Indians trade Shawn Armstrong for bonus pool money

This may not be the explosive activity you’re looking for.

In their first move of the 2017 Winter Meetings, the Cleveland Indians have traded Shawn Armstrong to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for some international bonus pool money.

Armstrong bounced back and forth between Columbus and Cleveland the last couple of seasons. It became a bit of a joke that he’d never get put into games for whatever reason, although this year he saw 24.2 innings of action at the Major League level. It’s difficult to have too much of an assessment of Armstrong given the limited playing time in the majors - 43.1 innings altogether. At AAA over the last 4 season, Armstrong logged a 2.44 ERA with a 1.233 WHIP, 13 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9. If he finds some control to go with his stuff, he might become an excellent reliever. That’s up to Seattle’s coaching staff, now. As he does not have any additional options, he will need to clear waivers before being assigned to a minor league team.

As for the bonus pool money, I have no idea what the Indians are doing. Is it for someone specific that they want the extra cash? Is it just to have a little bit more flexibility? We’ll find out some time in the summer when the international signing window opens. Since the Indians are classified as a small market, low revenue team, the trade boosts their available cap to $6.25 Million. I think that’s how it works, at least.

It’s a small maneuvering trade rather than the blockbuster trade or re-signing we’ve been waiting for. But who knows? Maybe we’ll all be signing praises ten years from now when the cash finally matures into multiple foreign-signed all-stars.