Cleveland Indians Should Start a Youth Movement

The Indians need to start being honest with themselves.

It pains me to say it, but they’re obviously not World Series contenders.

Half of their roster is on the IL and who knows how the pitchers will do when they return. Minus Aaron Civale, the other two core pieces of our rotation have barely thrown since the sticky substance crackdown, so who knows how they will turn out.

You never want to just give up on the season, but maybe it’s time for a youth movement.

Potential Trades

The core of this lineup is under contract until at least 2024 so there’s no reason to move any of them, especially when Paul Dolan isn’t paying anyone over $8 million. There are a few guys on one-year deals who we might be able to flip at the deadline.

Eddie Rosario is having a bit of a down year, but most teams could use a power bat that’s been phenomenal on the road this year.

Home: .209/.228/.309

Road: .301/.361/.469

Maybe a change of scenery could be great for Eddie, so a few teams might come to inquire. Cesar Hernandez has also had a little bit of pop out of the leadoff spot this year, already swatting 14 HRs, only one shy of his career-best.

Bullpen arms are usually the main targets for teams in the playoff hunt, but Cleveland only has two arms they could move. While Bryan Shaw is on a team-friendly deal, his ERA has started to rise since the sticky substance crackdown. If a team is looking for a durable option that can strike some guys out, I’d be more than willing to move him.

Also, Blake Parker has had a surprise bounce-back year with an ERA of just over 3, while only walking 3.18 per nine innings and giving up less than a home run per nine innings. I’m sure Dolan would love to shed the back half of his $2.5 million deal.

Call Ups

If the Indians make these trades that leaves them with 4 empty roster spots. I’d love to call up a few more bats to see what we have from Columbus.

Nolan Jones should be everyone’s number one option to be called up. He’s a big lefty who has been playing every position this year in the minors. He walks a lot and has a ton of potential to drive in runs. Once he’s called up, finding a position might be tricky as he won’t be taking third base from Jose Ramirez, but we have to find someplace to try him out.

I’m not too sold on Daniel Johnson figuring it out in Cleveland, and would rather just trade him at this point, but at 25 we need to just give him a full shot at the majors. If it works he stays, if not let him try and figure it out somewhere else. No reason for him to still be clogging up spots in the minors.

On the pitching side of things, most of the roster isn’t ready for big-league play. If Scott Moss can figure out how to stay healthy, he will no doubt get a shot, but besides that, you’d have to dip into AA to find some starters with potential.

I’d love to see Tyler Freeman and Logan T. Allen move up to AAA by the end of this year because I think they’ll have a fantastic shot to start next season in Cleveland. Allen has been a huge surprise, this year striking out 11.75 per nine innings in Single-A Lynchburg. I saw him as someone who might not be up for 2-3 more years, but I think his timetable has begun to quickly shrink with the Indians struggling to find back end starters.

Unless Cleveland figures things out quickly, we might have a miny fire sale at the end of July. The schedule doesn’t get any easier, so maybe we just have to look towards the future.