Cleveland Indians: 8 failed cornerstone players since the Shapiro Era

Ubaldo Jimenez

Technically not a Shapiro move, but the title of the article said SINCE the Shapiro era.

This was a move that was made with the hopes of getting the Tribe to the playoffs. It worked, but two years later. Ubaldo Jimenez was traded to the Cleveland Indians in 2011, for top prospect Alex White, Matt McBride, Drew Pomeranz, and Joe Gardner. The move was done to round out the rotation and to give the Indians a “real” ace.

Jimenez was on the outs in Colorado, and a deal came together relatively fast and followed two other trades made by new GM Chris Antonetti. Earlier that day, the Indians traded away Orlando Cabrera for a minor leaguer and acquired Kosuke Fukudome earlier in that week. The additions were meant to help the Indians, who were just 1 1/2 games out of first in the AL Central compete for the playoffs.

Jimenez was viewed as the “new Ace” of the club, who had Justin Masterson, a young pair of starters in Carlos Carrasco and Josh Tomlin; as well as the man with two names himself, Hernandez/Carmona. Despite the high price tag that Jimenez came with both contract-wise and trade compensation-wise, he never produced like he was expected to.

During his first year and a half in Cleveland, Jimenez pitched 242 innings, was a whopping 13-21, and never had an ERA under 5.00. As a full-time player in the majors goes, he had a career-low in strikeouts and his second-worst stretch for walks-allowed of his career in this stretch. Buyers’ remorse was on full display.

Finally, in 2013, the real Ace, the King of the North would ascend to his throne and take his spot as the one true ruler of the Indians rotation, as Corey Kluber became a full-time starter that year. With that pressure off, and Terry Francona now entrenched as manager, the club finally made it to the postseason for the first time since 2007 and Jimenez finally put together a productive season.