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| (Photo courtesy of Paul Sancya/AP) |
Francona chose us.
That’s the mentality that Indians fans have. The Indians had an opening after
the firing of Manny Acta and Francona was hired on October 6, just three days
after the conclusion of the 2012 season. Francona chose to manage the Indians because of his relationship with Mark
Shapiro and Chris Antonetti. He wants
to be here. He wants to bring a
winner to Cleveland .
This is a fan base so jaded against ownership and the front
office that fans continue to rally against Chris Antonetti and Mark Shapiro for
any minor misstep, while the roster that you see was put together by Chris
Antonetti. Antonetti pilfered Corey Kluber from the San Diego Padres in a three-team
deal that included Jake Westbrook. He outright stole Yan Gomes (thank you Kevin
Cash) from the Toronto Blue Jays for Esmil Rogers. He gave up a Single-A middle
infielder for Marc Rzepczynski, a controlled LOOGY with good career splits in
that role. He acquired Trevor Bauer and Bryan Shaw for one year of impending
free agent Shin-Soo Choo in yet another three-way trade. It was Antonetti who
made the final decision on the Cliff Lee deal that brought Carlos Carrasco to
the Indians, even though it took a while for Carrasco to blossom into the
pitcher we know today. He acquired Brandon Moss for Joey Wendle, trading from a
position of organizational strength to add a power bat. James Ramsey is on the
cusp of being a Major Leaguer after he was acquired for Justin Masterson. Zach
Walters was a fine return for Asdrubal Cabrera.
In paying close attention to the Indians over the last three
seasons, one should be able to see patterns. The pattern that I see is that
Chris Antonetti is the general manager in the offseason and Terry Francona is
the general manager during the season. Do you ever wonder why Terry Francona
agreed to manage in Cleveland ?
Does the thought cross your mind that a handshake deal to give Francona control
over the roster from Opening Day until the final out was the deciding factor?
As far as I’m concerned, there’s a lot of evidence to
support my theory, which some of you may consider conspiratorial. Edmund Burke
once wrote, “Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.” From day one,
mountains of praise have been heaped onto Terry Francona, so much so that it’s
a wonder that he can even breathe. Players love Francona for any number of
reasons, ranging from his honesty behind closed doors to his communication
skills to his even-keel approach. Francona is never one to throw a player under
the bus. The front office loves Francona because of their long-standing
relationship with him even before he was hired. The front office also loves
Francona because they are supposed to. He is the face of the franchise, with
every player cloaked in his shadow. One of the worst things for any
organization is a disconnect, and subsequent friction, between the manager and
the front office.
It’s why a sabermetrically-inclined, tremendously smart
organization is willing to let the egregious mismanagement of the roster go by
without a second thought. Everybody knows that the Indians are a small-market
team. Everybody knows that the Indians hire some of the best analytical minds
in the game, ranging from Keith Woolner to Max Marchi to everybody in between
and below. How could an organization so progressive in its thinking, so
cost-conscious regarding player value, allow its manager to carry eight, and
sometimes nine, relievers? How could an organization that would seem to have a
grasp of player value and the maximization of dollars completely eschew the
concept of playing defense?
Despite the constantly full bullpen of eight or nine warm
bodies, heavy workload pitchers like Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen appear broken. Thirty-eight-year-old
Scott Atchison made 70 appearances and pitched 72 innings in 2014. Over parts
of seven Major League seasons prior, Atchison
pitched in 206 games covering 255 innings. Atchison was given a contract extension. Does
this front office really seem like the type to give a 39-year-old relief
pitcher another guaranteed year?
Marc Rzepczynski worked in 73 ballgames last season and
faced 196 batters. Only 55 percent (108/196) of the batters he faced were
left-handed. Lefties hit .180/.241/.200. Righties hit .324/.437/.507. A front
office that completely understands the value of platoon advantages, especially
because they utilize them in their own starting lineup on a daily basis, should
never stand for the gross misuse of assets like that. (For what it’s worth,
Rzepczynski has faced 13 lefties and 11 righties this season.)
