Cleveland Indians: Three potential free agents to add as the fifth starter

Three potential free agents the Cleveland Indians could add as a fifth starter

The Major League Baseball season is 16 percent complete and the Cleveland Indians remain around the .500 mark in terms of record. Entering the series against Kansas City as the third place team in the AL Central and three games back of the division lead, one month into the season is usually a good first opportunity to assess a team’s performance. But it is also a time for front offices around the league to begin identifying glaring needs to address.

For the Cleveland Indians, some of those needs were self-evident before the team broke camp in Spring; namely the weakness of the offense at a variety of positions. But, barring a miracle pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, the Tribe are not likely to acquire any season-changing sluggers. Many of the bats in the lineup are young, and were acquired at the cost of trading away all-star players. Therefore, the Tribe front office will likely remain static on matters relating to the offense.

However, an area where the Indians could dip into their pockets is the backend of the starting rotation. The five-man unit has already suffered a casualty after Logan Allen was sent packing to the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate in Columbus following three disastrous outings in a row. Over that three-start stretch Allen completed just five 2/3 innings, allowing 11 runs and six home runs. That was just not going to cut it.

When you cannot pitch beyond the second inning, you are not putting your team in a position to compete. Allen said as much when he reflected on his struggles this season with Cleveland.com:

“I’m putting myself in bad counts. Nothing needs to change with the routine, it’s just tweaking some things here and there because the mindset is there, the confidence is there, it’s just I’m doing a disservice to my teammates doing this multiple times in a row.”

He’ll work on ironing out his issues in Columbus, and hope to rejoin the staff later in the season.

But Allen is not the only starting pitcher to struggle with command and consistency. Young starlet, Triston McKenzie, who has otherwise shown flares of brilliance throwing the baseball, with 28 strikeouts in just 18 2/3 innings, this season, has put himself, and his team, in difficult situations with his propensity to walk a lot of batters (8.7 per 9 innings, to be precise). He is yet to go more than five innings in a start this season, due to high pitch counts caused by allowing free passes to first base. Manager Terry Francona, and pitching coach Carl Willis may decide that McKenzie could also benefit from extra work in Triple-A to hone his craft.

These struggles, and moving pieces, at the rear of the Cleveland Indians rotation could invite fresh blood into the organization via free agency. The options to fill the the fifth starter role, internally, are scarce and not particularly appealing, to put it mildly.

So here’s a look at three potential names who the Indians could call upon in free agency.

Can Anibal Sánchez recapture the 2019 World Series magic?

The 37-year-old Anibal Sanchez is fifteen years removed from dealing a no-hitter in his rookie season for the Florida Marlins in 2006. Sánchez has had a very decent major league career since that debut season. It’s been a career pocketed with the occasional spectacular season, such as in 2013 with the Tigers when he led the league in ERA, and his age-34 season with Braves when he logged 136 2/3 innings to pair with a 2.83 ERA.

The question mark, however, is the body of work over his past five seasons. 2015-17 was the absolute nadir of Sánchez’s baseball career. He led the league in home runs allowed (29) in 2015 while posting a lackluster 4.99 ERA. Things got out of control in 2016 when his ERA ticked up to 5.87, before he completely collapsed in 2017 posting an ERA of 6.41.

Redemption, however, came in 2018 and 2019 when he rebounded in spectacular fashion. He made a return to the National League, first with the Atlanta Braves and then with the soon-to-be World Series champion Washington Nationals a season later. Across both seasons he posted an eye-catching 3.40 ERA in 302 2/3 total innings.

One of Sánchez’s appealing attributes, from an Indians perspective, is the impressive command he has with all his pitches. He allows just three walks per nine innings. Another big plus is his durability; between 2010-19 he failed to start 25 games only once.

Can the former seventh overall pick, Homer Bailey, help the Cleveland Indians?

Cleveland Indians fans will have memories of their team doing battle with Homer Bailey in the Ohio Cup between 2007 and 2018 when he was a member of the Cincinnati Reds. A once highly-touted prospect, Bailey never fully lived up to the fanfare. He struggled with command early in his career before working through those issues to throw strikes more consistently.

Bailey, now 35 (feel old, yet?), may be several years removed from his best seasons as a pitcher; a three-year stretch between 2012 and 2014 when he posted a sub-3.72 ERA each of those seasons, and threw 562 1/3 total innings during that span. However, the four seasons, post-2014, were all derailed due to injury. In 2015 and 2016 he threw just 33 1/3 innings, collectively. When he did pitch, the results were appalling.

But there are reasons to believe those injury troubles may be behind behind him. In 2019, his first full season since 2014, he announced his candidacy for ‘Comeback Player of the Year’ by throwing 163 1/3 innings, between stints with the Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics, and finishing the campaign with a 4.57 ERA and a 13-9 record. For a role as a fifth starter, that is a stat line most clubs would snap up in an instant.

If Bailey can convince the Indians that his health concerns are now in the rear-view mirror, then he could certainly be a solid pickup in free agency.