Appears that Karinchak is consistently getting his signals crossed even though he has only 2 pitches and 2 signals. Even the umpire has gotten a big laugh out of this. Guess its working tho. Just let him throw anything a la Nuke Laloosh.
If you are an Indians fan you have nothing to complain about. The lineup is around 26 and under with the their stars being around 30 yrs old. Pitching is young and solid and you have a winning record. The Bauers trade has not looked good on their end but he’s only 25 and didn’t play last year.