Indians land Andrew Miller,lose Lucroy

The Cleveland Indians landed the best available reliever at a steep price as the Indians traded four prospects to the New York Yankees in exchange for power armed lefthander Andrew Miller...

If you have been with me almost from day one,you may remember me grumbling about the Pirates not taking Miller all those years ago because they did not want to pay his bonus demands back in the Dave Littlefield days (bleech).

Miller has posted numbers of 6-1 with an ERA of 1.39 this season and if it were me,I would install Miller as the closer and use Cody Allen as the setup man,but that might not be what the Indians decide as Miller is comfortable in either role.
Anytime that you can add a pitcher of the ability of Miller,especially when you consider that the Indians will have Miller signed through the 2018 season.

The cost was steep as Clint Frazier,Justus Sheffield,Ben Heller and JP Feyereisen were shipped to New York.
The biggest loss was Clint Frazier,who was the best prospect in the system as I have him rated above Bradley Zimmer of the outfield prospects for the team.
Frazier had the potential to be the power bat that the Indians have not produced in years and is the main reason that I am not dancing around the room about the trade.
Frazier had recently been promoted to AAA after a .273/13/48 with 13 steals line at AA Akron and has the potential to be a five tool player.
I hope I don't look back at this part of losing Frazier in dismay.

I covered Justus Sheffield in the coverage of the Jonathan Lucroy non-trade,but the other two arms are interesting with hard throwing Ben Heller and JP Feyereisen.
Heller was been clocked at 100 MPH and hitters have batted under .200 against him this season as the closer for AA Akron and AAA Columbus,so this is a player that could be a key cog in the Yankee bullpen as soon as 2017.
Feyereisen posted an ERA of 2.23 at AA Akron as the setup man for Heller and then the closing role after the promotion of Heller.

This could be a deal that works for both teams,but I really like the Yankees return for Miller.

Jonathan Lucroy used his trade option to reject a trade to the Indians,so the players mentioned in the Lucroy post are still the property of the Indians.
Players have the right to use these options as they earned the right to place in a contract,but Lucroy wanted a very affordable option (5.5 million) to be bought out at season's end,which made him a two month rental.
Considering all that,the Indians were very smart to pass on surrendering that option and I have no problem with Cleveland not wanting to give up that control.

Lots of trades today and I will try to be back later tonight with another Cleveland trade,TWO from the Giants and one from the Pirates....