Cleveland Indians: Thoughts on Andrew Miller’s departure and contract

The Cleveland Indians lost yet another key player to free agency, and once again it came on what seems like a team-friendly deal.

The Cleveland Indians weren’t expected to retain Andrew Miller.

Yet once his contract with the St. Louis Cardinals was announced, it seemed like the Indians could have at least made an effort to keep him around.

That doesn’t seem too unreasonable, which was my same feeling with Michael Brantley‘s contract in Houston.

The first thing that comes to mind now that Miller is gone is that I will never forget his 2016 postseason. Him and Terry Francona essentially changed the game as Miller became the go-to pitcher in every possible situation.

You could lose the game in the fifth inning the same way you can in the ninth, and Miller was the guy to come in to keep his team alive in what was a magical postseason, at least until the end.

He ended up dealing with injuries after that and that could factor in to why the Indians didn’t want to spend the money on a new contract. That same mindset could have also been applied to Brantley.

With every departure I keep telling myself that the Indians are still going to make moves to bring talent to now. And that this is the first step in that process.

But it continues to get more and more frustrating to see so much talent leave town for contracts that could have been offered by the Indians. The only major addition so far has been Carlos Santana.

Cody Allen still remains a free agent so it is possible the team is negotiating a new deal with him and that was the plan all along. If not, Brad Hand is the savior of the bullpen in 2019.

Miller, like Mike Napoli and Rajai Davis, will always be remembered for what he did in 2016. It is just such a shame that he couldn’t be here on a championship team.