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This week the Indians' front office will head to San Diego for the Winter Meetings. This is generally when you see a lot of transactions happen, whether it's trades or free agent signings. Every General Manager and most of the player agents are in the same building, and that facilitates things getting done.
From the Indians' side of things, I doubt very much they'll be too involved in free agency, as talonk summarized earlier this week. They don't have any obvious holes on their roster, and they're very close to their budget limit if we go by last year's payroll. That leaves the trade option, and if the disturbingly transparent Brandon Moss negotiations are any predictor, the Indians will heavily mentioned among trade rumors this week.
Indians have been involved in a ton of trade talk, of major-leaguers for major-leaguers. There is an expectation that will intensify in SD.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) December 7, 2014
Given the noise about Moss, the Indians seem to be looking for power, with right field one position where they might be able to upgrade. Plus David Murphy would be tradeable if they acquired another right fielder. If there's a corner outfielder on the trade market, chances are the Indians have asked about him.
Source: Dodgers' trade of Ethier to D-backs falls through | FOX Sports
Not directly related to the Indians, but relevant nonetheless. The Dodgers have a glut of outfielders, and the Indians are looking for them. Apparently an Andre Ethier-Miguel Montero trade was nixed by Arizona ownership. I'm definitely not in favor of the Indians trading for Ethier, but the Dodgers have other outfielders that would be more to their liking. Scott Van Slyke would be a perfect fit for the club, for instance, and if the Dodgers are looking for catchers, I wouldn't mind including Roberto Perez in a package for Van Slyke.
Cleveland Indians rolling to winter meetings, but have gathered no (Brandon) Moss | cleveland.com
Hoynes on the leadup to the Winter Meetings. As you'd expect, the Indians are not finding much interest in Nick Swisher, who is signed through at least 2016.
Rays manager Kevin Cash said to have sharp baseball mind | Tampa Bay Times
Talk about not jumping to conclusions! In recent years previous managerial experience has not been an issue when clubs for managers. Robin Ventura in Chicago and Mike Matheny in St. Louis hadn't coached at any professional level before getting their jobs. Cash at least has some experience at the major-league level as a bullpen coach, and I'm sure taking pointers from Terry Francona for two seasons didn't hurt.
The article also notes that Cash as of now is the youngest manager/head coach among the four major professional sports leagues, beating out Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens by a year.
Indians' Kluber, Chisenhall net GIBBYs | indians.com
What is a GIBBy? The acronym stands for Greatness in Baseball Yearly, and it is a group of awards given out by MLB. Voters for these award come from a cross-section of MLB alumni, broadcasters, front-office people, researchers, reports, and fans. This year two Indians won recognition:
Lonnie Chisenhall - Hitting Performance of the Year (single game)
Corey Kluber - Breakout Pitcher of the Year
Both of these should come as no surprise. Chisenhall had the best single game by a hitter by just about any type of measure you want to use, and Kluber won the freaking the AL Cy Young Award. Clayton Kershaw had a better season than Kluber, but Kershaw was a well-established pitcher and therefore not eligible for the award.
Congrats to both Chisenhall and Kluber.
MLB winter meetings -- 10 names to watch - ESPN
More grist for the rumor mill this week in San Diego.