The AL Central’s Rotating Rotations

While we are still early into the off-season, there have been big moves all around. Although many of those moves have taken place in the National League, the American League Central has seen its share of shuffling. While the Indians biggest move has been the trade to obtain Brandon Moss, the rest of the division has been switching starters. Initially, things had moved slowly, but but once the Winter Meetings started, things went a little crazy. To keep Tribe fans abreast of the changes, we’ll highlight the “new” rotations below.

Cleveland Indians

The rotation that has seen the least change so far this off-season is the Indians. Other than Justin Masterson, who was traded and replaced mid-season, the Indians are not losing anyone and, although they have been rumored to be interested in multiple pitchers, they have already missed out on Brandon McCarthy and Masterson. Given the value placed on pitchers of this standard this off-season, the Indians would almost certainly be better off sitting this one out. If they were to pick up someone, it would likely be in a similar situation to picking up Aaron Harang in 2014 and this prospective starter would likely be competing with T.J. House for the fifth spot.

Given the lack of change, the biggest difference with the 2014 and 2015 squads will be dependent on what a full season of Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer will equate to. Obviously, some regression should be expected from Cy Young winner Corey Kluber and Carrasco, but this will likely be off-set by improvements from Danny Salazar and Bauer. One positive the Indians have above all the other rotations is that every starter is under 30 (ages at right are for the 2015 season) and should generally improve for the next few seasons.

Chicago White Sox

In 2014, the White Sox had arguably the best rotation in the Central and with the addition of Jeff Samardzija, they have likely ended the argument. Had he pitched a whole season, Chris Sale would likely have won the AL Cy Young in 2014 instead of Kluber and as a left hander, he is particularly scary to the Indians lineup. He already had a solid number two in Jose Quintana (3.32 ERA, 200.1 IP) and now it appears he has further back-up. The White Sox already looked ready to contend in a few years, but by grabbing Samardzija for his final season before free agency, they are proving that they want to win right now. The Shark cost Chicago Marcus Semien, Josh Phegley and Chris Bassitt along with an expected arbitration deal of at least $10M, an unnecessary expense for a team that thinks it will finish at the bottom of the division.

This type of move is exactly how a team should improve its rotation. Unlike the Indians, who generally look to replace from the bottom, the White Sox will be replacing the combination of Scott Carroll (4.80 ERA, 64 K’s, 129.1 IP) and Andre Rienzo (6.82 ERA, 64.2 IP) from the back end with Samardzija (2.99 ERA, 202 K’s, 219.2 IP) at the front. This is not even like adding a number two starter as Samardzija would be the ace on all but about four teams in the American League (of course, three of those teams are in the Central).

Detroit Tigers

While most of the Central has been adding this off-season, the Tigers have been falling apart. Ace, Max Scherzer, remains a free agent and the Tigers have made it clear that they are not interested. This is interesting in itself as the Tigers are generally among the high bidders and with the Yankees standing pat and the Red Sox already obtaining Wade Miley and Rick Porcello, it is possible Scherzer will soon regret not signing that extension with the Tigers last Spring. Speaking of Porcello, he is also not with the Tigers, being sent to Boston in exchange for Yeonis Cespedes. Between these two pitchers, the Tigers are losing hurlers responsible for 33 of their 90 wins, 425 innings and 381 strike outs. Detroit already had problems with consistency from Justin Verlander and, while David Price is a master at the strike out, he isn’t as good overall a pitcher as Scherzer and even with the group still intact, they have been unable to procure the elusive World Series win.

Replacing Porcello and Scherzer, for the moment at least, are Shane Green and Alfredo Simon. Simon has been a reliever for the majority of his career, but was converted into a full time starter in 2014 and had a solid season (3.44 ERA, 196.1 IP, 127 K’s) for the Reds. Cincinnati appears to be blowing things up (Mat Latos has also been traded) and Simon was dumped for short stop Eugenio Suarez and minor league pitcher Jonathan Crawford. Simon and Price will both be free agents after the 2015 season and with the aging of Verlander and Miguel Cabrera, the Tigers window looks to be closing.

Kansas City Royals

After making it to the World Series, the Royals have had a very quiet off-season. From their rotation, they have lost ace James Shields in addition to Bruce Chen and Scott Downs from the bullpen. Without any further moves, the Royals’ rotation looks to be very young with Yordani Ventura and Danny Duffy taking the reigns. Without further back-up, however, the Royals look to be losing one of their only advantages in the division. Considering the loss of Josh Willingham, Billy Butler, Nori Aoki and Raul Ibanez, Kansas City can’t afford to take a step back in the starting rotation and without further moves, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the AL Champs fall to fourth in the division in 2015.

Minnesota Twins

Easily the worst team going into 2015, the Twins have not been quiet. Despite the many mistakes made in the 2014 free agent season, Minnesota is doubling down. With five solid starters already under contract, the Twins have given a mega deal to free agent Ervin Santana, bringing the last pitcher to no hit the Indians back into the Central. While they have plenty of veterans, none are exemplary and even their ace, Phil Hughes, is looking forward towards a huge regression in 2015. With a poor offense and pitching staff, it seems more likely that the Twins will be dealing from this plethora of starters rather trying to add for the rest of the off-season. It seems almost impossible that the Twins will be able to contend with the incredible talent in the rest of the division, so spending any further money certainly seems irresponsible.