Cleveland Indians Sign Reliever Tom Gorzelanny to Minor League Deal

The Cleveland Indians continue to add to the spring invite group, signing left-hander Tom Gorzelanny to a minor league deal.

The Cleveland Indians are going to have a full dugout and bullpen this spring in Goodyear if they keep up this pace. The Tribe signed veteran reliever Tom Gorzelanny to a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training. Rumor is the team has run out of invites and is handing out “IOU’s” at this point. I’m kidding of course, but it seems to be the biggest “commitment” the team is making this winter.

Gorzelanny spent 2015 as a member of the Detroit Tigers but struggled mightily in his 39 1/3 innings. After a strong stretch from 2012-2014 between the National and the Brewers, Gorzelanny seemed to hit a wall–or in the case of right-handed hitters, they hit him. After holding lefties to a slash of  .219/.317/.347, righties destroyed him to the tune of a .349/.454/.610.

Once a starter for the Pirates, he won 14 games in 2007. After being traded to the Cubs in 2011, he spent one more season as a starter before being transitioned to the bullpen. A breakout 2007 with the Nationals showed he still had something left, and then signed with the Brewers who used him primarily in relief with the occasional spot start.

The Indians enter 2016 with their likely left-handed reliever being Kyle Crockett and Giovanni Soto–as of now at least. So Gorzelanny will have an adequate shot of making the roster if he can at least reclaim the ability to neutralize some right handers at the plate. Otherwise he falls under the “Loogy” (lefty one out guy) category, and there’s just not as much value there.

Next: Has the Tribe improved at all?

This won’t be the last signing with an invite to Spring Training, so if you haven’t be sure to check your mailbox. At the rate the Indians are handing these out, you may just have missed yours in the mail.