Indians Waste Small Funds on Mike Redmond

In a very small move that interests me only because I like to keep track of the Twins, their long-time back-up catcher just signed a one-year deal with the Tribe for a guaranteed $850,000 with minor performance incentives for games started.  $850,000 is about as little as you can pay for a veteran player with Redmond’s experience, but it’s still too much for what the Indians are getting.

Mike Redmond’s OPS numbers the last three years were .699 in ‘07, .654 in ‘08 and .588 in ‘09.  At 39 years of age in 2010, the odds of Mike turning that around are not good.  Signing a catcher his age with a sub .600 OPS to anything more than a minor league deal, doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Perhaps the Indians think he’ll be a good influence on a young, rebuilding team, particularly the young pitchers, but I’d rather see the Indians give that roster spot to another young player.  If I had to bet on it, I’d wager that Redmond will be out of the major leagues for good by the 2010 All-Star Break.