Cleveland Sports Forum

Jason Kipnis agrees to contract extension with Cleveland Indians
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Chuck Crow, The Plain Dealer
Paul Hoynes, Northeast Ohio Media Group By Paul Hoynes, Northeast Ohio Media Group

on April 04, 2014 at 8:00 AM, updated April 04, 2014 at 8:59 AM



CLEVELAND, Ohio –-All-Star second baseman Jason Kipnis and the Indians have agreed on a six-year $52.5 million extension with a club option for a seventh year. The team announced the deal Friday morning, just hours before the home opener against the Twins at Progressive Field.

Here is the breakdown:

$1 million signing bonus
$2 million for 2014
$4 million for 2015
$6 million for 2016
$9 million for 2017
$13.5 million for 2018
$14.5 million for 2019
and the club option for 2020 worth $16.5 million, with a $2.5 million buyout

Northeast Ohio Media Group was the first to report early this morning that the sides were close to a deal.

"For the past three offseasons, both Jason and the Indians have worked toward completing a multiyear contract," said Danny Horwits, Kipnis' Beverly Hills sports counsel. "While there were many obstacles as to value and structure along the way, we were able to come to an agreement this week, which will keep Jason in Cleveland for many years to come."

The Indians have already signed Michael Brantley and Yan Gomes to contract extensions in the last two months.

The negotiations between the team and Kipnis have been ongoing since the start of spring training in February.

Brantley signed a four-year $25 million deal in February. Gomes agreed to a six-year $23 million deal on Monday.

St. Louis signed infielder Matt Carpenter to a six-year $52 million deal in March. Carpenter played second base last year and is moving to third this year. The Braves signed Gold Glove shortstop Andrelton Simmons to a seven-year $58 million deal earlier this spring as well.

Simmons started the season with one year and 125 days of big league service time; Carpenter two years and 12 days; and Kipnis two years and 69 days.

The contract will purchase all of Kipnis' arbitration years and two of his free-agent years with an option for a third year. Kipnis was not eligible for arbitration until after this season.

The left-handed-hitting Kipnis had already signed a one-year deal worth $554,900.

The Indians drafted Kipnis out of Arizona State University in the second round in 2009. He played outfield in college, but the Indians moved him to second base.

Good job. Kipnis, Brantley and Gomes are a nice core. Santana is under control for a while too isn't he? Answer yes:

Updated: April 10, 2012, 7:29 PM ET
Two days after his birthday, Carlos Santana got a precious gift -- financial security.
Cleveland's talented catcher signed a five-year, $21 million contract with the Indians, who locked up another "cornerstone" player they believe is only beginning to tap his potential

Wish we could lock up Masterson, who is the only pitcher we can be confident will be a building block, but I guess that's not in the cards.

Anthony Castrovince ‏@castrovince 26m

Chris Antonetti said Kipnis/Masterson not an either/or. Still flexibility to do something with Masterson if talks start again at any point.

Actually, my thought is this might convince Masty to sign on.

money will convince masterson to sign

They have apps now; the Indians are worth over half a billion and there should be enough cash to buy Masterson.

I think he will end up signing.

By Terry Pluto, The Plain Dealer
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on April 05, 2014 at 9:51 AM, updated April 05, 2014 at 10:02 AM
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Scribbles in my notebook the morning after the Tribe's 7-2 home opener victory:

1. There are times when I sound like Michael Brantley's press agent. He threw out a runner at the plate. He delivered a big base hit. He has five RBI, and is 2-of-3 with the bases loaded this season. He also was very vocal about the Tribe's signing Yank Gomes and Jason Kipnis to extensions. We should not forget that Brantley was the first to do so this spring.

2. Loved how Gomes went with the pitch in that 411-foot homer -- to center. He didn't try to pull it. Just a nice easy swing.

3. Blake Wood whiffed the side in the ninth inning. Two scoreless innings. The guy throws in the high 90s, maybe the Tribe has found another bullpen gem.

