Clevelinks: Cleveland Indians Activate, Re-Sign Pitchers; Danny Salazar Possible Trade Bait

Cleveland Indians Activate Pair of Southpaws

Danny Salazar was a beast in 2015. After starting the season in Triple-A Columbus, it took just one start to get his chance with the Cleveland Indians. Across 185 big-league innings, he plowed through opponents on the way to a 3.45 earned run average and 3.48 expected fielder independent pitching, which normalizes one’s home run to flyball ratio and evaluates pitchers on factors that they can control.

While his strikeout rate was still five percentage points lower than that of his magical 2013, one could not complain with a 25.8% punch-out rate. This dominant performance should make Danny Salazar a common trade target, as Katrina Putnam wrote. The price he would command will be high, and he could return a solid, cost-effective bat in return.

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In other news, the Cleveland Indians activated Nick Hagadone and T.J. House from the 60-day disabled list. Hagadone, 30 on the first of January, has pitched just 118 major-league innings since reaching the show in 2011. He finally posted promising results in 2014, but quickly regressed in 2015 before ending the season on the disabled list with elbow problems.

T.J. House, 26, has been on the disabled list for quite some time with a shoulder injury. The southpaw posted strong results across 18 starts in 2014, pitching his way to a 3.35 earned run average with a 61% groundball rate. In 2015, he imploded in spectacular fashion. He pitched just 13 innings in four starts and walked nearly twice as many batters as he struck-out. As for run prevention, he allowed 19 runs, all earned, on 21 hits. It is a foregone conclusion that he will pitch better next season, as it is nearly impossible to get worse.

Finally, the Tribe re-signed pitcher Joe Colon. The 25-year-old right-hander has been with the Tribe since 2009, and he’s pitched surprisingly well for a player who’s never seen the major leagues. Part of this has to do with a conversation from a starter to a reliever, but he has only pitched to the tune of a FIP higher than four once in the past five years.

These and other stories you may have missed:

‘Salazar will be targeted heavily this offseason’ – Wahoo’s on First

‘Grading the position player pitchers’ – Sports on Earth

’10 big questions for free agency’ – ESPN

‘Who will be busy this offseason?’ – MLB.com

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