Cleveland baseball news in October? Yes, I know it’s an odd realization for fans to believe with the start of the NBA calendar and the NFL mid-way through its season. But believe it or not, the Cleveland Indians began to make some changes to its 40-man roster that will affect the team for the upcoming season.
Catcher Chris Gimenez and right-handed pitchers Anthony Reyes and Hector Ambriz were all outrighted off the 40-man roster to the listing for the Triple-A Columbus Clippers. Because of this move and the fact it was the second outright for both Gimenez and Reyes, those two players were granted free agency. This was the first such demotion for Ambriz, and thus he remains within control of the Indians organization.
These moves from earlier in the week are a sign of many more to come for the Tribe as the roster deadline approaches in November.
Tony Lastoria from Indians Prospect Insider delivered an impressive breakdown of the many players who could be in jeopardy of removal from the 40-man roster this offseason. Many were surprise calls this past season, but room will have to be created for potential free agent signings as well as deserving promotions throughout the organization.
As it stands right now, the Indians have 39 players on that official list, not including both Grady Sizemore and Carlos Santana who remain on the 60-day disabled list. The roster deadline to complete the 40-man roster is November 20th before the beginning of the Rule 5 Draft and the free agency time period. At some point before then, both of these two players will re-join the roster as more and more announcements are made of similar demotions throughout the system.
Another interesting list to take a look at from Lastoria is his Rule 5 Draft eligible players, featuring Cleveland minor leaguers who have accumulated a certain amount of service time. Just some of the highly touted names include Rob Bryson, Paolo Espino, Connor Graham, Nick Hagadone, Beau Mills, Matt McBride, Jared Goedert, Josh Rodriguez, Jose Constanza and John Drennen. All of these folks, along with the many others listed by Lastoria, could be in danger of being picked up by another team unless protected on Cleveland’s 40-man roster.
Tribe fans will learn a lot over these next three weeks about where the front office feels the team can be competitive for the 2011-2012 seasons. Will they protect some major investments in Hagadone, Graham and Mills, or rely upon the recent productivity of Espino, Goedert and Rodriguez? What players actually will get picked up in Rule 5 this season, let alone the new people that could join the system like Ambriz a year ago?
Stay tuned baseball fans, here comes a pretty intriguing time of the year for analyzing the roster and predicting what could happen in a year to come.
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Photo above via Chuck Crow / The Plain Dealer