IL1 Indianapolis Indians

Roster Movement Twofold in Esposito's Second Season

May 30, 2019 - International League (IL1)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


Think the Indiana weather keeps changing? Get a load of the Indians' roster so far this season. The airport doesn't have this many people coming and going.

In Pittsburgh, the Pirates keep getting hurt. That means replacements going up from Indianapolis, who must then be replaced by new faces, mostly from Double-A Altoona. And then when the injured are healed, it all flows in reverse. Not to mention the platoon of Pirates who have had layovers here for rehab assignments. At times like these, a baseball organization is the same as a table of dominoes.

As of Wednesday, there had been 73 Indianapolis player transactions this season. In April and May of 2018, there were 42.

From May 25-28 alone, there were 18 transactions. There were 15 in all of April a year ago.

Six major league players on rehab assignments played for the Indians all of 2018. There have already been 10 this season.

The Indians have already sent six players up for their major league debuts. There were nine all last season.

With all this movement, manager Brian Esposito has already used nine different starting pitchers, 14 designated hitters, 12 left fielders and seven shortstops. The pivotal No. 3 spot in the batting order? Eleven different players have hit third. Twelve have hit sixth.

And still, the Indians have kept winning. First place by ever-changing committee.

"That's a credit to the men in that room," Esposito was saying. "They show up every day. I think they understand in order to be that guy who goes up and gets the opportunity, you've got to go do your job. It all boils down to doing your job."

This is Esposito's second season as the Tribe manager. He thought the first year was busy with player movement, but that was just a warmup for the Great Migration of 2019. In both seasons, he lost a player from his roster before the Indians even stepped on the field for the opener.

"This has been quite a fascinating year," he said. "Fascinating and unfortunate, because you never want to see the injuries pile up like they have been."

Making out the lineup card can be an adventure. The Indians took the field Tuesday night against Charlotte with only one bench position player. Good thing nobody got hurt. They had their starting pitcher scratched three consecutive games on the most recent road trip, as the Pirates kept calling up arms. Take Memorial Day in Columbus. Indy suddenly needed a starter and the call went out to Cam Vieaux, who was supposed to pitch that day for Altoona. In Maine. Not exactly a quick drive to Ohio.

"He left Portland, Maine probably around 6 o'clock in the morning, so he had to be up around 4:30 to pitch a 2 o'clock game for us," Esposito said. "He pitched really well and got us a win."

And so it's gone, with never a dull moment. Restless rosters are a way of life in Triple-A, but it can still complicate the existence of the manager. Esposito went through a few issues.

"No. 1, it gives someone an opportunity to go up to the big leagues, and it also changes some of the dynamics down here, because you're always having some turnover, you're having another player maybe coming from Double-A, or waiver claim or trade to fill the void. So players are getting acclimated to a new player. Then when you have multiple players coming in, the revolving door effect can impact a club on many different levels.

"There are a lot of emotions that go into play. You've got to look at it as the emotion from a guy from here that's going up, whether it's his first time or he's going back to the big leagues, where most of these guys aspire to be. So that's obviously on the positive side. You have the negative side of a player that's coming back down from Pittsburgh that either didn't have the success that he wanted to have or that it was a decision that was based on availability because of injuries, numbers, having an option on a contract. So there's emotion involved with that. Usually that's on the disappointed side, sometimes it can be on the angry side, sometimes it can be on the deflated side. Couple that with the emotions you have of the players who are already in the clubhouse that were passed over - it wasn't me, why is it not me?"

And lest we forget...

"With all of this going on, you have a game to play and you're asking guys to go out there and compete and concentrate and be where their feet are. But they are human beings. They have lives outside of baseball, they have families they have to take care of, they have children they have to feed. It's money, and it's pride -- especially if they've never been there before. So it does a lot to a clubhouse, it does a lot to a team, it does a lot to the chemistry, it does a lot to the performance. We've been lucky enough this year that we have a good group of guys who've been able to stay where their feet are and understand the situation and go out and play."

Esposito has had to be something of a juggler with a roster that keeps changing size. He must figure out if he can keep playing a man, when he'd rather be resting him. Or what to do with a sometimes-depleted bullpen.

"You've got to deem when enough is enough. Am I going to extend this guy and drain every last drop of every pitch out of him, or is that too much?

"We've been very fortunate that we haven't run into snafus. These guys have all showed up and been professionals about how they go about their business. We continue to play good baseball."

And they continue to find a way, through a pace of transactions that could cause a man vertigo.

"At the end of the day from my chair, having been through all those feelings and emotions, there's only one thing you can really do, and that's get on the field and go do your job," Esposito said. "Do it well, separate yourself from everyone else, and try to do it better than the person that either took your spot or the spot that you didn't get. It doesn't always go that way, but from my perspective that's what I would like to see more of.

"Hopefully, the pace stops. You hope everyone gets healthy and there's more movement back down this way, for the sake of our major league club."

Until then, well, a scorecard has become a necessity at Victory Field.

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