The Cleveland Indians didn’t make any roster moves, didn’t report any serious injuries, and didn’t lose a major free agent at the Winter Meetings in Nashville this past week.  However, they did lose some ground in the AL Central when the Detroit Tigers traded for the best right-handed hitter on the market, Miguel Cabrera.  This was a guy the Tribe needed, but they came up empty.  Despite the Indians getting to the seventh game of the ALCS last season, it will be the Tigers that will be favored to win the division crown in 2008.

Although I think GM Mark Shapiro does a terrific job putting together a ballclub, the one weakness I think he has is overvaluing some of the prospects he has collected.  It appears Shapiro did not want to part with the same type of prospects the Tigers traded away.  Maybe negotiations with the Indians and Marlins never progressed to the point where names were discussed, but Detroit gave up two of their top farmhands in Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller.

Maybe those two will become perennial all-stars, but then again, they might wind up being just average players.  In return, Detroit gets a current all-star, one of the best young hitters in the game.  And he’s just 24 years old.  I can understand the hesitancy in dealing prospects for players in their 30’s that are on the decline, but Cabrera is hardly that.  In fact, Cabrera is younger than Ben Francisco, one of the Indians’ better prospects.

That isn’t even mentioning the Motor City Kitties also received former 20 game winner, Dontrelle Willis, in the deal.  Willis has not been effective over the past two years since winning 20 in 2005; he had an ERA over 5.00 last year in the National League.  However, he can be an effective 4^th or 5^th starter in Detroit, or could also be a trade piece in another deal with a National League team.  He will only be 26 years old next season, although there is a lot of mileage on his arm.

There were a few rumors involving the Tribe, the most notable involving Pittsburgh and outfielder Jason Bay.  As we have written before, Bay does not get me turning cartwheels.  I was intrigued by Toronto outfielder Alex Rios being on the market.  Rios is just 26 years old, hit 24 dingers last season, and struck out slightly over 100 times in more than 600 at bats.  His batting average has hovered around the .300 mark the past two seasons.  I would definitely be more interested in Rios than I would be in Bay.

Another hot name at the meetings according to Baseball Prospectus.com was Andy Marte.  If the Tribe is thinking of moving Jhonny Peralta to 3B soon, they should trade the former Brave prospect before they are backing into a corner at the end of spring training.  Personally, I would like to see Marte given the job and seeing what he can do.  Casey Blake is always there if the youngster doesn’t come through. 

Shapiro is correct in saying he doesn’t want to make a move out of emotion.  He does need to do something to keep the Indians on top of the division.  Getting Masahide Kobayashi to help the bullpen is a start, but he has to improve the offense.  Time will tell if parting with some of the surplus in the farm system will bring another bat to the Tribe.

MW