Sorry it took me a while to post my thoughts on this, but I wanted to find out some more information before I made any comments. For those of you who have followed the Indians for the last several years, I think it's safe to say that we have all been rooting for the man formerly known as Fausto Carmona to succeed and be our ace. Over the years he has shown flashes of the Cy Young contender that he was early in his career, and at other times he would be rocked worse Wild Thing's 'Eliminator' pitch. However this situation comes at a time where the Indians need Carmona to be at his best. A good Carmona would almost certainly mean the Tribe would be contenders in the AL Central, and potentially a dangerous team in the playoffs with a rotation of Jimenez, Masterson, and Carmona, all of whom has Cy Young caliber stuff when they are on.
However, Fausto was caught in the Domincan Republic and arrested for attempting to file false information to obtain a work visa for the United States. Apparently he had been paying a family for the fake credentials, and they recently asked for more money from him, to which he declined. The other large factor, beyond just his name being falsified (and many people who wear Carmona jersey's will need to get Heredia printed on them instead), is that he also lies about his age, rather than being 28 he is actually 31. Now for purposes of this season, that wouldn't mean much. However it's a huge issue when you factor in that this a guy that could have signed a long-term extension if he pitched solid for a full season. Teams normally don't like to offer long contracts to up-and-down pitchers who are over 30 years old. If he was 28, then that's a different story. The Indians do hold club options on him for the next two seasons, but that of course is up in the air now too. Will the Indians void his current contract and $7million salary? Will Carmona even be able to make it back into the United States to be a factor this season?
Carmona has already been released on bail in the Dominican Republic and has expressed regret and asked for forgiveness from his family, friends, fans, and the Cleveland Indians organization. I agree with Stephanie Liscio's point on the ESPN blog in her article "Now that the Shock has worn off..." (http://itspronouncedlajaway.com/?p=1544) when she described the poverty that these Dominican Republic athletes come from and have to persevere through to provide a solid home for their family. Bottom line, Carmona has major league talent, he has major league heart, he doesn't get in off the field trouble(other than this incident), and he is a homegrown Cleveland Indian so I am incredibly bias as I continue to want to see him succeed. The only thing that troubles me is the false age issue. Carmona could have caused some unintentional team mismanagement had he signed a long-term deal with either the Tribe or somebody else at this point in his career when rather than pitching in his prime, he is beginning the downslide of his abilities.
The Tribe have taken some preliminary actions by trading a young bullpen arm Zach Putnam to the Rockies for Kevin Slowey yesterday. Slowey provides some depth to the MLB rotation, and should be able to fill in for Carmona if he can beat out David Huff and Jeanmar Gomez for the 5th spot in spring training. More on this trade in a future post about off-season moves.
In closing, there are still many questions to be answered. The organization seems equally as stunned as the fans do about this news. My overall thoughts is that I don't know when or if we will see a Heredia Cleveland Indians uniform on the mound next, but like his up and down results from start to start, I am rooting for him, and hoping that he turns this incident into a positive story when all is said and done.
- Daniel Hahn
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