CLEVELAND �� The Indians had been interested in acquiring Jay Bruce for quite some time, but it was a string of injuries to the team's outfielders that finally brought him to Cleveland.
The Indians completed a deal with the New York Mets Wednesday night for Bruce, 30, a power-hitting left-handed outfielder. Their overtures for his services, however, had started well before then, even back to his days with the Cincinnati Reds.
The club, though, decided not to pull the trigger before the non-waiver trade deadline. Teams must always weigh the cost of acquisition against their in-house options. Lonnie Chisenhall was on the disabled list with a calf injury but in the midst of the best offensive season of his career, Brandon Guyer was finally starting to hit after a slow start and Michael Brantley was in the middle of an All-Star season, reducing the need to give up assets.
"We've had some discussions on and off with the different teams Jay has been with over the course of the last few years," Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said Wednesday night. "At different points of time, there have been more obvious roster fits than at others. And so, obviously, we didn't make a trade for him prior to the deadline, because at that point we weren't sure where exactly we'd have the at-bats."
Since the deadline, the Indians' outfield situation has only deteriorated.
First, Chisenhall's calf injury has been slow to heal. As Indians manager Terry Francona put it, sometimes this type of injury can "have a mind of its own," bringing into further question his expected timeline.
Then came the tipping point _ Brantley's placement on the 10-day disabled list with a sprained right ankle Wednesday morning. With the Indians' outlook in the outfield shifted, negotiations were resumed and they led to the deal to acquire Bruce for Ryder Ryan, a right-handed pitching prospect.
"I think what accelerated things for us was Michael sustaining his injury," Antonetti said. "Once that happened, we re-engaged the Mets and were able to work things out."
