Well, one of the numbers in the Yan Gomes contract is the same as the Mike Trout deal–six years–but the price tags are miles apart.  The Indians signed catcher Yan Gomes to a six-year, $23 million contract extension this weekend, contract is pending the results of a physical. The contract includes two club options. Frankly, we got a bargain. Gomes started his first game for the Indians at catcher on April 9 last year and never looked back. With a .996 fielding percentage  as catcher (4th in the league) and 40.8% caught stealing percentage (2nd in the league), Gomes was perhaps the biggest surprise-out-of-nowhere in a season that had a bunch of them. And he calls a good game. Probably the only downside with this is keeping Gomees healthy and rotating in Santana often enough to give him a breather.

The Indians also made the necessary contract moves to finalize the Opening Day roster. Your 2014 Cleveland Indians are:

Pitchers
37            ALLEN, Cody
48            ATCHISON, Scott
44            AXFORD, John
59            CARRASCO, Carlos
28            KLUBER, Corey
63            MASTERSON, Justin
34            McALLISTER, Zach
88            OUTMAN, Josh
52            PESTANO, Vinnie
35            RZEPCZYNSKI, Mark
31            SALAZAR, Danny
27            SHAW, Bryan
49            WOOD, Blake

Catchers
10            GOMES, Yan

Infielders
4              AVILES, Mike
13            CABRERA, Asdrubal
8              CHISENHALL, Lonnie
30            JOHNSON, Elliot
22            KIPNIS, Jason
41            SANTANA, Carlos
33            SWISHER, Nick
25            GIAMBI, Jason (DL)

Outfielders
23            BRANTLEY, Michael
6              MORGAN, Nyjer
7              MURPHY, David
9              RABURN, Ryan
24            BOURN, Michael (DL)

 

3 Comments

  • D.P. Roberts says:

    Just for fun, I pulled this up:

    “CLEVELAND INDIANS 2013 OPENING DAY ROSTER

    Starting pitchers: Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jimenez, Brett Myers, Zach McAllister, and Scott Kazmir.

    Bullpen: Matt Albers, Cody Allen, Nick Hagadone, Rich Hill, Chris Perez, Vinnie Pestano, Bryan Shaw, and Joe Smith.

    Catchers: Lou Marson and Carlos Santana.

    Infielders: Mike Aviles, Asdrubal Cabrera, Lonnie Chisenhall, Jason Giambi (DL), Jason Kipnis, Ryan Raburn, Mark Reynolds, and Nick Swisher.

    Outfielders: Michael Bourn, Michael Brantley, and Drew Stubbs.”

    STARTERS: Lost Jimenez, Myers, and Kazmir. Gained Kluber, Salazar, and Carrasco. Some are down on our starters, but I think Kluber and Salazar have more upside than Jimenez and Kazmir. Carrasco… will win more than Myers did. CHANGE FROM 2013: WIN.

    BULLPEN: Lost Albers, Hagadone, Hill, Perez, and Smith. Gained Atchison, Axford, Outman, Rzep, and Wood. We’ll miss 3 of those guys. Definite gains in Outman, Rzep, and I have confidence in Axford – at least for next year’s Oscar picks, if nothing else. CHANGE FROM 2013: TIE.

    CATCHERS: Lost Marson. Gained Gomes. CHANGE FROM 2013: WIN. (Duh).

    INFIELDERS: Lost Reynolds. Gained Johnson. Johnson won’t provide the early-year fireworks that Reynolds did, but I predict Johnson will stay with the team longer. CHANGE FROM 2013: TIE.

    OUTFIELDERS: Lost Stubbs. Gained Murphy. I’m assuming that Morgan is only on the roster until Bourn gets back, and gets back healthy. So we gained occasional power, lost occasional speed. CHANGE FROM 2013: Occasional TIE.

    FUN FACTS: Giambi started the roster on the DL both times.

    TOTAL: Once again, it comes down to the starters. Yes, we lost Kazmir and Jimenez. But don’t underestimate the failure that was Brett Myers. Not only did he never win a game, but our epic scramble for more starters meant that aside from our top 5 guys, we also threw 4 other guys out there (Myers, Salazar, Carrasco, and Bauer) over 24 starts , & they went a combined 4-12. It’s almost like we had a 6-man rotation last year, and that 6th man was terrible. Now, we’re counting on 2 of those guys to turn it around… but at least we have Tomlin at AAA ready to step in, as well as hopefully Marcum or even Bauer. So, barring another Myers-like collapse (and I’m looking at you, Carlos), the rotation should at least be more stable this year.

    • Cale says:

      I’m not down on the starters, but I don’t know if I’d call it a win. I’m not sure if Kluber and Salazar have more upside than a sub-2 ERA over the second 1/2 of the season? We saw the upside of Ubaldo in the 2nd half last year, if either of those guys do that, I’ll eat my hat. I think Ubaldo might have more of a downside because we know the train wreck he can be, but I don’t think those other guys have more upside (this year…long term, maybe I’d agree, but it appears you’re just comparing last year to this year). It’s only a win because of the Myers debacle.

      • D.P. Roberts says:

        I guess I’m seeing “upside” in that although Kluber and Salazar showed flashes of brilliance, their impact in terms of making starts & earning wins (or at least putting together quality starts & giving the team a chance to win) was actually pretty small. Between them, those two guys started 34 games and earned 13 wins. If they can stay healthy and perform at the level they showed last year, and start 25-30 games each while earning 10-15 wins apiece, then that will go a long way towards filling the gap left by Jimenez and Kazmir.

        I know that the pitching was tremendous down the stretch, and it’s one of the reasons why we made the playoffs. But overall, it could have been a lot better. Look at our 5 best starting pitchers when compared with the rest of our AL competitors in 2013:

        Team: Starts – Quality Starts – Wins
        Tigers: 156 – 107 – 75
        Royals: 138 – 86 – 54
        Indians: 138 – 68 – 57

        The noticeable number there is the quality starts – the Indians tended to win IN SPITE of the lack of quality starts from the pitching. If the five guys we have now could each turn in 15 quality starts this year, it would be a 7 game improvement over last year’s starters.

        Secondly, there’s the injuries & other time off – Kluber didn’t really get going until June, Masterson missed the last month, Z-Mac missed most of June and July.

        In many ways, the pitching overall wasn’t as good as we remember it, but I think the potential is there – it won’t be as good as it was in August & September, but it won’t be as bad as it was in April & May either. If they can stay healthy and perform like they showed last year, I think they can be above average – which would be an improvement.