4. Glad to see Nick Swisher get off to a quick start at home. No matter what he says, Swisher pressed early last season. Then he developed shoulder problems. He wasn't healthy until the last two months -- that also was when he stopped trying to hit most pitches 600 feet.

5. Danny Salazar wasn't very good by Salazar's standards, but he still survived 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs. He had no control of his curve, and had to live off his fastball. The fact that he did a decent job on a cold, windy day with one pitch working is encouraging.

6. Bryan Shaw, 2/3 of an innings, two strikeouts. Shaw looked like he did last September, when he had a 0.00 ERA in 13 September innings. He was 7-3 with a 3.24 ERA overall.

7. Nyjer Morgan has done an excellent job filling in for the injured Michael Bourn in center. Good job by the Tribe scouts and front office, bringing in Morgan on a minor league contact after he played in Japan last season. Even if he's with the team only until Bourn comes back, he has already helped them win two games.

8. Lonnie Chisenhall is 3-of-5 this season and has looked very relaxed at home plate. David Murphy has had a couple of important hits, but he's swinging at too many pitches in the dirt. He entered Saturday's game batting .167.

Nyjer Morgan has done an excellent job filling in for the injured Michael Bourn in center. Good job by the Tribe scouts and front office, bringing in Morgan on a minor league contact after he played in Japan last season. Even if he's with the team only until Bourn comes back, he has already helped them win two games.

Gotta find a way to keep Morgan on this team.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Baseball and cold weather don't mix well. Fans are forced to endure the frigid temperatures and stiff winds. Pitchers struggle to grip the ball. Hitters' hands sting when they make contact with the bat. Reporters, though, stay warm and cozy in the press box, so here are five observations, produced by unfrozen fingers.

1. Eight men out: Terry Francona enjoys the spoils of having an eight-man bullpen. His four starting pitchers not named Justin Masterson averaged fewer than five innings per effort the first time through the rotation. With eight relievers, including a few who can pitch more than one inning, the bullpen hasn't been burnt out.

For how long, however, will Francona carry a 13-man pitching staff? Michael Bourn is slated to return from the disabled list within the next few days and Jason Giambi could follow in less than two weeks. When Giambi rejoins the club, since he can't play a position, the team will likely need a four-man bench. That would signal a reduction to a seven-man 'pen, if Francona hasn't trimmed the group before then.

2. Odd man out: So with which players will the Indians cut ties? Vinnie Pestano could be the odd man out in the bullpen, and it appears as though he's well aware of the situation.

"We have a lot of guys in the 'pen," Pestano said following an outing Saturday in which he surrendered two runs. "It's one of those things where I'm out there pitching for my life right now."

Barring an injury or another transaction, the Indians will likely have to part ways with at least one hitter to make room for Bourn and Giambi.

Lonnie Chisenhall has four hits in eight at-bats. His tiny sample size has yielded a 1.306 OPS. Nyjer Morgan has four hits in 10 at-bats and has four walks, as he has posted a .533 on-base percentage while filling in for Bourn in the leadoff spot. Elliot Johnson is hitless in five at-bats, the fewest on the team. All three had to play their way onto the team during spring training. Have they done enough to keep their jobs?

3. Getting outs: One start is far too soon to draw any conclusions about the Indians' fifth starter. Carlos Carrasco won the spring competition for the spot and permitted five runs (four earned) in 5 2/3 innings to the Twins on Saturday. Meanwhile, Aaron Harang carried a no-hitter through six innings in his first start with the Braves. Trevor Bauer allowed only two runs in six innings and tallied nine strikeouts in his season debut with Triple-A Columbus. Josh Tomlin gave up four earned runs in six innings for the Clippers in his first outing.

4. Out of options: It will be worth monitoring how long of a leash the Indians grant Carrasco. He is out of minor league options, so if he falters as a starter, the team must move him to the bullpen, designate him for assignment or trade him.

After an abysmal first three innings on Saturday, Carrasco pieced together a few formidable frames. Consistency has long been his kryptonite.

