Cleveland Indians: 3 realistic options for cash-strapped Tribe

2. Shane Greene, RP

The Indians waved goodbye to their closer, Brad Hand, because they didn’t want to pay him his $10.5 million salary.

They tried to make a trade for him through waivers, but there was no interest. Washington ended up signing him for the same amount of money and didn’t have to give up any prospects to get him.

The Indians have a new closer ready to go in Wild Thing James Karinchak, but Terry Francona will also be gambling on reliever Emmanuel Clase to chew up some high-leverage innings.

Clase has triple-digit speed, but after missing the 2020 season for a PED suspension, nobody really has any idea if he’ll be any good.

So, the Tribe needs help in the pen. Cleveland.com’s Terry Pluto threw out the name of Shane Greene. The veteran reliever may not have the upside of Clase, but ESPN described him as being of “eighth inning quality.”

Keep in mind, the Tribe would able to afford him for a reason, though. His velocity has declined from 95 in 2018 to 92.1 mils per hour in 2020.  His strikeout rate from 2017 (9.7 punch outs per nine innings) is also down dramatically to t tune of 6.8 strikeouts per nine innings in 2020.

Greene is durable though, and should be good for 60 innings of relief.