With the season opener closing in on Friday evening the Indians on Wednesday cut down the roster by three players, sending pitchers James Hoyt and Jefry Rodriguez along with OF/INF Jake Bauers to Eastlake to the team's alternate training site.
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00:00 For Cleveland Baseball Insider on SI.com, I'm Matt Lodi.
00:04 Now with just two days before the Indians start for real against the Kansas City Royals
00:08 at Progressive Field, today the team made a couple of major roster moves.
00:12 One big surprise in this roster move was that of reliever James Hoyt being sent to Lake
00:16 County.
00:17 Hoyt was a reliever a lot of Indians fans thought was going to make the final roster,
00:21 but instead he's going to get seasoning out in East Lake.
00:24 Don't be surprised though if Hoyt finds his way back to the Indians in 2020.
00:28 Another pitcher that was sent to Lake County includes starter Jeffrey Rodriguez.
00:32 Rodriguez did start a handful of games last year and was not very successful, then suffered
00:37 a shoulder injury and really was shut down for most of the rest of the season.
00:40 He did start a number of games in March for the Indians out in Goodyear, but because of
00:44 an injury was not able to do much in this summer camp.
00:47 Finally in the big one, outfielder Jake Bowers sent to East Lake and Lake County.
00:53 That means that Bowers will start the year in the minor leagues basically if he was playing
00:57 with those minor league teams.
00:59 Bowers is a player acquired for Yandy Diaz last offseason and a lot of Indians fans were
01:03 critical of him last year when he just never really panned out.
01:06 Bowers did have one shining moment in 2019 hitting for the cycle against the Detroit
01:11 Tigers, but again too many strikeouts and too many missed opportunities at the major
01:15 league level.
01:16 Eventually Bowers was sent down last year when the team acquired Fran Mill Reyes and
01:19 Yasiel Puig before the trade deadline and the deal that sent Trevor Bower to Cincinnati.
01:26 But for now Bowers is going to start the year in the minor league camp.
01:29 That probably means that Bradley Zimmer will make the major league roster.
01:34 Again Jake Bowers, James Hoyt and Jeffrey Rodriguez all sent to East Lake, the Indians
01:38 minor league training facility for now.
01:40 For Cleveland Baseball Insider and SI.com, I'm Matt Lodi.