In all the excitement of welcoming our new writers to the blog, we didn’t mention that the Indians cut five more players earlier this week. On Sunday, March 18: OF Ezequiel Carrera, INF Juan Diaz, and RHP Corey Kluber all went to Columbus and RHP Hector Ambriz and CA Michel Hernandez were reassigned to minor league camp.
The first roster cuts were made on March 11, when RHP Tyler Sturdevant, RHP Austin Adams and C Chun Chen were re-assigned to the minors. On March 15, they optioned LHP Scott Barnes, OF Thomas Neal and OF Nick Weglarz to Columbus and RHP Danny Salazar to Class A Carolina Mudcats.
Today, the Indians claimed RHP Rick Vandenhurk off waivers from the Blue Jays. To make room on the 40-man roster, they designated LHP Kelvin de la Cruz for assignment. That leaves 49 players in camp; 32 on the 40-man roster and 17 non-roster invitees.
If Acta is cutting a few players every four or five days, then that means a few more guys are getting some bad news on Thursday or Friday. The obvious cuts (e.g., the young guys were were mainly sent to Spring Training for the experience not because they were realistically expected to make the roster) are just about gone. I can’t see guys like Beau Mills or Matt Pagnozzi making the next cut. Once the puppies are gone, the cuts get more difficult to make. Who do you think goes next?