The Indians had until the week of Christmas made only marginal moves; they made a couple of waivers claims/trades, signed a handful of players to NRIs, and selected a player in the Rule 5 Draft. And that made sense, given how little the projected 25-man roster changed after the World Series ended. But the Indians did lose one everyday player from the roster (Mike Napoli), leaving an open spot in the lineup they’d need to replace. As the free agent slugger market unfolded, it looked to me as if the replacement for Mike Napoli would end up being Mike Napoli, and that wouldn’t have been terrible, but what actually did happen was something rather unexpected.
The Week in Transactions
