The Cleveland Indians made a few minor moves this offseason, but nothing that would be considered scale-tipping.
In exchange for Drew Stubbs, the Tribe acquired Josh Outman from the Rockies, and they also signed four players—Scott Atchison, David Murphy, John Axford and Elliot Johnson—to deals that would eventually land them with the big league club—only Murphy and Axford were signed to the 25-man roster.
Most of these acquisitions have already paid early dividends and have helped the Indians maintain their 11-15 record—which would certainly be worse off without them.
With nearly a month of play behind us, the time has come to grade the Indians’ offseason acquisitions based on their early-season performances. Most have actually performed quite well, but one player has been unbearably bad through the season’s first month.
We’ll kick it off with the only player acquired via trade, Josh Outman.
All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and Fangraphs.com unless otherwise noted.