The Cleveland Indians and Pittsburgh Pirates completed a five player deal on Wednesday. The most notable players changing teams are Erik Gonzalez and Jordan Luplow.
Indians have dealt INF Erik Gonzalez, RHP Tahnaj Thomas and RHP Dante Mendoza to the Pirates for OF Jordan Luplow and INF Max Moroff.
— T.J. Zuppe (@TJZuppe) November 14, 2018
The relievers Cleveland sent to Pittsburgh are minor league prospects. Max Moroff is expected to contribute at the Major League level with Luplow. That is at least the belief of Indians president Chris Antonetti.
#Indians president Chris Antonetti feels Luplow and Moroff will help team immediately at major league level.
Says its hard to gauge if volume of calls of teams interested in Cleveland players is up over recent offseasons.
— Tom Withers (@twithersAP) November 14, 2018
What the Cleveland Indians got in Jordan Luplow
The 25-year old Luplow has only appeared in 64 games with the Pirates across two seasons. Luplow has struggled at the big league level swinging the bat. Granted this is an extremely small sample size, Luplow is slashing .194/.274/.371 with an OPS of .644. While this is hardly impressive Luplow does have a record of success at the AA and AAA level. Below are Luplow’s numbers in the minors in 2017 and 2018.
2017- 117 games: .302/.381/.527, .907 OPS, 22 doubles, 23 home runs, 74 runs, 56 RBI, 45 BB
2018-88 games: .287/.367/.462, .829 OPS, 25 doubles, 8 home runs, 41 runs, 49 RBI, 39 BB
The good news is that Luplow has shown the ability to hit even though he is yet to do that at the Major League level. It is not beyond the realm of possibility for Luplow to develop into a more productive hitter with regular playing time this season.
Acquiring an outfielder was a must for the Indians. Michael Brantley is expected to leave in free agency and the team is not likely to spend heavy in free agency. Cleveland had a logjam in the middle infield and Gonzalez was the odd man out. Rather than hold on to a player who is nothing more than a utility man, Cleveland uses him to acquire a player at a position of need. It appears that Cleveland may make more trades in the future. Even with acquiring Luplow the outfield is still relatively unsettled. Wednesday’s trade is a great start, but another trade or two would be nice before next season.
