The Cleveland Indians have activated Jason Kipnis and designated Brad Miller for assignment, keeping Eric Stamets and Max Moroff on the roster.
Activating Jason Kipnis does not come as a surprise. Kipnis was expected to be activated during the Indians road trip and will join the team in Seattle Monday. However the other moves made by Cleveland are a bit puzzling. Cleveland designated Brad Miller for assignment.
Brad Miller did not have the best reaction to being designated for assignment while Eric Stamets and Max Moroff remain with the club.
If the decision to keep Stamets and Moroff over Miller is attitude related, that is excusable. However his comment in reference to the move is completely valid. Neither Eric Stamets or Max Moroff have shown any promise at the plate. This is not a case of a young player needing more time to adjust to Major League pitching. Moroff is essentially a replaceable player while batting and Stamets is a complete non-factor.
Brad Miller had the fourth-highest batting average on the team through 13 games (.250). Stamets and Moroff are basically automatic outs at the plate. The two have the second and third-worst batting averages on the team. Stamets is batting .053 while Moroff is batting .077. Miller has also only struck out 10 times in 36 at-bats compared to 13 in 26 for Moroff and 22 in 38 for Stamets.
While Brad Miller has not primarily played shortstop since 2016 and is not a prolific defender, a little bit of a dip in defense is worth the boost in offense. Stamets and Moroff have been Cleveland’s shortstop thus far and are still a liability defensively. If the team is choosing someone who is not necessarily the best defensively, why not take a better offensive player while they are at it?
