Indians Pick Up Option on Jimenez, Decline Hafner, Hernandez

Indians Pick Up Option on Jimenez, Decline Hafner, Hernandez

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On Wednesday the Cleveland Indians decided it was time to move on from the Travis Hafner and Roberto Hernandez era, while exercising the option on Ubaldo Jimenez who they acquired in a trade in 2011 from the Colorado Rockies.

While his time in Cleveland hasn’t been what the Indians expected, manager Terry Francona and general manager laid out why they feel keeping Jimenez was the right move.

“We’ve talked about every player extensively,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “Obviously, Ubaldo is a huge part of that. We’re looking forward to him kind of returning to form — the reason the Indians traded for him.”

“It stems from our belief that he will be better moving forward than he was this past season,” Indians general manager Chris Antonetti said. “But there was also a buyout associated with the option. So the net value was $4.75 million. Had we declined the option, and tendered him a contract through the arbitration process, he would’ve earned far more than $4.75 million.”

Jimenezs’ time with the Indians he’s posted a record of 13-21 with an ERA of 5.32. He’s been on a constant decline since his Cy Young Award performance season in 2010 when he went 19-8 with a 2.88 ERA.

The Indians decided to not pick up the contract options on Travis Hafner and Roberto Hernandez. In 2011 he played 94 games batting .280 and hit 13 home runs, but was hampered by injuries and he only played 66 games due to injury and batted .228 on the season after another injury riddled season. Hafner who was paid a hefty sum was supposed to be the cornerstone of their offense, but since signing his big contract in 2007 has not played more than 118, and hasn’t hit more than 16 home runs in a season.

Roberto Hernandez bka Fausto Carmona was thought to be a serviceable replacement to the loss of CC Sabathia was never able to recapture the magic that saw him go 19-8 in 2007.  Hernandez  after 2007 never posted a winning record in a season with his second best season as an Indian being 13-14. His average ERA since the 2007 season was 5.66. Hernandez only appeared in 3 games after having his visa revoked. In January he was arrested in the Dominican Republic for providing a false identity, and  wasn’t able to obtain a visa until late July and had to serve a three week suspension from MLB.

Source Cleveland Indians

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