Indians general manager Chris Antonetti leaned against a golf cart outside the visitors’ clubhouse on Tuesday afternoon, explaining that his presence in Texas was not an impromptu visit, but rather a trip planned well in advance.
When the trip was booked, it is safe to assume Antonetti had not planned on watching his ballclub play out the schedule as a last-place team. Cleveland limped to a 6-4 defeat to the Rangers in a game plagued by errors, and sent to the books with Ubaldo Jimenez in the loss column.
“Everybody still has something to play for,” Antonetti said.
That includes Jimenez, who has won just one game since July 14 and has a Major League-leading 16 losses. The right-hander’s latest defeat was hardly helped by the three errors commited behind him, but there is no denying that his showing as a whole this year has been disappointing.
Jimenez, who allowed five runs (two earned) in five innings, has at least three starts left to end this sour season on a positive note.
“I’m not ready to quit,” Jimenez said.
Antonetti — the trigger man behind the five-player trade that brought Jimenez to Cleveland from Colorado last summer — is not yet willing to declare that the club will pick up the pitcher’s $5.75 million club option for 2013. Then again, Antonetti is quick to clump Roberto Hernandez and Travis Hafner into any discussion along those lines.
“We have the time to make that decision on not only him,” Antonetti said, “but obviously Roberto as well, and Hafner to a lesser degree. Those are decisions we’ll make in the offseason.”
Jimenez seems likely to be back for a couple of reasons.
Cleveland’s projected 2013 rotation will be missing Josh Tomlin (Tommy John surgery on his right elbow), while Carlos Carrasco (returning from the same issue) will likely have an innings limit. Hernandez could be gone, Zach McAllister is short on experience and the farm system lacks impact starting pitching prospects at the upper levels.
Former Cleveland first-rounders Drew Pomeranz and Alex White might have fit into that last category, but they were shipped to the Rockies in order to reel in Jimenez.
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