The deadline has passed for teams to add players to the 40-man roster to protect them from being drafted in the Rule 5 draft and the Indians have made some predictable, and some not-so predictable moves. Most recently however, the Tribe added a bullpen arm from the Tampa Bay Rays. Wednesday, the Indians acquired reliever Kirby Yates from the Rays in exchange for cash. The Yates acquisition is typical of an Indians team that has been trying to turn diamonds out of coal for the past few seasons. Yates has spent parts of the last two seasons in the Tampa bullpen, with mixed results to show. This past season, Yates appeared in 37 games posting an unsightly 7.97 ERA and an equally unsettling 8.64 FIP. Yates has also had serious control problems throughout his career, as he has averaged 3.51 BB/9 over the span of his entire professional career.
However, there are some encouraging aspects to Yates’ game that I’m sure excite the front office. Despite his propensity to issue free passes, Yates also strikes batters out at a great rate. Over the entire course of his professional career he has averaged 10.07 K/9. In his two big league seasons, he posted K/9 rates of 10.5 and 9.3, showing that his outstanding strikeout rate is not just the product of lesser minor league competition. A further encouraging sign for poor man’s sabermetricians such as myself is his xFIP rate this past season which was a much more tolerable 4.64. This past season, Yates’ HR/FB% was 30.3%, the definition of unsustainable. League average for HR/FB% tends to be somewhere around 10% so the fact that he came in at three times the league average rate shows that lady luck was not on his side and this may have be a substantial factor in his lack of success. I’m sure the front office has seen enough of him to believe they can harness his control issues and turn his proclivity for the “K” into a dominant bullpen arm. Whether Mickey Callaway can work his magic yet again remains to be seen, but the Indians gave up nothing to try so it’s certainly worth a shot.
In additional 40-man roster news, the Indians solidified their 40-man roster (for the time being at least) ahead of the Rule 5 Draft. As expected, my predictions for who would be protected and who would be exposed weren’t as accurate as I had hoped. Five players were added to the 40-man roster of which three were predictable choices and the other two, not as much. Tyler Naquin, Michael Clevinger, and Shawn Morimando were added, all three were selections I predicted were likely.
James Ramsey and Dylan Baker were the remaining players added, neither of which I had expected. In fact, I specifically argued that Ramsey was not worth a spot of the Indians’ 40-man roster and that it was more likely he’d be selected by another team. With the Indians’ potential outfield woes next season, I suspect that the front office wanted to have as many potential backups on the 40-man as possible. Ramsey still has potential, but has a limited amount of time to prove it.
The addition of Dylan Baker is a bit of a head scratcher to me. Baker, the former 5th round pick in the 2012 draft, hasn’t pitched a full season since 2013 and hasn’t advanced higher than A+ Lynchburg in his career. While he’s shown promise in the time he has played, I find it hard to believe that another team would draft a player and place him on the 40-man roster with just 10 games experience in the Carolina League. Not to mention the fact that Baker is coming off Tommy John surgery and will likely be placed on the 60-day disabled list to begin the season. While I disagree with the move, the front office has to believe that another team would pick him up or there’s no reason to make this move.
One player that was not protected who I believe could be taken from the Indians is Jeff Johnson. After Johnson’s strong performance this past season, coupled with Tito’s love for relievers, I thought it was a given he’d be added to the 40-man. However, as with many things in life, I was dreadfully, wrong. Not only did the Indians choose not to protect a young bullpen arm, they also gave up on C.C. Lee by selling his contract to Japan.
Of course these moves don’t really mean much in the long run, the Indians could very well change the makeup of the 40-man roster multiple times during this off-season. While they are unlikely to be players in the free agent market, expect them to be busy in the trade department, particularly as winter meetings draw near.
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