MLB: Rating the front offices of the AL Central
By Bill Felber
Cleveland Indians
Chris Antonetti, president of baseball operations; Mike Chernoff, general manager
-2.5 games
Antonetti and Chernoff got a lot of ink for the MLB deadline decision to ship ace pitcher Mike Clevinger to San Diego in a trade that ended up involving five major leaguers.
Clubhouse chemistry may have forced the deal, and since the Indians did play in the post-season Indians fans were probably willing to overlook the component parts of that performance. Clevinger and Greg Allen, the other player shipped to the Padres, added a half game of value to their new team. Meanwhile, Josh Naylor, Cal Quantrill, and Austin Hedges, the three new Indians, cost Cleveland three-tenths of a game in WAA.
Those five players constituted nearly one-fifth of the modest 26 player moves affecting the 2020 MLB roster that were made by Chernoff and Antonetti since the end of 2019. The team’s most significant acquisition turned out to be Cesar Hernandez, signed as a free agent. Holding down second base, Hernandez produced a +0.9 WAA.
If you want to criticize Antonetti and Chernoff, take a look at the players they dispatched to other major league teams. There were 10 of them, seven of whom produced positive value for their new teams. But to a large extent you’d be picking at nits: the most consequential loss was the release of fill-in reliever A.J. Cole. He signed with Toronto for similar duties and enjoyed a largely unremarkable 3-0, 3.09 season, worth +0.6 WAA.
Here is the annual short-term performance rating of the Indians’ front office since Chernoff became GM in 2016:
2016: +0.4
2017: +6.0
2018: +2.3
2019: +1.0
2020: – 2.5