Adam Miller, Jose Veras and Anthony Reyes Non-Tendered

The Cleveland Indians have cleared up three more roster spots with the non-tendering of three pitchers.

Alright let's follow the dominoes here before we knock them over.

Starting with Jose Veras.

I'm believing that Veras wanted a contract? Well seriously, I was all for releasing him years ago. But here, after the Hector Ambriz pick up in Rule V, Veras became expendable. We've seen what he's made of and quite frankly, I'd rather take a chance with an unknown that could pan out rather than someone we know all about.

So when Ambriz was picked up, Veras became expendable. Point blank.

Adam Miller's situation got dicey when the latest surgery came about. I think once that happened, the Indians realized what they had to do and that was remove him from the 40 man roster.

Here's the deal with this. Because he was non-tendered, Adam Miller is now a free agent. So this isn't like some other team can come in and claim him off waivers or anything like that and be a jerk to Shapiro.

The Indians can just re-sign Miller to a minor league deal and try and continue this rehab process. I doubt Adam would want to switch clubs in this process considering the Indians have treated him very well and they know him the best. Then again, you never know. But I'd expect Miller to return with a minor league deal. I'm sure he understands the roster crunch.

Here is where I'm a little confused and it has to do with Anthony Reyes.

But I think it has to go along the lines of the Adam Miller thing. They didn't want any other club, which is actually more realistic given that there is a chance he could pitch this year and or still amount to something beyond 2010, snatching him up through waivers.

So they waited till now and just non-tendered Reyes so they could re-sign him to a minor league deal and he can continue the rehab process.

Which makes the most sense.

There is the wonderment of... Why they just didn't outright him from the start and protect Chuck Lofgren. I think you have to realize though the situation they were in. They protected a lot of players and still only lost one. They did pretty damn good as far as making their decisions. So I think they knew what they were doing when they didn't outright Reyes to protect Lofgren. I don't even think Lofgren would be the next in line as far as who they would have protected.

They simply did not know that another team would take Lofgren, so they took that chance. I wouldn't beat them up over it.

So look.. Reyes and Miller will probably be brought back, Veras will go elsewhere unless he gets no bites and the Indians give him a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. All three of these guys could realistically be back and if not, in Veras case, it is no big deal.

We now sit at 37 on the 40 man. The bigger question now becomes, what is it that the Indians will do with those roster spaces?

For once, I think it gives them some room to make roster additions going into next season. You've signed guys like Jason Grilli and Luis Rodriguez. If they win jobs out of spring, then they'll need 40 man spots. This is where those spots come in.

I do not believe the Indians will outright make a move to sign someone (like Jamey Carroll) and automatically give them both a 40 man and a spot on the active roster. I think it will be straight up competition for whatever jobs are left and all the guys in the mix will be guys like Jason Donald or Minor Leauge Free agents looking to hitch on somewhere.

According to Ed Price, the Indians have interest in Carroll and Jamey feels the same way according to his agent, who said the "door hasn't been closed."

I don't believe the interest is heavy. Really maybe out of respect for the guy Carroll is that the Indians would say, "Sure if you are interested, but realize we won't give in to your initial demands."

Why?

Well Jerry Crasnick tweeted something most of us that are fans of this team already know. The Cleveland Indians are essentially broke.

Which makes the idea of signing Marcus Thames a bit of a crazy thought if you ask me. Even if Thames is just looking for at-bats, I don't think we can guarantee him that. He'd be brought in as a backup to LaPorta, just in case, a back up to Hafner, just in case, and maybe the occasional left field appearance.

The San Francisco Giants non-tendered Ryan Garko. If we're still looking for first base insurance, throw him on the list. In fact, I will. Looks like he really wasn't in favor there in San Francisco. But I'd favor bringing him back than bringing in Thames.

Either way, I think both will cost money that the Indians don't have. Which is sad because they probably wouldn't cost that much in baseball realms.

Or... If no one wants them and the baseball realms are REALLY suffering, minor league contracts for those fellas. There are still many free agents out there and teams are just not making moves right now. These guys, who could have been real free agents getting guaranteed deals SOMEWHERE a few years ago, may be relegated to taking whatever contract is offered or settling for a minor league deal somewhere where they think they have a shot to make the roster.

So keep those names in the back of your head if winter drags on and things aren't getting done. It could all go back to those three open roster spots and the Indians bringing in candidates to fill them.

Finally... A new Hey Hoynsie... You could probably add the idea of Ryan Freel to the above list, given someone brought him up. Just the idea though. Other than that, there really isn't much aside from one fan calling Asdrubal Cabrera a "okay shortstop." Really? Come on man.