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If you missed the Cleveland-related baseball news yesterday, hooboy was it a doozie. Paul DePodesta quit his job with the New York Mets to come to Cleveland and work for the... Browns. Here's LGT's article dedicated to it—and here's Bastian's.
It was also noted yesterday that the Browns pursued Mark Shapiro last offseason. Shapiro smartly declined, but it's fun to wonder if this is the one thing the Browns could have done that would have made their stubborn fanbase stop attending games. Man, do Clecommers hate Mark Shapiro.
Non-football news
After 712 long days of it being unofficial, the Indians finally announced the signing of Mike Napoli. Mr. Popular Kirby Yates was DFA'd to make room for Napoli.
• Doug Fister has offers from multiple teams. Hopefully the Indians are one of them.
• Paul Hoynes tweeted yesterday that the Indians are probably "done making big moves." This is smart and totally expected. Chris Antonetti added, though, that there are scenarios where he would give up his first round pick to sign a free agent. In typical Clecom fashion, as of the time of this writing, every single one of the replies to Hoynes's tweet is negative. And there are more than 15.
• Francisco Lindor was the 4th most surprisingly good hitter in 2015. WHO WAS NUMBER ONE?
• Andres Blanco was number one.
* Here are the specifics of the Rajai Davis contract:
rajai davis: $5.25M plus 175K for 400 pa, 425, 450, 475, 500, 525, 550. ($1.225M total incentives) #Indians
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 5, 2016
• And the Napoli one:
mike napoli: $7M plus 500K for 450 pa, 500, 550, 600, 625, 645. ($3M total incentives) #Indians
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 5, 2016
• Here's a new article about old announcement: Mike Clevinger and Bobby Bradley were chosen as the Indians MiLB pitcher & hitter of the year.
• And WFNY takes a detailed look at the Indians' player development culture. I wish I could say I had time to read this yesterday.