The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Indians should buy at the trade deadline
The Indians’ recent surge shows they should be looking to add, not subtract, Jeff Schudel writes. An upcoming free agent such as outfielder Nicholas Castellanos could be a potential rental.
The question of whether the Indians should be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline has been answered. Do not sell, unless the Indians get overwhelmed. Team president Chris Antonetti should buy, but he doesn’t have to go on a spending spree.
The MLB trade deadline is 4 p.m., July 31. The Indians will host the Astros in the second game of a three-game series three hours later.
Rather than trade starting pitcher Trevor Bauer, the Indians should try to peddle minor leaguers to rent a bat for the final two months of the regular season and, they hope, a deep October run.
Outfielder Nicholas Castellanos of the Tigers and outfielder Yasiel Puig of the Reds will both be free agents this winter. So it is unlikely Antonetti would have to give up a top prospect for either player.
Castellanos, 27, leads the majors with 36 doubles. He is hitting .279 with 11 home runs and 37 RBI.
Puig is hitting .263 with 22 home runs, 59 RBI and 50 runs scored. I’m just not sure his personality would be a good fit for the Indians’ clubhouse. He is nicknamed “The Wild Horse” and does not shy away from attention. The Indians as individuals do not fit that mold.
The Indians are 32-12 (.727) since June 4. It is the best winning percentage and the most wins in the major leagues in that span. Their 16-4 record in July is second-best behind only the 17-4 Giants.
The surge comes as no surprise. Terry Francona was named Indians manager in 2013. The Indians are 265-173 under Francona the second half of the season — the best winning percentage (.605) and most wins in the majors in that seven-year span.
The Indians have 59 games remaining heading into their game with the Royals on July 27. Two weeks ago, MLB.com rated the Indians chances of making the playoffs at less than 29 percent. Their chances have been recalibrated and are now rated at 60.1 percent.
• Rumors persist the Indians are shopping Bauer — if not shopping him at least listening to trade offers. Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported the Indians and Phillies have talked about a trade that would ship Bauer to Philadelphia, but Morosi did not indicate what the Indians would get in return.
Morosi has also linked Bauer to the Padres in a trade for right fielder Franmil Reyes. Reyes, in his second big-league season, is hitting .252 with 26 home runs. He is 24 and can’t become a free agent until 2025.
Bauer’s name keeps coming up in trade talks because he can be a free agent after the 2020 season. He is eligible for arbitration next winter and likely to make $20 million, which is another cause to trade him. But that can wait until November or December.
Bauer, 9-7 (3.49 ERA), is 4-1 with one no decision in his last six starts. He has given up 22 home runs (five to Minnesota’s Max Keppler) after giving up only nine last season. But he leads both leagues in innings pitched (152 1/3) and he is a major part of the surge since June 4. Tribe starters Mike Clevinger and Shane Bieber regard Bauer as a role model.
In short, it would be a tough sell in the Indians clubhouse if Antonetti traded Bauer for prospects with a look to next season when the players are doing everything they can to be a playoff team in 2019.
Nothing to see here
One week after June minicamp ended for the Browns and everybody went their separate ways for six weeks, Mike Silver of NFL Network tweeted: “I reported that the transition to new OC Todd Monken has not gone as smoothly as planned, resulting in HC Freddie Kitchens playing a greater role in spearheading the offense than originally intended. We’ll keep an eye on this as the season approaches.”
The start of training camp was the first time reporters had a chance to ask Kitchens about the report. Not surprisingly he said it was bogus.
“I don’t know where they get that from,” Kitchens said. “I don’t know what’s different than we would have expected to begin with. I’m not trying to throw your question off. But I didn’t know that we have any problems, and we don’t (have any problems).”
Reporters haven’t had the chance to question Monken since Silver made his report. But when he was asked earlier about working with Kitchens, he said everything is fine.
“First, he was a big reason why I wanted to come when I interviewed,” Monken said May 22. “Not only Baker being here and a young roster, but I really felt like we meshed our offensive philosophies and then how we are both wired.
“We coach for the players. We have a job for our players, and I think Freddie believes that. I always want to coach for someone that recognizes that we have a job for our players and putting the players first. It’s been good so far, and I don’t anticipate that to be different. My job is to do whatever Freddie asks me. That’s the job of any assistant coach. Whatever the head coach asks you to do, you do.”
The more relevant the Browns become in any playoff race, the more Kitchens can expect outside influences will try to stir things up. Successful teams close the door on those reports. How many times the last five years have “Tom Brady is finished” stories been written in September? The Patriots winning the Super Bowl is the retraction.
Kitchens, the Browns’ offensive coordinator the final eight games of 2018, when he was hired as head coach said he would call plays as head coach. Monken knew than when he was hired as Kitchens’ offensive coordinator. Kitchens reiterated that in the pre-training camp interview.
“I’m going to walk into the offensive staff meeting as one of them because we’re very collaborative in that area,” Kitchens said. “They’re very collaborative on the defensive side of the ball.
“I’m a member of the offensive staff, and then I’ll walk into the defensive room and I’ll be a member of the defensive staff. Then I’ll get with (special teams coordinator) Mike Priefer and I’ll be a member of the special teams. When it comes to Game Day, I’ll be calling the plays.”
The Browns went 5-3 and scored 25 touchdowns in eight games with Kitchens calling plays last season.
I didn’t know that
… Until I read my Snapple bottle cap.
More Siberian Tigers live in zoos than in the wild. … China is large enough to cover five time zones, but it has had only one time zone since the 1949 Chinese Civil War. … The bullfrog is the only animal that never sleeps. … The planet Saturn would float if placed in water because it’s density is lower than that of water. … A flipped coin is more likely to land on the side it started on. … The mummy of Pharaoh Ramesses II has a passport.