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Cleveland Indians infielder Zach Walters was involved in a car accident that required a hospital visit but is expected to be OK. 

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Indians’ Statement on Walters

Wednesday, Dec. 23

According to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, the Indians released a brief statement about Walters’ accident, noting he “is home, and is in good spirits.”       

“Everything to this point has checked out fine,” the statement said. “We will continue to stay in touch with him and monitor his situation.”

Details of Walters’ accident were not available, though Bastian did note the team is “still in the process of gathering as much information as possible.”

Bastian added that Walters’ private Instagram account includes a picture of the veteran utility man in the hospital wearing “a neckbrace and [he] had a cut above his left eye.”

Walters, who was originally drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2010, made his MLB debut with the Washington Nationals in 2013. He was traded to Cleveland in July 2014 and has appeared in 42 games with the team, hitting .161/.202/.356. 

This has been a rough offseason for Walters, who had shoulder surgery in October that will require five to six months of recovery time, putting his status for spring training in doubt. 

The Indians have given themselves plenty of infield options to choose from with Mike Napoli and Carlos Santana at first base, Jason Kipnis at second base, Francisco Lindor at shortstop and some combination of Giovanny Urshela and Jose Ramirez at third base. 

Walters’ car accident doesn’t sound like it will alter his timetable to return from shoulder surgery, so hopefully he is able to make a full recovery to compete for a spot on the 25-man roster when camp opens in February. 

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Cleveland Indians pitcher Cody Anderson underwent an emergency appendectomy, but the procedure likely won’t sideline him for long, according to MLB.com’s Scott Merkin. 

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Anderson’s Recovery Estimated at 2-4 Weeks

Wednesday, Dec. 16    

According to Merkin, Anderson had the surgery Tuesday at St. Joseph’s Westgate Medical Center in Glendale, Arizona, and is slated to jump back into his offseason training program once he’s recovered fully. 

The 25-year-old made his MLB debut on June 21 last season and proceeded to make 15 starts for the Indians. Over the course of 91.1 innings, Anderson went 7-3 with 44 strikeouts, 24 walks and a 3.05 ERA. 

Anderson also posted a mark of 2.4 wins above replacement during his first MLB go-around, according to Baseball-Reference.com. 

Merkin noted Anderson will likely slot in as a component of the Indians’ deep starting rotation in 2016. 

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Veteran outfielder Rajai Davis agreed to a deal with the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday, pending a physical, according to CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman. Per Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, it’s a one-year deal that is believed to be worth $5.25 million plus incentives.

Per Spotrac.com, the 35-year-old had his two-year, $10 million deal expire at the end of the 2015 season to end a stint with the Detroit Tigers, the fifth team of his career. 

A top-of-the-order man who doesn’t necessarily hit for average, Davis finds his way on base thanks to his speed. This season, however, his speed numbers were down as he stole just 18 bases. He had 34 or more in each of the past six seasons. 

However, Davis appeared in just 112 games because of splitting time with 25-year-old Tyler Collins in left field.    

Despite seeing a decrease in playing time, Davis expressed his desire to stay in Detroit, according to Matthew B. Mowery of the Macomb Daily: “If it was up to me, it would be very, very nice to stay. But it’s a collective decision, and you gotta go from there. … It certainly is a business decision, especially when my family’s involved. Best situation for us. It could happen. Anything is possible.

By dealing center fielder Michael Bourn to the Atlanta Braves at the trade deadline in 2015, the Indians lost speed and a bat at the top of the order who complemented second baseman Jason Kipnis. 

The Indians were also in need of a decent bat in the outfield to add some support for left fielder Michael Brantley, who was one of the team’s most productive hitters with a .310 batting average with 15 home runs and 84 RBI. 

Right fielder Brandon Moss, who matched Brantley’s 15 home runs last season, batted just .217.

A .269 lifetime hitter, Davis could provide those things as he helps address the Indians’ issue of depth in the outfield. At times last season, Cleveland resorted to playing Lonnie Chisenhall, usually a third baseman, in the outfield.

The Indians’ newest acquisition is versatile enough to play at any outfield position, appearing at all three last season with the Tigers. He will be a nice addition to a Cleveland team trying to piece together a contender in the American League Central. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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The most famous moment of Joba Chamberlain’s baseball career came against the Cleveland Indians in the postseason. Now he hopes to help the franchise return to the playoffs for the first time since 2013.

The team announced it signed the relief pitcher to a minor league deal Tuesday with an invitation to big league spring camp. Normally, a minor league deal would fly under the radar during the MLB offseason, especially on the same day the Boston Red Sox agreed to a deal with superstar ace David Price, per the Boston Globe‘s Peter Abraham. But Chamberlain has a memorable history with the Indians.

Chris Cwik of Yahoo Sports detailed the pitcher’s unfortunate experience in Game 2 of the 2007 American League Division Series. Chamberlain took the mound in the eighth inning for the New York Yankees but was swarmed by a group of midges. The game was delayed, and he needed bug spray to remove the midges.

It visibly bothered Chamberlain, and Cleveland scored a run off him to tie the game. The Indians eventually won in the 11th inning. 

