Wednesday N&N: Nick Maronde Is Your Early Present

Cleveland Happenings

Cleveland Indians invite LHP Nick Maronde to spring training as non-roster player | Cleveland.com -- Maronde has cleared waivers and will be an NRI. This is the lefthanded reliever Cleveland claimed from the Angels in July, if you've forgotten.

Christmas at the Klubers | Indians.com -- Jordan Bastian does a holiday themed Q&A with the reigning Cy Young winner. A few highlights:

MLB.com: Do you guys decorate your house?
Kluber: Yeah, but for liability's sake, we have somebody come put the lights on the house. I don't do that myself.

Being a professional athlete is so weird.

We actually watched "Frozen" for the first time in Spring Training this year. We lived with the Chisenhalls, and we were trying to figure out a time where the kids would all be calm enough to sit down and watch it. Before we got to that, Lonnie actually watched it and said, "This is the best movie ever!"

First, Lonnie is the perfect name for an adult Frozen devotee. Second, I cannot imagine choosing to live with another adult family for fun.

If you are a Grinch, realize this interview contains zero baseball-related content. It's clean fun, though.

Lindor among Pleskoff's Top 10 | mlb.com -- Lindor is fifth on this list by a former scout, and there's a very short blurb.

Hey Hoynsie: Why are Cleveland Indians eating dust from AL Central rivals? | cleveland.com -- Do I have to? Sigh. OK:

Hey, Hoynsie: Melky Cabrera, Jeff Samardzija, Ervin Santana, Yoenis Cespedes, Alfredo Simon, Zach Duke, Adam LaRoche, Kendrys Morales, David Robertson and Alex Rios are all newcomers to the AL Central this winter. This is in addition to Victor Martinez, Luke Hochevar and Torii Hunter sticking around.

The vast majority of these additions happened after the Tribe added the feared Brandon Moss. My question is this: Are the Indians doing anything to get better? The only thing they have really improved this year is their stable of below average, left-handed, platoon first basemen and right fielders - James Cocita, Cleveland.

Hey, James: Just a hunch, but it doesn't sound as if the Indians signing Scott Downs and Gavin Floyd did a whole lot for you.

This is offensive to me on multiple levels, but especially on this one -- Hoynes is allowing James from Cleveland to do his hack writing for him. You may think I truncated the answer -- I didn't. That's all Hoynes said -- basically a big "YEP! NICE ONE, JAMES!"

Hey, Hoynsie: I realize I might be better off asking Santa, but is there any chance the mystery team in on Chase Headley could be Cleveland? - Stan Turn, Massillon.

Chase Headley was signed on December 15, 8 days before this column ran. Either Stan is functionally helpless in modern society, receiving all information from writing in to newspapers ("Dear Abby: Where can I buy bread? I'm wasting away! Thanks, Stan Thurn") or Hoynes is running a question written before December 15. In neither case should this question be published in a newspaper, even an online edition.

Around MLB

Braves reach agreement with veteran reliever Grilli | mlb.com -- Grilli once signed a contract with Cleveland, but never appeared in the org. Need a ruling on if this is LGFT.

Peavy thrilled to stay with Giants | mlb.com -- If you were worried about Jake wandering back to Chicago, you can relax.

Jung-Ho Kang negotiating with Pittsburgh | Fangraphs -- Jeff Sullivan considers the fit for the recently posted South Korean shortstop.

Happy Holidays, y'all.