Indians DFA Carlos Gonzalez

The Cleveland Indians apparently have seen enough from outfielder Carlos Gonzalez and decided to designate him for assignment.

It was a long time coming but the Cleveland Indians have designated Carlos Gonzalez for assignment. This is due to the injury for Roberto Perez and the need for a backup catcher. Perez suffered a concussion the other night and will need some time to heal. Cleveland opted not to put Perez on the injured list but call up Eric Haase from Columbus. This left Cleveland with one too many players and Gonzalez became the odd man out.

With other outfielders on the roster performing better than Gonzalez the decision was easy. Gonzalez was slashing .210/.282/.276 with a .558 OPS in 30 games. CarGo also hit two home runs and one double while driving in seven during his time in an Indians uniform. Gonzalez was on track for one of his worst, if not the worst season of his career. The Indians decided to give Gonzalez the chance to redeem himself with a one-year deal and show he still has something left. This is very similar to the deal that Cleveland also gave to Hanley Ramirez, which also ended before either party would have liked.

When it comes to making a deal like this the hope is for something resembling the one season that Mike Napoli contributed back in 2016. Or if a modern example is preferred, the season that Hunter Pence is currently enjoying in Texas. Pence is having one of the best years he has had in a long time. Part of that is leaving the hitter unfriendly San Francisco and moving to hitter friendly Texas. Teams always like to take a chance on a low risk, high reward type player. Deals given to Ramirez, Gonzalez and Pence were deals of this type. Unfortunately both deals the Indians gave out did not work and Pence’s in Texas did.