The Indians Clinched The AL Central, And The Party Is Wherever Mike Napoli Is
So fucking happy for Mike Napoli. I don’t wanna say that the Red Sox threw him away like trash — they didn’t — but they definitely gave up on him. In doing so, they at least tried to give him a chance to make a difference for a playoff team by trading him back to Texas, where he hit .295 with a .908 OPS in 35 games, compared to .207 with a .693 OPS in Boston last year.
The last time I saw him was back in November. He came back to Boston to move some of his stuff out of his place, which he owns, and doesn’t rent. That’s how much he loved it in Boston. At the time, he wasn’t really sure where he was going to end up. I asked him about his future, and all he knew was that, despite a disappointing finish to his tenure with the Red Sox, he had plenty left in the tank, and knew that he could still help a team win.
The Cleveland Indians came calling in January, and they offered him $7 million on a one-year deal. Nap took it, and last night, he celebrated an AL Central division title with the Tribe. We’ve got less than a week remaining in the regular season, and Napoli’s 34 home runs and 101 RBI are both career highs, as are his 258 total bases. Napoli is the first Indians player to reach 100 RBI in a season since Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez did in 2007, which is the last time that Cleveland has won the AL Central.