5. Out of the box: David Murphy, who joined the Indians on a two-year, $12 million contract over the winter, has only two hits in his first 14 at-bats. Murphy, though, is a notorious slow starter. In fact, the right fielder's career batting average increases by the month. He holds a career .226 average in March/April, a .264 average in May, a .272 average in June, a .275 average in July, a .298 average in August and a .302 average in September/October. [OK; I'll be patient.]

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Maybe it's hyperbole. Or, maybe it's just an illustration of how desperate Vinnie Pestano is to recapture his old form.

For now, the right-hander is hanging on every pitch, dwelling on every outing and searching every nook and cranny for the antidote to his woes on the mound.

"I'm out there pitching for my life right now," Pestano said.

Maybe it's dramatizing his situation. Or, maybe Pestano sees the writing on the wall. The Indians might not carry an eight-man bullpen forever. No pitcher is guaranteed tomorrow.

Pestano is attempting to place his arm injury, his demotion and his velocity concerns in the rearview. He endured a nightmarish 2013 campaign and he admitted to feeling frustrated about not contributing to his team's surge to the postseason.

He began this year with a clean slate, with optimism that he was on the path toward demonstrating the effectiveness that made him one of baseball's best step men in 2011-12. The slate wasn't spotless, though. Manager Terry Francona didn't automatically award him the eighth-inning role.

Pestano has toed the rubber twice this season and the results have him a bit flustered. He allowed one run on a pair of doubles on Wednesday in Oakland. On Saturday, he yielded two runs on three hits against the Twins, though he contended after the affair that he "felt the best [he's] felt in quite some time."

Maybe the numbers don't depict the way he's throwing the baseball. Or, maybe Pestano is too far removed from his peak to recall what it feels like to be at the top of his game.

"I felt really good [Saturday], which is probably the most discouraging thing," Pestano said, "because it's one of those things where you feel the best you've felt in a while and the results aren't there, but you have to keep hammering away."

Pestano has diverted his attention away from the radar gun. He didn't check any charts or statistics after his outing on Wednesday. Three days after his appearance, he still had no idea how hard he threw.

"That's not really what I'm worried about," he said.

He averaged 88.3 mph on 16 fastballs against the Athletics. Last season, his typical heater traveled 91.1 mph. In 2012, he averaged 91.7 mph.

"It's obviously something people are watching," Pestano said. "I want it to be there just as much as everybody. When you try and get strong and create velocity, you're actually hindering yourself."

Pestano's velocity has decreased each season since he entered the big leagues in 2010. The annual decline factored into his arbitration hearing, which Pestano lost.

"If I go out there and I put up a scoreless inning and I'm throwing whatever I'm throwing," Pestano said, "and I go out there and I give up two runs and I'm throwing two miles per hour harder, then it didn't really do me any good. It's not really something I look at or worry about. I just worry about how effective I am."

Pestano threw harder against the Twins on Saturday. He averaged 90.1 mph on 10 fastballs. Last April, though, he averaged 92.8 mph on his heater. Pitching coach Mickey Callaway wonders if the 29-year-old needs to adjust his style of attack and discover a new approach to inducing outs.

"Everybody, as they get more into their career, their velocity starts to decline at some point," Callaway said. "I don't think you really know until you get a little ways into the season whether it's actually the fastball declining or not. The bottom line is everybody goes through a transition where they need to start pitching. Ubaldo [Jimenez] started pitching last year. He used to throw 100; now he's throwing 93.



"Guys just have to learn how to pitch and I think maybe Vinnie is right in that transition where he has to locate the ball a little more and make pitches when he needs to a little more than he had to in the past."

A few extra ticks on a fastball never hurt anybody, but for Pestano, command and deception mean more than velocity. Two of the pitches he heaved hardest in Oakland landed in the outfield grass. Jed Lowrie and Brandon Moss each socked an 89-mph fastball for a double because Pestano left the ball over the plate.

"I'm still making strides," Pestano said. "It wasn't going to be a quick fix. I'm comfortable. The mistakes I am making are ones that are correctable. It's not like last year, when I was always searching for stuff."

