Chris Antonetti and the Wahoo's attempted to shore up the hull a bit with a trade that added two new arms to the bullpen, one of which is coming off a trip to the All-Star game, but nothing comes for free (Unless you are dealing with the Orioles apparently) and it cost the Indians their best position prospect.
First, the return as the Indians added All-Star closer Brad Hand and rookie Adam Cimber.
The southpaw Hand, who collected 24 saves in the first half for the last place Padres, has an ERA of barely three and is fanning opposing hitters at a rate of 13 per nine innings to set him up as a possible new closer for Cleveland.
I suppose it is possible that Terry Francona may stick with Cody Allen and use Hand as the lefty closer, but it also might be that Hand slots in behind Allen and Andrew Miller and becomes one of the top options for the seventh and eighth innings.
Hand throws in the 90's, throws a wipeout slider. has been durable for the Padres since arriving from the Marlins ( Hand pitched here in Hagerstown with the Marlins low A affiliate Greensboro), and being under contract for two more seasons (plus a 2021 team option) made him very appealing to the Tribe with the expected departures to free agency after the season by Allen and Miller to step in as the future closer.
The only small concern that I have about Hand is that he wasn't successful in Miami and his rise to prominence in San Diego came in the massive Petco Park, where flyballs go to die.
That's a minor concern and one that I don't think is very likely to be a problem, but still worth noting.
Adam Cimber is an interesting player as well as he posted an ERA of 3.17 as a twenty-seven-year-old rookie in San Diego.
What I find most interesting about Cimber is the submarine motion that he uses.
Pitchers with odd motions can be quite devastating when used in small doses against opponents that share the same dominant side (righthander vs righthander usually gives the pitcher the advantage) and right-handed batters are hitting just .210 against Cimber and have hit just one home run.
Cimber's issue with becoming more than a situational reliever has been his problems with lefties, who hit over .290 against him in San Diego.
Still, even if he is a back of the bullpen piece at best, Cimber could be an Indian for quite a while with the team holding a few years of control.
And as mentioned earlier, when you are acquiring quality assets, you have to give up quality and the Indians did just that as they shipped their top position prospect and in the eyes of some, their top prospect in catcher Francisco Mejia to the Padres.
At 22 and considered to be a potential plus bat, the switch-hitting Mejia carried plenty of value, add in that he adds that potential from behind the plate and actually wants to remain there and you have a blue-chip prospect.
Mejia was hitting at a .279 clip with seven homers for AAA Columbus, but the Indians have tried to make his bat play with attempts to have him learn to play third and the outfield at various points with less than full success.
Some of that has been reported to be due to Mejia's less than enthusiastic response to the trials and with the return to form of Yan Gomes with the parent club (And Gomes has a year and two more years with team options) could leave Mejia blocked on the depth chart and even with the Indians less than strong situation in the outfield, Mejia was a somewhat expendable, if valuable trading piece.
The Padres stated that they see Mejia as a catcher despite having a fine young defensive minded catcher in Austin Hedges and in order to continue Mejia's development, he was assigned to the Padres AAA club in El Paso.
Mejia's arrival bolsters an already powerful farm system in San Diego and gives the Padres ten of MLB.com's top one hundred prospects, which is pretty impressive on its own, but is even more impressive when you consider the ten is a pretty even mix of homegrown prospects and players obtained in trades.
I hate losing Francisco Mejia, but it seemed like his shine had dimmed in the front office over the last week or so and dealing him from a position of strength now is a good idea.
Brad Hand and Adam Cimber will bolster a bullpen in need of such bolstering, they are the type of acquisition that the Indians like to make and small market team should make- affordable players with some control before free agency.
With the expected loss of Cody Allen and Andrew Miller at the conclusion of 2018, this trade will hopefully pay benefits for the next few seasons with Hand likely to slot in as the closer for 2019 and Cimber as a situational reliever with the possibility of moving into a setup role with an improvement against left-handed batters.
Still have plenty to work on, but the trade took precedence, so back with more later.
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