John Blanchette: Spokane Indians trying to stay competitive as the major league landscape changes again around them

The last time the Spokane Indians looked in the market for a new major league partner, it could have been an episode of The Bachelor.

The club had ended an eight-year marriage to the Kansas City Royals as a talent supplier. The quality of the game had deteriorated so dramatically that even a customer base obsessed with the nightly weather report rather than the leaderboard had noticed. The number of visitors has decreased by 15% in two years.

But the Indians had half a dozen other substitutes, most notably the Texas Rangers.

“I thought they might send two people to talk to us,” said Indian owner Bobby Brett. “Five showed up. We had dinner at my house and John Hart, the manager, rings the doorbell and has a dozen red roses for Cathy, my wife.

“She says, ‘Hey, you have to go with these guys.’ ”

Man, were those the days?

Major League Baseball is now telling the minor league operator whether it is part of a farm system at all, how big the locker room needs to be, which league it is playing in, how many games are on the schedule and who will be sending the players – and for them next 10 years.

Where did all the flowers go

So the thing is, the Indians open the season six weeks earlier than it has been 40 years and suddenly they’re married to the Colorado Rockies rather than the Rangers.

Is that such a big scream? It depends on.

The Rangers were Spokane’s major league association for 17 years. 91 of their Native American alums climbed to the majors by 2020, excluding those sent back on various rehab missions or position changes. A few fans could follow this pipeline and maybe a small brand identity is established – but not so many that Rangers caps were more than Indian caps on game nights in the stands. Or Mariners hats.

The bigger problem is the game in front of them – and as the long-ago divorce from the Royals demonstrated, this can become an issue. A warm night and cold beer might put people on the pitch, but having them there for nine innings is also a goal.

With the Rangers, Spokane reached the Northwest League playoffs for the past four years and won championships in three of the first six years of their partnership. If there was a break in between, 2012 was just a bad year.

“You want to be competitive,” said Brett. “That doesn’t mean ordering rings every year. It just means competitive. “

Probably the Indians’ 1-4 start in 2021 needs to be mentioned here, along with the caveat that it is a 120-game season.

And let’s add the annual reminder that big league organizations are not particularly invested in the number of pennants their small league teams hang. MLB’s farm directors track the averages of the strokes, not the games behind them – some more closely than others.

“We’re a design and development team,” said Chris Forbes, the Rockies’ assistant director of player development, who was responsible for the first Native American home stand in town. “That is the dynamic that we need to have.”

It is therefore not encouraging to hear that the organization is generally divided on evaluating its designs and developments. Baseball America ranks 25th in the Rockies’ farming system and has been in the bottom third of the franchise for four years. The only top 100 prospect per MLB pipeline is 19-year-old outfielder Zac Veen. Spokane has five of the ten best prospects in the Rockies – maybe good for the Indians, but also that they’re three or more years away from helping the big club.

“We have to fill the gap in the upper levels,” admitted Forbes.

“Whatever you think, the leaderboard is worth it, you will eventually complete a great class. Last year we were in the playoffs, 2018, we had five domestic starting pitchers and half of our starting line-up was domestic. “

Unfortunately the rotation crater in 2019 and has not stabilized. The Rockies also lost third baseman Nolan Arenado in a terrible deal and seem destined for Shortstop Trevor Story to continue one way or another. There’s an interim general manager – Forbes’ old scouting boss, Bill Schmidt – and little help on the immediate horizon for a struggling team.

“But I think we’re on the rise,” said Forbes.

What about competitive? Well, of the 25 teams the Rockies have placed above the rookie league in the past five years, only three have made it to the playoffs.

On the other hand, baseball is notorious for the ebb and flow of the tide.

In Spokane, Michael Toglia hit his fourth homer in five games on Saturday night and rookie Karl Kauffmann threw five innings without hits. And it’s good or bad anyway – in the newly launched small leagues, all partner contracts have a term of 10 years.

“That’s not a problem with us,” said Brett. “We like long-term situations. But by nature our people do not change with the Indians. The change is made at the level of the major league. And in five, ten years, the people we deal with could be different. “

Because if you don’t win at this level, it’s not a rose bed.