All-Time Indians: Danys Baez

The Indians weren’t among the early teams to embrace signing Cuban players, waiting until 1949 to bring in Minnie Minoso, their first, 38 years after the first Cuban Major Leaguers. After this signing, however, there were many important contributors for the team from Cuba including Pedro Ramos, Zoilo Versalles, Joe Azcue and the greatest of them all, Luis Tiant. Despite the fact that many teams continued to sign players from the island long after the embargo began in 1960, the Indians stopped.

It wasn’t until 1999 that the Indians went against the grain of the Cuban government and signed Danys Baez, born in Pinar del Rio, as an international free agent with a four year, $14.5M deal. Already 22 in 2000 when he made his debut in the US, he jumped straight to advanced A Kinston, thanks partially to two seasons in the Cuban National League with his home town Pinar del Rio Vegueros. By the end of the year he was in AA Akron and in 2001 he quickly burned through AAA Buffalo before making his Major League debut on May 13th. While this first cup of coffee would be a short, but successful appearance, he’d be back at the beginning of June to stay.

The Indians were back in the play-off hunt after missing the post-season in 2000 and had a solid back end of the bullpen featuring Bob Wickman as closer, Steve Karsay and Ricardo Rincon, however, beyond those three there was little depth as Paul Shuey struggled as did the young Rich Rodriguez and Jake Westbrook. With this, Baez was immediately thrown into an integral role earning his first career hold in his ninth career appearance. When given a chance with the lead, Baez held his first eight and took just one loss compared to three wins in his first 27 games. His first blown save came when he had to pitch 3.1 innings against Oakland in a 2-1 game as he allowed a two out, RBI single in his first full inning before shutting the next seven down in order.

In short, there was a lot to get excited about Baez. He wouldn’t blow another save or hold in 2001 and finished the year out with 14 holds and a 5-3 record. Despite his late start to the season, he still threw just over 50 innings and held an ERA of 2.50 as a rookie. In the postseason, he did only pitch in the Indians three losses to Seattle, but allowed just a single run in 3.1 innings and wasn’t involved in any decision.

The Indians had such high hopes for Baez that in 2002 they made him into a starter. Joining his fellow 2001 rookie, CC Sabathia and ace Bartolo Colon, Baez became the Tribe’s fourth starter to begin the season and things started off smoothly. He won his first two games and allowed just four runs in 10.2 innings. This was essentially the end of the good times for Baez as a starter, however. From April 17th through August 24th, his final start of his career, he allowed four or more runs in a game 10 times and pitched five or fewer innings six times. Had the Indians had other starting options, it is unlikely they would have continued pushing Baez out there as his ERA ballooned to 4.44, but other than Colon and Sabathia, there was no reliable starter. Ryan Drese also made 26 starts and held a 6.56 ERA. Charles Nagy, who had been staff ace for a decade, only started seven games and allowed 8.96 runs per nine between the rotation and bullpen. All things considered, Baez was one of the most reliable starters.

On August 28th, Baez restarted his career as a reliever and was just as lights out as the previous season. In 13 appearances he allowed earned runs just twice and excluding one game where he allowed four (thanks to four walks) in 0.2 innings, he allowed just one run in 10.2 IP. More importantly, Wickman had the injury that would cost him all of 2003 and much of 2004, opening up a spot for the closer’s role. While Mark Wohlers would fill this spot for short period, he was extremely unreliable and Baez would move straight from the rotation to the most important position in the bullpen without difficulty.

He would successfully save six of eight chances and win another, earning him the right to the closer’s role going into the 2003 season. There is a certain stigma to that position in addition to the added pressure of pitching almost exclusively in close games. If a reliever blows a game in the sixth, he is officially given a blown save, but few will remember it. Losses in the ninth stick out and this season is the one that sticks out most for Baez for Indians fans. They forget that he saved 15 out of his first 18 chances, remembering the two he blew in spectacular fashion, allowing ten runs over the course of 0.1 innings. Excluding those, he allowed four earned runs in 37.2 IP, saving 17 and blowing two in his first 37 games. With them, he had a 5.57 ERA after May 18th although he did drop this to 3.32 by June 27th.

In all honesty, if you are going to have a closer with an ERA above 3.00, one who gives up all his runs at once is preferable to one who gives up a run every three appearances. In fact, a perfect inning from Baez was extremely more common than a blown save (24 to 10), yet after giving up two runs in a game that had been a one run deficit on August 12th, Baez was removed from the closer’s role. David Riske would finish out the season there and Baez would end the year on an extreme down note, going from a 3.44 ERA on September 1st to a 3.81 to end the year.

Overall, Baez had a great beginning to a career for the Tribe, marred mostly by his time as a starter that never should have happened. Going into 2004, the Indians didn’t have a closer and would try a few players before Wickman returned from Tommy John surgery, but none were successful. Baez’s departure from the Indians was a bit strange. They had an option for his 2004 and he was so young and had so little Major League experience, he was not yet arbitration eligible, however, because it is against MLB rules to decrease a player’s salary to less than 80% of the previous year’s value, they didn’t want to use it. They attempted to circumvent this by exposing him to waivers, dropping him off the 40 man roster, then readding him, but ultimately, he became a free agent and signed with the Rays for less than the Indians would have legally been allowed to pay him.

From the Rays, where he would become an All-Star and save 71 games in two seasons, he would be traded to the Dodgers, then mid-season to the Braves. Despite a poor season in 2006, the Orioles would add considerably to Baez’s bank account with three guaranteed years. These would end up working out terribly for the birds as Baez would only pitch two of the three thanks to injury and Baltimore would end up wishing he had missed all three. As insanity continued to reign, Baez was given another two year deal at the end of this one by Philadelphia and they certainly regretted that one as well. In the end, Baez would have two great years (2001 and 2005) and two more very good years (2003 and 2004) followed by a half decade of simply awful pitching. Of course, his play with the Orioles and Phillies can’t take away from what he did in Cleveland and Tampa and he remains one of the top closers in Indians history, despite just one full year at the position.

Interestingly enough, the signing of Baez appears to have been a one time foray into the Cuban market. While there are a few Cuban born players active in the minor league system, including Yandy Diaz and Leandro Linares, the Indians haven’t had a Major League born in Cuba since Baez left after 2003. Given the Indians success in other markets, particularly Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, it’s very possible that it was the guaranteed money given to Baez that scared them away from future signings. Had Baez been born on a different  island, the Indians could have taken their time developing him and would have been able to keep him for his other great seasons in 2004 and 2005 for an extremely low price. Instead, they had to take a risk and, while that risk did work out to a point, it didn’t work out as well as they had hoped.