Indians Finalize Their Opening Day Roster; Takeaways on the Final Moves

The 2020 Cleveland Indians opening day roster is set, as manager Terry Francona announced the final roster moves Wednesday prior to their game in Pittsburgh against the Pirates.

Final roster day is always a tough day, and for this group of Indians it wasn't easy as there were a number of decisions that had to be made about the 30-man roster.

The final move was telling relief pitcher Hunter Wood that he was not going to make the opening day roster.

That means making the roster is reliever Cam Hill, outfielder Bradley Zimmer, infielder Yu Chang, and reliever Dominic Leone.

Here are some thoughts on how the final roster shapes up for the Tribe ahead of Friday's opener at home against the Royals.

Happy for Hill

Another former Indians draft pick has made the Majors for the first time, that being relief pitcher Cam Hill.

The 26-year-old was drafted in the 17th round by the Indians in the 2014 MLB Amateur Draft, and worked his way up through the minors to get the big leagues.

Telling a player for the first time they have made the Majors is one of the good aspects of being a manager in the big leagues.

“When you are able to tell a guy for the first time that’s really neat,” Francona said.

Hill had an impressive 1.80 ERA in the spring, throwing five innings, striking out two and allowing a run on three hits.

Tough to Evaluate

Francona admitted on Wednesday that the quick summer camp and having a lot of moving parts did not leave a ton of time to evaluate players, at times making it even unfair to some of those players that were working to earn a shot to make the roster.

“We really tried to communicate as much as we could, as often as we could, and I think we did that,” Francona said Wednesday.

“I think we went in knowing it was going to be difficult, and at some point almost unfair to get a real good read on guys, but again we did the best we could.

“Our promise to the players is always the same and that is we will be honest and consensus."

What it could mean is that how those players in Lake County perform will be important, as they are one swing of the bat away from being with the Major League roster.

What's Next for Jake?

One of the possible surprises earlier on Wednesday was the fact that Jake Bauers was sent to Lake County, and that he won't make the final big league roster.

One thing that Bauers has going for him is the fact he's just 24 years old, and while he's spent two years at the Major League level already, he's got a chance in Eastlake to get better and prove that he can eventually be an everyday player at the Major League level.

Last season Bauers ran into issues making contact, as he struck out 115 times in 117 games, and it's something the team really wants to see him get better at before he's back to the Majors.

He was sent to the minors last season when the team acquired Franmil Reyes and Yasiel Puig.

Bauers ended 2019 with a .226 average with 12 homers and 43 runs batted in.

Zimmer and Chang Make the Most of Their Chances

Two of the better stories this summer camp was the play of outfielder Bradley Zimmer and infielder Yu Chang, who both made the final 30-man roster.

Zimmer has been the most impressive player on offense during summer camp, and he looks a lot more comfortable at the plate following missing a lot of time with the shoulder injury that kept him on the shelf.

Chang had some of the longest homers of summer camp at Progressive Field, and worked his way on the roster despite being behind infielders Mike Freeman and Christian Arroyo.

“It’s really difficult to try and get a good read under these circumstances,” Francona said.

“At the same time you don’t want to penalize guys for going home and being ready for when they came to camp.

“Both of them hit the heck out of the ball and played good defense, you don’t want to penalize them for that.”

It will be interesting to see how these two players get playing time once the season gets going for real on Friday.

Extra Infielders

As stated the Indians are keeping a couple extra infielders on the roster with Mike Freeman, Christian Arroyo and Yu Chang all making the roster.

Part of the reason for keeping an extra infielder could be the fact that the club has 17 games straight right out of the gate to start the 2020 season.

So how much playing time will the extra infielders get? Even Francona doesn't know quite yet.

“We haven’t set anything up yet,” Francona admitted. “Believe me when I tell you it was hectic to get where we were today.

“The rule is you carry 30, we could have carried another outfielder, that would have given us four extra outfielders. Not sure what you do with four extra outfielders, we will see how things go.

“We are going to have to check in with guys daily because we start with 17 in a row. We’ll try to put our best foot forward and try to win games like we always do.”