Cleveland Indians: Grading the roster by position, post-trade deadline

Grading the Cleveland Indians roster by position, post-trade deadline

The Cleveland Indians were able to pull off four trades at the deadline, letting go of six players while adding three to the organization. Most of the additions will add to the club’s minor league pool, but could all be contributors within the next few seasons. While the additions will go a long way to help the future of the organization, it hurts now.

Letting go of major league talent hurt the Tribe’s current roster, but the upside is we’ll get to see a sample size from other players who are coming up through the organization. This isn’t how we necessarily wanted the season to go, but for a young team that is still progressing, there’s worse outcomes.

With the roster changes, we’ll take you through the entire roster by position group and give each position a grade. Not all saw changes from the trades, but the team will have to have a different approach as a whole the rest of the season.

Cleveland Indians Catchers

In today’s baseball climate catchers are either strong defensively or strong offensively. There are few in the game who can check off both. For the Cleveland Indians both current catchers, being Roberto Perez and Austin Hedges, check the defensive box.

For where the organization is, this is the focal point that is needed. With such a young pitching staff, having a defensive-minded catcher who can think through games is a must. Just go take a look at the starting pitcher splits since Perez returned. It’s a night and day difference, especially for Cal Quantrill.

While offensive production would be nice, the current duo of catchers is providing what the team needs at this stage in the process. Once the pitchers become a bit more experienced then the organization can sacrifice a bit of the baseball IQ for talent at the plate. However, right now the defensive side of the game is what this team needs and that’s what Perez and Hedges provide.

Grade: C