The Indians are on track to be one of the three worst
defensive teams in all of baseball again this season. For more than three
weeks, Jerry Sands, David Murphy, Ryan Raburn, and Mike Aviles all took turns
playing the outfield, while Tyler Holt and James Ramsey sat in Triple-A. Aviles played center
field in a game against the Chicago White Sox and remained in the game as the
team tried to protect a 3-0 ninth-inning lead. We all know the end result, in
direct correlation with a fly ball that Aviles
should have caught and did not.
That wasn’t Aviles ’s
fault. That was Francona’s fault. He assumed zero accountability and even
insulted the intelligence of not just the fans, but also his team, and also the
front office. “It’s hard to take Aviles
out of a game, the way our bench is situated. And I think Mikey does a good job
in center,” Francona told the media in his post-game press conference. To be
clear, the bench situation, which I believe Tito controls, forced him to keep a
guy with 6.1 career innings in center field prior to that game in center field
to protect a lead. Michael Bourn, who was sitting on the bench with a night
off, was part of said “bench situation”. Up until he acknowledged past overuse
of the bullpen earlier this week, I was pretty sure that Francona was incapable
of assuming responsibility after this lovely quote.
A manager’s chief job is to put players in a position to
succeed. Terry Francona repeatedly fails to do that from a defensive standpoint
and also with his pitching staff. He has a penchant for bringing relievers into
medium or high-leverage situations from pushing a starter too long instead of
allowing the reliever to start the inning clean. The Francona apologist will
say, “He’s trying to save the bullpen.” I will respond, “Medium or
high-leverage situations add more high-stress pitches. They also contribute to
a higher workload for the starting rotation when there are eight relievers in
the bullpen.”
Remember the 2013 season when head cheerleader Jason Giambi
took up a roster spot for an entire season? The Indians often had two bench
players capable of actually contributing to the team because of resident pinch
hitter and awful designated hitter Jason Giambi. When the situation became too
dire for Terry Francona to object in 2014, Giambi was placed on the 60-day DL
with cash-a-check-itis labeled as “knee inflammation”. It had to eat at
numerous members of the front office every day that Giambi was taking up a
roster spot. This is also where I’d like to remind you that the Indians lost
the division by one game and could have avoided the Wild Card Round altogether.
Cost-conscious organizations are not willing to pay players
to do nothing. It’s one of the reasons why the Indians have been resistant to
let David Murphy walk because they would have to release both him and the money
they’re paying him. I find it hard to believe that an analytical organization
would be able to conjure up any kind of rationale to keep an unproductive bench
player like Giambi. I also find it hard to believe that any cost-conscious
organization would be willing to pay Mike Aviles $3.5M for 2015 with the
ability to turn down the option. In Aviles ’s
first two seasons with the Indians he was worth negative $100,000. Yes, he
should have paid the Indians for the right to play for them per Fangraphs’s
player valuations. In this season’s small sample size, Aviles is well on his way to being worth what
he is getting paid, but that’s not the point. The point is that the smart minds
in the front office would not have counted on that in the offseason and would
have allowed him to go to free agency. Rightfully so, regardless of how his
2015 season ends.
The simple solution to the Mike Aviles problem would have
been to take him away from Terry Francona. Mike Aviles inexplicably bats second
far too often. He is a below average defensive player. He is a below average
offensive player. But, he is an above average teammate. That made it impossible
for the Indians to get rid of him for what was perceived to be a small amount
of money in today’s free-spending Major League Baseball landscape. Not
retaining Aviles
would have upset Terry Francona. Upsetting Terry Francona is not an option. If
it was, a lot of overdue changes would have taken place already and in the
past.
Where the biggest issue lies is that the front office has
its hands tied. By giving Francona too much control, they have effectively
painted themselves into a corner and the paint is in a constant state of being
too wet to walk on. Clubhouse morale is, by all accounts, just fine, since
everybody still loves playing in the Terry Francona Comfort Zone. The byproduct
of that is that the front office does not have the freedom it needs to make moves
that would improve the ballclub for fear of upsetting the members of the
ballclub.
