Indians prepare for odd return, different roster construction
No one in the baseball world can be entirely sure how — or even if — this spring training 2.0 and 60-game season will unfold to its completion. In that sense, flexibility and adaptability might be two of the biggest components to success.
All 30 teams will be dealing with a new setup, new health protocols, new rules, new roster guidelines, new schedule and new variables in a world with the ever-imminent threat of COVID-19.
Players will have a little over three weeks of a spring training 2.0 before Opening Day, which depending on the team will fall on either July 23 or July 24. In that time, players will have have compacted amount of days to be prepared for a shortened regular season. The pitchers, especially, represent a situation to monitor.
Pitchers have been able to throw on their own to maintain some form of readiness. Teams will then be able to spend spring training 2.0 ensuring they’re on the right program and schedule. But the expanded roster sizes — 30 players for two weeks, then 28 for two weeks, then 26 for the rest of the season combined with a 60-man player pool — could offer some flexibility compared to normal procedures and strategies.
“Because when we start our activities on July 1, that’s not Day 1 of spring training. That’s the equivalent of day 26 of spring training,” Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said via Zoom call. “So, we’re going to have to jump right into simulated games and things like that to be able to make sure we’re ready for the stat of the season. We really do feel that our players and staff are ready to do that.”
“We will structure our camp – it will look different than a normal spring training. I mean we will have players work in pods, we will spread out a lot more, we’ll have activities, as many outdoor activities as possible, we’ll use both the home and visiting clubhouses in Cleveland to keep our groups spread out, we’ll change kind of the cadence and the way guys prepare for on-field activities and do those in smaller groups rather than in larger team stretches you may be accustomed to seeing. There are literally changes all across the board on how we will operate and prepare.”
A key, daily job for any manager is to oversee the short-term and long-term mileage of the relievers in the bullpen. Every game in a 162-game season can’t be viewed like Game 7 of the World Series if any arms are to be in working condition in October. In a 60-game season, some of that still holds true, but it does also open the door for managers being able to be a little more aggressive. This is closer to a 60-game sprint than a 162game marathon.
While managers might be able to have a somewhat faster trigger finger to the bullpen, the Indians are in a position of having to balance those elements with their pitching staff’s construction.
The 60-man player pools were due to the league on Sunday afternoon. Antonetti said on Friday that he was not aware of any players who had already chosen to opt out of the season. If that holds true, the Indians will have Mike Clevinger, Shane Bieber, Carlos Carrasco, Aaron Civale, Zach Plesac, Adam Plutko and others available for the five rotation spots. Especially with Clevinger,
Bieber and Carrasco, the Indians and other teams with strong rotations have to ask themselves if taking the ball out of their hands a bit earlier is worth it simply because the option exists.
“We can look for opportunities to do that, but we also feel the group of starting pitchers that we have remains a strength for our roster, and we want to make sure that we are providing those players those opportunities to make an impact,” Antonetti said. “And that group in particular along with the rest of our staff, has done an extraordinary job of preparing since the start of spring training, so we’re expecting them to be ready to go.”
Indians sign three draft picks
The Indians announced the have signed first-round pick Carson Tucker, second-round pick Logan Allen and fifth-round pick Mason Hickman to deals.
According to MLB.com, Tucker signed for a signing bonus of $2 million, just under $1 million below the slot value of the 23rd pick. Allen signed for $1,125,000 and Hickman agreed to $340,000. Both of those deals were near slot value.
That leaves competitive balance pick Tanner Burns (No. 36 overall), third-round pick Petey Halpin and fourthround pick Milan Tolentino still unsigned.