The Indians also addressed the incident after Tuesday’s signing:

The Yankees replied with a humorous response of their own:

Craig Calcaterra of NBCSports.com pointed out Chamberlain may not have to worry about the midges if he is pitching for the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate, the Columbus Clippers:

Calcaterra’s assessment comes after a disappointing 2015 season for Chamberlain. The former Yankee pitched for the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals and finished with a 4.88 ERA, 1.70 WHIP and minus-0.7 WAR in 27.2 innings, per Baseball-Reference.com. It was the worst statistical season of a career that started in 2007 with the Yankees, and similar numbers would keep him in the minors in 2016.  

At his best, Chamberlain was a shutdown option in the back end of the bullpen who bridged the gap from the middle innings to the closer. He finished with a 0.38 ERA in his rookie season and followed that up with a 2.60 ERA and 118 strikeouts in 100.1 innings pitched in his second campaign.

While he has struggled to reach that level of effectiveness since (he posted an ERA above 4.00 in five of the next seven seasons), Cleveland at least knows there is a track record of success in place.

Still, Chamberlain is 30 years old and a number of seasons removed from his best performances. He must prove himself with this minor league deal if he hopes to get another shot at pitching in Cleveland.

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Cleveland Indians outfielder Michael Brantley underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder Monday in Wilmington, Delaware, and he is projected to be sidelined for the start of the 2016 season.  

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Brantley Out 5-6 Months After Shoulder Operation

Monday, Nov. 9

The Indians announced the news on Brantley’s status and recovery from a small tear to his labrum, also indicating Brantley initially injured himself on Sept. 22 while trying to make a diving catch against the Minnesota Twins.

Although Brantley showed signs of progress trying to rehab the injury without a medical procedure, his pain persisted, and he sought a second opinion before deciding surgery was the best option.

The good news is the 28-year-old’s injury is to his non-throwing shoulder, which is encouraging for his long-term prognosis. Brantley was an All-Star in 2014 and fought through multiple ailments last season to have another stellar year with a .310 batting average, 15 home runs and 84 RBI.

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Cleveland Indians pitcher Corey Kluber may have suffered through another rough outing, but his first strikeout in Monday’s 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins made him the Indians’ first right-handed pitcher since Bob Feller (1940-41) to record 500 or more strikeouts over a two-year span, per MLB Stat of the Day.

After striking out 269 batters in his Cy Young-winning 2014 campaign, Kluber entered Monday’s contest with 230 strikeouts this season, needing just one more to reach 500 over the two-year span.

He got the necessary strikeout against Twins outfielder Eddie Rosario to end the first inning, but only after surrendering an RBI double to Twins designated hitter Miguel Sano and a two-run home run to Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe.

With his team in an early 3-0 hole and the Twins getting the best of him in a second straight start, Kluber probably wouldn’t have cared about the milestone even if he had known.

He did settle down a bit after the rough opening frame, ultimately allowing four runs, seven hits, three walks and six strikeouts on 102 pitches over six innings.

The loss dropped his record to 8-16, with the 16 losses putting Kluber one ahead of Oakland Athletics pitcher Jesse Chavez for the American League lead.

Kluber’s undoubtedly been one of the least lucky pitchers in all of baseball, as his ERA estimators on Fangraphs (FIP, SIERA, etc.) are all much better than his actual ERA, and he’s also suffered through terrible run support.

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As the Cleveland Indians cling to the fringes of the American League playoff scramble, their young shortstop, Francisco Lindor, has moved to the forefront of another race—the one for AL Rookie of the Year.

Lindor padded his resume with another big game Wednesday night at Progressive Field, going 3-for-4 with a booming home run and four RBI in a 5-1 victory over the AL Central-leading Kansas City Royals.

Lindor is now hitting .317 with nine home runs, 41 RBI and an .835 OPS. And he’s been especially scalding in the season’s second half, as MLB.com’s August Fagerstrom noted:

You don’t need to know all the ins and outs of that stat, weighted runs created plus, to understand that hanging out in Yoenis Cespedes territory is impressive. (If you want a wRC+ primer, FanGraphs has a good one here.)

Cespedes has gone nuts, particularly since landing on the New York Mets at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. Lindor, with less media hype, is right there with him. And just as the Mets’ masher is getting National League MVP chatter, Lindor belongs squarely in the AL ROY conversation.

Lindor’s chief competition for the award is another shortstop, Carlos Correa of the Houston Astros. Recently, I made a case for the Minnesota Twins‘ Miguel Sano, and he remains in the mix as well.

Here, let’s just toss the three players’ stats on the table:

Sano has the edge in OPS, but he’s played in fewer games and has spent most of his time at designated hitter, whereas Lindor and Correa patrol a premier, up-the-middle defensive position.

Correa has better power numbers than Lindor, though Lindor has been gaining in that department, adding nearly 40 points to his OPS since the beginning of September while Correa’s OPS has dipped 25 points in the same stretch. 

Where Lindor truly separates himself, however, is with the leather.