Look at the day-to-day lineup construction. Would a front
office full of analytical baseball minds ever advocate having two players with
on-base percentages below .310 at the top of the lineup? Absolutely not. A
savvy front office like Cleveland’s would have Michael Brantley and Carlos
Santana in the top three spots without question, and likely one of them batting
leadoff. Michael Bourn and Jose Ramirez would be batting eighth and ninth. This change is gradually happening, with
Jason Kipnis batting leadoff and Bourn at the bottom of the order.
The original point of my #FireFrancona hashtag was exactly
this. He is holding the organization back from being what it needs to be. The
Indians need to be progressive. They need to be proactive. The roster, and
depth at Triple-A, is not designed to be utilized in this manner. It’s a hard
argument to make because the Indians had won 177 games in the previous two
seasons, so that’s the proof against my argument. I would offer a different
argument and ask how good this group could have been (and could be right now)
if the front office was actually pulling the strings on a day-to-day basis.
It’s certainly true of this season, as the defense has cost the team on
numerous occasions and bullpen overuse of the last two seasons has caught up
with Francona.
Tito is a players’ manager. The front office is advanced and
analytical. Perhaps Francona was hired to provide that delicate balance between
the numerical side and the personal side. If that is truly the case, then
Francona is not being open-minded enough and the front office is not being
persuasive enough. The Boston Red Sox had a very progressive front office with
Theo Epstein during Francona’s tenure. Epstein did what he wanted with the
roster and it worked. Francona took what he was given and maximized it. It
seems that Francona only agreed to return to managing if he was the head honcho
during the season. If he had control over the 25-man roster. If he could call
the shots.
There have been too many good moves made over the last three
offseasons to think that the front office could possibly mismanage the roster
this badly. This front office is too smart to sit idly by and watch as Terry
Francona allows it all go to hell. And I have a hard time believing that
personal feelings should get in the way of doing what is in the best interest
of the ballclub. The best interest of the ballclub includes having the best
players on the roster. Right now, that does not include Anthony Swarzak, David
Murphy, or Mike Aviles. The irony that Jerry Sands was DFA’d for a reliever is
not lost on me.
How does Trevor Bauer feel when the overworked bullpen blows
the game he worked so hard to keep the team in? How does Cody Allen feel when
non-outfielder Mike Aviles is out in center field in a close game? How does
Jason Kipnis feel when a bad feed from Lonnie Chisenhall nearly gets his legs
chopped off at second base? How does Michael Brantley feel when Jose Ramirez
steps up as the #2 hitter with two on and two out and weakly grounds out? Would
the players be that upset to lose their “good teammates” for the sake of having
a better ballclub and a better chance at winning games?
Wouldn’t you like to find out? I know I would. To me, the
reason we cannot find out is Terry Francona. Whether there truly is a handshake
deal that the roster is his during the season or not, there is something that
is keeping the front office from making the moves that make sense. If removing
Terry Francona from the equation is the only way to do that, I am fully on
board. I fully understand the consequences. I fully understand what it would do
to the fan base and potentially the players. I’m willing to take that chance. I
want the best 25 guys on the roster, not the best 19 or 20.
As far as I see it, either the front office needs to take a
chance of ruffling the manager’s feathers or Francona needs to take a step back
from controlling the roster. If neither of those things is going to happen, the
team will go nowhere.
This is obviously an outsider’s perspective. This is
entirely speculation on my part based on context clues. I could be completely
off-base and the front office may actually believe in the process and the
decision making. If that’s the case, I could not be more disappointed in the
front office. It just doesn’t jive with how the team operates and the moves
that they have made, so I remain skeptical. Chris Antonetti needs to be the
general manager and Terry Francona needs to be the manager. If nothing else,
Terry Francona needs to be fired as the “general manager”. If that arrangement
doesn’t work for him, then Terry Francona needs to go.
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