FanPost

Cleveland Indians organizational depth chart

Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE

In the wake of the trade deadline- (which brought the departure of Asdrubal Cabrera and Justin Masterson, and subsequent arrival of James Ramsey and Zach Walters) I felt inclined to re-examine the Tribe's depth. Where do these two new guys fit? How are the Indians prepared to address future needs?

The following link is a draft of that work, showing notable players in the system at each position, with the number of years they're under team control for:

Indians organizational depth chart

Notes on making sense of the chart:

  • Red represents current locked-in contract years/value.
  • Orange are option years, all either club or vesting options.
  • Green and yellow represent pre-arb and arbitration years, respectively. A lot of conjecture goes into projecting the exact timeline of these years for players without any current big league experience, but it can at least give you a sense.
  • Players in bold are currently on the 40-man roster.
  • Players with an asterisk are left-handed, while those with a pound sign are switch-hitters.
  • Where I have made mistakes or left out anyone of significance, please let me know in the comments and I'll make corrections.

A few takeaways from looking things over:

  • The Tribe suddenly has crazy OF depth, particularly when it comes to guys capable of playing CF. This is a far cry from where we were recently, when the acquisition of both Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn were necessary patches to our dismal outfield depth. Assuming Raburn is gone next year, it is pretty easy to imagine pretty regular configurations involving three CFs in the OF.
  • The Indians have a lot of potential flexibility from guys who can play multiple positions. I have put Zach Walters, for example, in the generic "utility" category, because I honestly have no idea where the Tribe expects him to end up. Guys like Tony Wolters (catcher + middle infield), Jake Lowery (catcher + first base), Jose Ramirez (2B/SS/3B), and Erik Gonzalez (2B/SS/3B), give the Tribe a lot of options. Even in the OF, the aforementioned CF depth includes a number of guys who might also be capable of playing a legit corner position.
  • The big positional absence is true right-handed hitters. The big-league club depends heavily on switch hitters like Carlos Santana, Nick Swisher, and the now-departed Asdrubal Cabrera to provide right-handed offense. Michael Brantley, Jason Kipnis, Lonnie Chisenhall, David Murphy, Michael Bourn...all bat from the left side. This is a problem we have already seen, but not likely to be fixed internally right away. Aside from Tyler Holt, the best near-ready RH bats are Carlos Moncrief (switch-hitter) and Giovanny Urshela (perhaps another reason I like those two).
  • The big collection of RH-bats is currently sitting in Lake County. Clint Frazier, Nellie Rodriguez, Dorssys Paulino, and Eric Haase are all currently with the Captains. That wave is still a ways from the Cleveland horizon.
  • The recent extensions (Brantley, Santana, Gomes) look awfully good, and should give Cleveland a lot of flexibility to add pieces elsewhere. Like the pitching department...
  • Cleveland has no long-term money wrapped up in its starting pitching. That is not necessarily a bad thing, and may even reflect some degree of organizational philosophy.
  • But the Indians have plenty of reasons to sign Corey Kluber to an extension.
  • The Indians also have plenty of reasons to spend significant money on a starting pitcher this offseason.
  • The Indians major league starting depth is as shallow as I can remember. With Masterson's departure and Carlos Carrasco's (seemingly permanent) shift to the bullpen, the Indians have almost no cushion in Columbus.
  • After the current rotation (Kluber, Bauer, Salazar, House, Tomlin, McAllister), the only meaningful option in Columbus is the 27-year old Tyler Cloyd. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him added to the 40-man at some point this season.
  • When it came time to compiling the starting pitching depth, I pretty much was forced to just add those guys who were starting at each stop and performing decently. I don't have a lot of hope in guys like Will Roberts or Gabriel Arias for the big-league rotation, and yet that is what we have at our next layer.
  • There is a particularly noticeable gap in starting pitchers we might reasonably expect to see debut next year (like TJ House this year). If the Indians make any trades for prospects in the offseason, I would hope we add some AAA starters. If they don't, I suspect we will sign more than the typical number of minor-league free agents who might fill that role, or even dip into the rule 5 draft.
  • Aside from the general lack of depth in starting pitchers, there is a particularly acute lack of left-handed starters. Shawn Morimando and Ryan Merritt are t\he closest we have, and in addition to being only lukewarm about their potential, I wouldn't expect them before 2016 at the earliest.

I am pretty excited about our offensive/defensive potential. I am incredibly not excited about our pitching potential. As good as this season has been on the positional side, for acquiring and developing talent, it has been another disappointing year in terms of the development of pitching. The Indians desperately need to add talent to the system, and/or for some of the current prospects to make BIG strides forward.

What thoughts do you have?

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