The Cleveland Indians signed another bullpen arm on Wednesday, giving them an interesting mix of arms in Spring Training camp
According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, the Cleveland Indians agreed to sign right-handed reliever Tyler Clippard to a minor league contract on Wednesday. The deal will pay Clippard $1.75 million if he makes the major league roster with up to $1 million in incentive money.
As the Cleveland Indians made a run to the 2016 World Series, they relied heavily on a deep, talented bullpen. However, over the last two seasons, they saw the production from that bullpen fall off significantly. With two of the major pieces of that 2016 bullpen, Cody Allen and Andrew Miller, set to become free agents after the 2018 season, the Indians acquired Brad Hand and Adam Cimber via trade at midseason last year.
As the offseason led to the departure of Allen and Miller, the team has chosen to reconstruct their bullpen not with big names but with tremendous depth.
The team re-signed lefty Oliver Perez, who posted a 1.39 ERA and 0.74 WHIP over 32 1/3 innings of relief for the Indians in 2018, posting an impressive 7/43 BB/K. He’s really been their primary major league contract addition to the bullpen.
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On minor league contracts, the Indians have signed veterans Justin Grimm, Alex Wilson, Asher Wojciechowski, and now Clippard. They’ve also signed pitchers like James Hoyt and A.J. Cole, who have impressive talent but haven’t yet put it together in the major leagues. They also traded for Nick Wittgren from Miami after a solid showing in 2018 when he posted a 2.94 ERA in 33 2/3 innings for the Marlins bullpen.
With one of the most talented starting rotations in the major leagues, the Cleveland Indians won’t likely need a lot from their offense to be a winning team, and right now, it looks like that’s what the offense will offer – not a lot.
If a few of these minor league contracts can work out positively for the Cleveland Indians, they could potentially have the type of bullpen to help them hold off the Minnesota Twins, who have become one of the popular “hot picks” of the offseason to compete in 2019.
There are still a number of excellent arms left available that fit this model to really give the Cleveland Indians impressive bullpen depth. Spring Training will be interesting to watch in Arizona for fans of the Tribe.