Indians: 3 players from the Eric Wedge Era who we wish played today

Jake Westbrook

The top two Tribe pitchers so far in 2021 (as of press time) are Shane Bieber and Aaron Civale. Since the rules of this exercise is that we can only swap players at positions and not just take whomever, that means we can’t just tab C.C. Sabathia or Cliff Lee, who were the one and two starters for the Eric Wedge Era.

So who would be the third pitcher from that era? Jake Westbrook. Sure, you make a cause for Fausto Carmona/Roberto Hernandez, Paul Byrd, or even Kevin Millwood but there are issues with each of those names. Firstly, Carmona/Hernandez is well, a liar. So, no thank you. Byrd wasn’t bad but he had no zip and gave up too many gopher balls. Millwood had a great 2005 with Cleveland but didn’t pitch long enough to warrant real consideration to be one of the Eric Wedge Era players.

Westbrook was an All-Star (2004) and was the best right-handed pitcher on the Tribe’s staff for a while. The number three starter in 2021 seems to be Zach Plesac but he’s struggled all year and has been injury lately, so Westbrook would probably be a better option. Westbrook was a work-horse pitcher, going 200+ innings a lot over 2003-2006 while throwing 11 complete games.

That type of endurance helps save bullpens from being burnt out. Not only that, but in 200+ innings, he never gave up more than 19 home runs, while in 100 innings in 2019, Plesac gave up 19 home runs. In just half the time.

Westbrook would be an automatic upgrade over Plesac just in a pure talent for talent swap. Mostly due to Westbrook’s control. Granted, some people will misconstrue the rules of the exercise and demand Lee or Sabathia instead but no one should be wanting to give up Biber or Civale.

Now Plesac is out-injured, so like with the Hafner/Reyes situation, technically you can still retain Plesac, and just swap out a pitcher for Westbrook, like you were making a call-up from the minors to fill an empty roster space.