Prior to Wednesday’s action, Lindor’s seven defensive runs saved (DRS) was tied for fifth-best among big league shortstops, per FanGraphs. Correa, meanwhile, checked in at minus-two DRS.

Other stats, including ultimate zone rating (UZR), essentially agree. Lindor is the superior defender and already one of the very best in the game.

Correa enjoys the benefit of playing for a team that would be in the playoffs if the season ended Wednesday, though the Astros (77-69) have ceded first place in the AL West to the Texas Rangers and are now holding the second wild-card slot.

The Indians, meanwhile, are 72-72, four games off the wild-card pace. (Sano’s Twins, interestingly, are also in the hunt at 75-70, 1.5 games back of Houston in the wild-card shuffle.) The Tribe could still slip in with a crazy finish, and they have won 14 of their last 20. But the odds are long.

Voters, though, don’t generally give as much weight to postseason status when awarding Rookie of the Year as they do with, say, MVP. Neither of last year’s ROY winners—Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets and Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox—played for October-bound clubs.

So is Lindor now officially the front-runner? Have the 21-year-old switch-hitter’s smoldering stick and consistently slick glove vaulted him past Correa?

CBS Sports’ Mike Axisa stopped short of that assertion, saying only that Lindor’s play has ensured “that this is no longer a one-horse race.”

I’ll take it a step further and say Lindor is now the lead horse, by a nose. The season’s final two weeks and change will decide things, and even Sano could sneak ahead with a torrid finish.

But if Lindor keeps swinging it like he has since the Midsummer Classic—and picking it like he has all along—he’ll have a shiny new piece of hardware to stash in his trophy case.

“The level he’s played at and the consistency he’s shown is really exciting,” skipper Terry Francona said of his budding star, per Jordan Bastian and Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com. “I think now that he’s gotten a taste of it, you can see that it looks like he’s trying to understand more, the impact of each out. With the skills he has, it gets real exciting in a hurry.”

The Indians would surely rather have a crack at the postseason, given the choice. But a reigning Rookie of the Year in the middle of your infield is a pretty sweet consolation prize.

All statistics and standings current as of Sept. 16 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

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Cleveland Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco allowed just one hit over nine scoreless innings during Tuesday’s 2-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels, becoming the first American League pitcher since Bobby Witt in 1994 to throw nine innings and allow two or fewer hits in consecutive starts, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Despite striking out seven batters and surrendering just one single and one walk, Carrasco did not factor into the decision, as Tuesday’s game was tied 0-0 after nine innings.

Angels pitcher Matt Shoemaker also hurled a gem, striking out 10 Indians over six shutout innings before the Los Angeles bullpen took over and held Cleveland scoreless for another five frames.

The Indians finally broke through in the top of the 12th, plating the game’s only runs on a two-run homer from third baseman Giovanny Urshela.

Although he wasn’t able to improve his 11-8 record, Carrasco did drop his ERA to 3.76 and his WHIP to 1.09, with his strikeout-to-walk ratio bumping up to an excellent 5.25.

The 28-year-old Venezuelan ranks fifth in the American League in strikeouts, eighth in WHIP and is tied for fifth in wins, even though this is his first full MLB season working exclusively as a starter.

He’ll try to continue the impressive streak in his next outing, which is scheduled for Sunday against the Minnesota Twins at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

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First, Yan Gomes went down less than a week into the new season, which put the Cleveland Indians behind the eightball. Now, the team will have to deal with the absence of Jason Kipnis.

Continue for updates.    

Kipnis Headed to Disabled List

Monday, Aug. 3

According to Northeast Ohio Media Group’s Paul Hoynes, Kipnis is suffering from a sore right shoulder, and Jose Ramirez will replace him on the active roster.

Expectations were high for the Indians in 2015. Sports Illustrated chose Cleveland to win the World Series, which many fans saw as the kiss of death after SI‘s now-infamous cover singing the praises of a team that would go on to finish 73-89 in 1987:

The Indians have suffered from myriad problems this year. The offense hasn’t quite clicked, and the defense has been almost an entirely new brand of awful.

Kipnis has been one of the few constants. He hit a scorching .429 in May with four home runs and 17 runs batted in and followed it up by hitting .358 in June. As a result, the 28-year-old has been the most valuable second baseman in baseball, per FanGraphs.

Taking Kipnis’ bat out of the lineup obviously hurts Cleveland, but in truth, the Indians might have been doomed even before this injury. Their playoff odds weren’t exactly high heading into Monday—5.8 percent, according to Baseball Prospectus.

Losing Kipnis for a prolonged period may be the final nail in the coffin for their postseason hopes.

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Cleveland Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer decided to have a little fun during his at-bat in the top of the seventh inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night. 

Gearing up for his third at-bat of the night, Bauer imitated three teammates’ batting stances: Mike Aviles, Jason Kipnis and Ryan Raburn. The announcers were loving the performance and looking forward to each pitch to see what came next. 

The funniest part of all this, Bauer reached first base on a walk, receiving cheers and a big applause from his teammates. The Indians came out on top, defeating the Pirates 5-2. 

[MLB]

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