Whole Lotta Nuttin Goin On

The Tigers have shed $30 million in payroll and picked up some interesting young players (while forcing friend and Tiger fan Paul Sporer to seriously consider seppuku).  The White Sox are talking to Hideki Matsui (or so the evil internet would have you believe).  The Royals have upped their offer to Jason Kendall to two years (snicker).  The Twins are actively seeking a third baseman and have had preliminary talks with free agent Mark DeRosa.  What are the Indians doing?

Nothing.

All right, all right.  I’ll be fair.  They’ve officially hired Jon Nunnally as their hitting coach to complete next year’s coaching staff.  (That was done more by Manny Acta than Mark Shapiro.)  Granted, its probably one of the best things they’ve done this off-season, but so what?  From a player personnel standpoint, they’re doing bubkes.  Even the Orioles, a team that hasn’t done anything in the AL since Davey Johnson left town after 1997, have traded for Kevin Millwood.  They gave up Chris Ray and took on some payroll.

But, no.  The only news coming out of the Tomahawk nest is bad news.

• Once-promising RHP Adam Miller has now gone under his third finger surgery in the past two years and its likely his career is over.
• Top catching prospect Carlos Santana had his hamate bone removed from his right hand and will need about 8-10 weeks to recover and rehab.

The news on Santana could be worse.  The fact that its a bone and not a muscle is good.  While some players have struggled with their power after hamate bone surgery, others have managed to play through it.  Both Dustin Pedroia and Darin Erstad have had their hamate bone removed and came back after about 10 weeks with few side effects.  The good news is that 10 weeks from now puts us right in the midst of pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training.  From the Indians standpoint, there’s no need to rush Santana, particularly when they’ve clearly thrown in the towel on 2010 already.  Let him heal, start the year at AAA and have him join the big club after a few months in the minors.

You have to feel bad for Adam Miller.  Just to get to the point of being a first-round pick requires an exceptional committment that probably extended back to his days in tee-ball.  Now he’s at a point where he can’t do the one thing he’s been doing every day in some form for the past 15-18 years all because of a small ligament in his middle finger that won’t cooperate.  That has to be extremely hard.  Good luck, Adam Miller, in wherever life takes you from here.

We now return you to the Indians, sitting around on their hands to make sure they don’t get cold in Indianapolis.

Tags: Adam Miller, injury, Nunnally, Santana, surgery, winter meetings