Major League Baseball is back, as Monday night the league moved forward with a 60-game season for the 2020 season. Now that it will be official in late July, let's look at the new faces on the Indians roster for this season, as well as the new rules around baseball that will make for an interesting upcoming season
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00:00Hi, everyone. I'm Matt Lodi with Cleveland Baseball Insider here on SI.com.
00:05Well, it became official on Monday night, Major League Baseball releasing a statement
00:09that a 60-game regular season schedule will take place with, of course, expanded playoffs.
00:14There's a couple of small hurdles that still have to be overcome, but it sounds like everything is on track
00:18and that we will definitely have baseball in 2020.
00:22When the Cleveland Indians take the field in 2020, there's going to be some new faces.
00:26Let's talk about those today.
00:27First, there's Cesar Hernandez. He'll probably have the biggest impact of these new faces.
00:31He's the second baseman the team picked up in free agency from the Philadelphia Phillies.
00:36Hernandez last year and the season before played in 161 games each and hit nearly .280 last season.
00:42He is a quality, durable second baseman who's been in the league enough years.
00:45He knows what to do and should be just fine at second base on a daily basis for Jason Kipnis,
00:50who's now in Chicago.
00:52There's Domingo Santana, who hit 20-plus home runs last year with the Seattle Mariners.
00:57Santana should provide some pop in an ever-changing outfield that the Indians are going to have to decide
01:02on who plays on a daily basis.
01:04Santana's a seven-year vet. He's also played in Milwaukee, where he hit 30 home runs back in 2017.
01:10That would be a welcome sight for the tribe in 2020.
01:14There's also Sandy Leon, backup catcher from the Boston Red Sox, who the team acquired this last offseason.
01:19He'll take the place of Kevin Pawlicki, who was not brought back to the team's roster.
01:23Leon is a pretty good defensive backup catcher. The problem is he doesn't hit very well.
01:27He hit under .200 last year with Boston, but should provide some relief in this 60-game schedule for Roberto Perez.
01:35And finally, there's utility infielder Christian Arroyo, who came over from Tampa Bay.
01:39Arroyo has had injury problems the last couple of years, but the Indians really like what they see out of him,
01:44and he should make the roster.
01:46Outfielder Delano DeShields comes to the tribe in the trade for Corey Kluber.
01:50DeShields has some speed, but Indians fans don't think he's going to hit enough.
01:54But trust me, he's going to get a chance to play in this outfield, as the team really likes him,
01:58and they've wanted a trade for him for a while now.
02:00That's just a couple of the new faces for the tribe in 2020 for this 60-game schedule,
02:05which should start at the end of July.
02:07For Cleveland Baseball Insider on SI.com, I'm Matt Lodi.