Indians: All 4 players Cleveland should bring back for 2022
By Chad Porto
RP Bryan Shaw
There’s no reason to move on Bryan Shaw, zero. If he can agree to a new deal with the club, then he should absolutely be back in the middle of the bullpen, serving as the team’s primary bridge to the 8th and 9th innings. He only made $2.45 million for the year, with a $1 million base salary, and a contract similar to that for 2022 would b most excellent.
Raise his base by a million, and then backload it with another $1.45 million in incentives and that should be a deal that just about everyone can agree on.
Shaw had a good year in 2021, posting a .349 ERA and appearing in literally half the games the team played in (81). It was a career benchmark for Shaw and one that he probably shouldn’t get close to hitting in 2022. Shaw at times had lulls and that was due to being over-worked and too many back-to-back days. He’s more than an option to still to be the team’s best middle-reliever in 2022, and as long as James Karinchack rebounds as a set-up guy and Emmanuel Clase takes hold as a closer (or they rotate like in 2021), then this bullpen should be well fortified.
That is assuming the bullpen has some better management and isn’t forced to pitch an absurd amount of innings like in 2021.