Cleveland acquired Crisp from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for a minor league pitcher on Wednesday. In return for the veteran outfielder, the Indians will send 31-year-old reliever Colt Hynes to the Oakland Athletics.
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Crisp spent parts of four seasons with the Indians (2002-05), hitting.287 with 35 homers and 176 RBIs in 415 games finished tied for fifth in the American League with 42 doubles in 2005 prior to being traded to the Boston Red Sox that offseason. Thanks to the trade, he goes from playing on a last-place club to the Indians, who enter Wednesday’s games leading their division by 4½ games.
One of Crisp’s goals this year was to get to 130 games played, which would trigger a 2017 contract worth $13 million. This season, the league’s 25th, which begins on October 11 and runs through the championship game on November 19, is once again pulling out all the stops. Last night saw the Tribe finish off a sweep of the lowly Twins, keeping the Indians 4.5 games ahead of the Detroit Tigers, who just swept the Chicago White Sox. Crisp is a.266 career hitter with 128 home runs, 631 RBI and 306 stolen bases in 1566 career games in 15 seasons.
He will report to Triple-A Nashville, with infielder Joey Wendle being called up to fill Crisp’s vacant roster spot on the A’s. It’s borderline that he’ll get there either with the A’s or Indians, who want him as a part-time player.
“Those three years playing in the postseason was a special time”, Crisp said.
Crisp played a pivotal role in the turnaround of the A’s at the beginning of the decade. However, with the money he was going to pay and his fading production, it made sense for the A’s to keep him benched and not set themselves up to pay him $13 million.
“Coco was great; he did a lot here in Oakland on the field and with fans and he was a great teammate, ” Kendall Graveman said in the wake of pitching seven innings and taking his ninth loss of the season. “Nobody begrudges him saying what he feels”.
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“The way he’ll likely be used here won’t get him enough plate appearances or games to have that option vest, and Coco was good with that”, Antonetti said. He’ll be fighting for a fourth outfielder position between Abraham Almonte, Brandon Guyer and others when the rosters expand to 40 players in September.