Callaway has seen progress since Pestano first took the hill in Arizona this spring.

"Through spring training to now, he's much improved over last year and is getting back to the old Vinnie," Callaway said. "Especially how the action on his pitches is. I think we're encouraged by that."

Maybe Pestano will snap his fingers one day and revert to form. Maybe he'll gradually improve and ultimately earn Francona's trust in the middle and late innings of a close contest. Or, maybe Pestano is what he is and is searching for something that no longer exists.

With each sprint from the bullpen to the mound, Pestano appears to be nearing a conclusion.

"These opportunities right now are almost more pressure on me than trying to get a hold in the eighth or seventh inning," Pestano said. "I'm pitching for my livelihood right now."

Bud Shaw:

CLEVELAND, Ohio – In the past two years, the Indians have committed $200 million to Nick Swisher, Michael Bourn, Jason Kipnis, Michael Brantley and Yan Gomes.

That won’t suddenly make the fan base embrace Paul Dolan as the Monopoly Man -- cash spilling from his pockets as he adjusts his top hat.

The signings have a more important and practical benefit beyond helping repair ownership’s image as penny pinchers. The Indians have 16 players under contract through 2016. And, even better, some of them are pretty good.

The side benefit: The signings have managed to blunt the criticism heard when the Indians failed to reach a contract extension with No. 1 starter Justin Masterson late in spring training. Or at least it should.

It doesn’t mean the Indians are any more likely to sign players who stand to strike it rich on the free-agent market. They aren’t. What it means is they’re investing in a core group of everyday players who can help them survive inevitable defections.

One of the anti-Dolan arguments I heard after talks with Masterson ended was that they were sending the wrong message to a clubhouse that came together last season, bought into Terry Francona, and came back looking to revive the good vibes that carried them to a historic finish and into the postseason for the first time in six years.

And, somehow, not signing Masterson was jeopardizing that.

With whom? Swisher, who signed for four years and $56 million last year, and who is so positive he could probably find something nice to say about Cleveland’s potholes (“I needed a new axle anyway, bro.”)?

Bourn? Who signed for four years and $48 million?

Brantley? Gomes?

Kipnis, who knew his day was coming?

"It's the ownership, the top, showing us that they believe in us, that we've got the guys who can win games now and we want them stick around," Kipnis said after signing his deal. "I'm excited about being a part of that. The decision to sign was a lot easier knowing we’re going in the right direction.”

“This is not a one-and-done organization anymore,” Swisher told reporters Friday. “The moves we’re making are all the right moves. It not only helps in the locker room, but it helps the fan base. We’re starting to create an identity.”

Swisher said ownership was “putting their money where their mouth is.” Some will say they won’t speak loudly enough until they sign one of their own established stars, as the Reds did in retaining Joey Votto and the Tigers did in signing Miguel Cabrera and the Twins did in keeping Joe Mauer.

You could make the argument the Indians haven’t had a hitter as good as those three in recent years, but that would suggest they’d have kept them if they had.

Nobody is suggesting the Dolans couldn’t use an investor (or three). But until that happens they’re going about it the best way they can in a sport with no salary cap and in a modest market where attendance is lagging (to be as kind as possible).

It might never make sense for the Indians to sign a player who accounts for 20 percent or more of their payroll, but if they do it should be a position player.

If it’s a pitcher he’d better be their answer to Clayton Kershaw. In the meantime, the Dolans have built a winning team around a two-time World Series champion manager.

They’re going to be together, generally speaking, for the next couple years. There’s still a chance Masterson is part of that, though when players get the sniff of free agency they don’t often close the windows and pull the drapes.

For now, signing the players they’ve signed doesn’t turn Paul Dolan into Bill Gates. Just as not signing Masterson doesn’t portend more of the same backsliding.

That’s at least a change for the better.

CLEVELAND: Trevor Bauer will come up from Columbus to start the second game of today’s doubleheader with the San Diego Padres, according to manager Terry Francona.

