Cleveland Indians Offseason Search for Offense: Volume Two

We continue our search for offense for Cleveland and possible additions they could make this winter

This is Part Two of an examination of players around baseball that the Cleveland Indians could potentially acquire to bolster their offense. Ryan Braun was the focus of part one, and now we move on to another outfielder from the NL Central with a tremendous amount of thunder in his bat. Well, potential thunder anyway.

Potential Power Producer #2: Jay Bruce

Relevant 2015 Stats: 26 Home Runs, .434 SLG, .209 ISO

Positives: Bruce has tremendous power. Like, that silly type that just makes people excited. While 2015 wasn’t overly kind to him, he still hit the ball hard whenever he made contact. He’s an Adam Dunn type, lots of power (30 homers per 162 games) and lots of strikeouts (22. K%). He wasn’t really that good in 2015, worth .1 fWAR, but he could have been feeling the last vestiges of some meniscus surgery from the year prior. Injuries like that can nag for a long time.

He would also be relatively cheap, compared to some other players available around the league and even on his own team. Since there’s only one more year on his contract plus an option year, it wouldn’t cost a top pitcher to get him so it could be a bit like a test trade and see if the power is still hanging around Bruce, and 2015 his continued rehab. It’s a shot at upside and the only real cost is the time to see whether he will pan out.

Negatives: He wasn’t good offensively in 2015, and he’s already 28. He doesn’t make a ton of contact, doesn’t walk very much, has declined offensively the last few years and isn’t good in the field. For a team that needs versatility, Bruce adds the ability to play DH. Really, even with all the home runs he’s hit, peaking at 34 in 2012, he’s never had a wRC+ higher than 120. While having a player 20% better than average can help any lineup, his not adding anything defensively, being worse than that now, and also being yet another left-hander means he’d be nothing but an impediment for the team.

Cost: Nothing too great, I’d hope. The Reds have intimated lately they want to detonate and go full-on Astros/Cubs with their rebuild, so guys like Bruce are on the way out. Since he’s been terrible the last two years, you can have him for cheap. Even something like Cody Anderson would be too much to move for Bruce. He could likely be had for a prospect two or three years out, perhaps something including Adam Plutko. I would even almost hesitate to move James Ramsay, though that could be a good starting point. Ramsay isn’t likely to get much PT in Cleveland if Zimmer and Frazier pan out.

While pitching is assuredly the position of greatest strength the Tribe have to deal, there’s a decent amount of outfielders in the pipeline as well. In short, though, thanks to his terrible past two years, Bruce could be a cheap buy with high upside.

Next: Are the Cubs and Indians primed to make a deal?

Likelihood: Low to moderate. Unlike Braun, who is overly expensive and has produced of late, Bruce has been bad and is on a team that wants to make moves.   Bruce isn’t quite Bag of Balls territory yet, but it’s not like Walt Jocketty can demand his weight in gold, or even copper. It’s a very Indians move to consider, the chase for upside amid reduced value. There’s a non-zero chance he bounces back and clobbers the ball in 2016 so it’s definitely not a terrible gamble. The Indians should at least broach the subject with their southern neighbors, if only for due diligence. The only real knock against him, besides two bad years, is that he doesn’t fit in anywhere on the team, especially once Brantley comes back.