The OTHER Pitcher The Indians Lost

In the past couple of seasons, the Indians have traded away two all-star pitchers: Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia. This is well-trod ground, obviously. However, just before the 2009 season, the Indians dealt another guy who suddenly looks pretty good: Edward Mujica. When he was in Cleveland, Mujica shot through the minor leagues quickly and then--actually, I summarized this for the Indians Annual just before the 2009 season:

In 2005 and 2006, Mujica looked to be a master of what matters most for pitchers: preventing runs. He ended 2006 with an ERA of 1.92 between Akron, Buffalo, and Cleveland, having not allowed a single earned run over his first 46 innings in 2006-but he went on to post a 5.84 ERA over 2007 and 2008. Mujica's numbers were always a little off for a dominant reliever; he never got many strikeouts or groundouts and he always gave up too many fly balls. Pitchers who can't get strikeouts or groundouts usually have trouble surviving, since every hard-hit ball has a chance to be a home run. After the past two seasons, Mujica's 2005 and 2006 increasingly look like an extraordinary run of good luck-the fly balls just stayed in the park for 130 straight innings. With an average fastball, change, and curve, he never had the stuff to sustain those numbers. Mujica is out of options, so if he doesn't make the major league bullpen out of spring training, he'll have to pass through waivers before he report to Columbus. Clearly, Mujica is not a great bet to break camp with the club. Unless he domnates in the spring, look for him either to be claimed by a desperate NL team or to squeak through waivers and pitch in Columbus. 

And, sure enough, Mujica was with San Diego to start 2009 via some kind of "conditional deal", a move that was a product of the roster crunch. At the time, we said it would be a PTBNL but, at this point, I can't determine that one was ever received. Regardless, as right as I was about Mujica's future destination, I appear very wrong about his ability to be an effective reliever. 

Eddie never went back to the minors with San Diego and, in 2009, performed adequately. He still didn't look like any great shakes (7.3 K/9, 4.0 K/BB, 0.62 GB/FB) but he took advantage of his cavernous homepark, to the tune of a 2.94/5.18 home/road ERA split, and became a legitimate member of the middle of a major league bullpen. 

2010, however, has been a different story. Mujica has found the strikeouts I was pining for (66 K's in 63.0 IP), totally eliminated BB's (6 on the year) and, though he's still much better at home than away (2.29/4.23 home/road ERA), he's suddenly a high leverage guy. His BB/9 is the second best in the majors among relievers and his K/BB is number one in the majors, just ahead of Rafael Betancourt. 

Of all the things that get the CleCom hackles up, this little tale of redemption seems to have slipped through the cracks. I'm not sure Mujica's improvement is 100% real-he still lives in the air and he's going to have to keep that strikeout number up and the walk number down to remain the good not great reliever he's become. Still, his inherited-score% with San Diego over the last two seasons is about 20% and, in San Diego's improbable (and sputtering) run towards the playoffs, he's a key player. And, hey, he was in ESPN the magazine (p. 47 of Sept 20 issue)! So, here's to you, Ed. It's hard to really fault the Indians for shipping you out but I'm hoping like hell some of the less charming Indians fans don't figure out where you went.