Since the Indians will play two games against the Padres today and then play four consecutive days in Chicago against the White Sox, a spot start is needed to keep anyone in the rotation from pitching on short rest. Bauer last pitched at Triple-A Columbus on Friday, so today falls on his normal pitching schedule.

“It’s right on his day. [He has] been throwing his last four outings, he’s been pretty good,” Francona said. “Hopefully he steps in and gives us six or seven good [innings] and we’ll go from there.”

Teams are allowed to carry 26-man rosters in the event of a doubleheader. Zach McAllister will start the first game, which starts at 12:05 p.m. Bauer’s start will then take place about 20 minutes after the first game ends.

ABJ's new baseball writer with his post game notes:

Eight final thoughts for the eight runs it took for the Tribe to beat the Padres tonight.

1. It's pretty surprising "this" is being said about "this" player, but in many respects Nyjer Morgan really has his head on straight. Yes, there's the Tony Plush business. But he also said tonight, in a moment when he could have played himself up following another great game, that he's just "holding down the fort" until Bourn returns. He gets it. He also said he feels comfortable because he knows what type of player he is, so he's a guy who understands his role on this team fully.

2. He first joked that he hopes his Plush persona stays on vacation. But then he later joked that he's around and made a hushing motion. So, buckle your seatbelts.

3. From the top of the order to the bottom, this team can hit. [Asdrubal?] David Murphy went 2-for-3 tonight with a home run and four RBI, and he did it from the No. 9 position in the lineup. Yan Gomes, from the No. 8 slot, went 2-for-3 with a double. Lonnie Chisenhall, hitting seventh, "only" went 1-for-4 and he also had two hard-hit outs. Murphy was awful this spring but said he felt something the other day in the cage and it's carried over to his last two games.

4. This team continues to get to pitchers because it doesn't offer any kind of a break in the lineup. Jason Kipnis talked yesterday about how he loves that, and how other clubs around the league love the Indians' lineup for that. Having the .330-hitting, 45-home-run-bopper in the middle of the order is much sexier. But if the Indians' No. 8 and No. 9 hitters are hitting half this good for the season, the Tribe offense will be just fine even without a Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, etc.

5. Corey Kluber allowed four singles to open the first four innings, but outside of that was very, very efficient, which is becoming his mantra. He's a darling of the SABR fans for a reason—and tonight he had eight K's and no walks. If you believe in those numbers, Kluber should look much more like he did tonight than in his first start against Oakland.

6. This has gotten a little lost but Nick Swisher has not been very good defensively at first base. That wasn't expected of him, but it's still evident. There have been hits that should have been stopped had he been in position, there have been plays where he should have gone to the bag. It's very easy to nit-pick and hindsight is 20/20. But with another error tonight, it's just something that's happening.

7. Vinnie Pestano might not be long for the minor leagues, or worse. The guy has worked his butt off to get back to where he was, but it's not there. Tonight he was hit hard again and turned an easy Tribe win into what was actually a tense last out, as John Axford got the final out with the tying run at the plate. Francona said after the game, simply, that when Pestano is making a mistake he's paying for it right now. Francona also said he didn't want to talk about his velocity every night.

8. Xavier Nady's bomb off Pestano just landed.

Unsurprising development:

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Indians have optioned struggling reliever Vinnie Pestano to the minor leagues.
Pestano was sent to Triple-A Columbus on Wednesday, a day after he gave up a homer and allowed three runs in the ninth inning of a win over San Diego. Pestano has a 13.50 ERA in three appearances.

Pestano made Cleveland's opening-day roster following a rough 2013 season. He started last season as the club's primary setup man but went on the disabled list with a sore elbow in May and was demoted to the minors in July. Pestano has had a noticeable loss of velocity.

The Indians recalled starter Trevor Bauer and reliever Chen-Chang Lee before playing a doubleheader against San Diego.
Bauer will start the second game and be sent back to Columbus afterward. Lee spent one day with the club last week when the Indians played a doubleheader in Oakland.