The World Series is over, and the long-suffering Boston fans are finally toasting to another championship. The city hadn’t won a title since way back in 2011, when the Bruins hoisted Lord Stanley’s Cup. To think, there were 2-year olds in Boston who hadn’t had the chance to witness a title parade! In all seriousness though, I am happy for Boston winning a title so soon after the horrifying marathon attacks in April of this year. That senseless and meaningless act by two loser brothers who immigrated here to leech off of our benevolent society energized a Boston fanbase that saw the Red Sox stumble to a last place finish in 2012, and a team with fewer stars than we’re used to seeing in Beantown made a somewhat unlikely run to the 2013 title. Only one Sox regular had an OPS over .842 and hit the 30 HR threshold (Ortiz) and their best pitcher (Buchhoz) was hurt for most of the season. I’m not trying to paint the big-market and big-money Sox as some sort of underdog story, but to show that they weren’t THAT much better than this year’s Indians. If the Red Sox could do it in 2013, what’s to stop an improved Indians team from making a similar run in 2014?

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It’s not easy being a small market team in Major League Baseball. It requires extra diligence through every decision, as one wrong move could hamstring the franchise for years to come (coughTRAVISHAFNERcough). It also means that a team like the Cleveland Indians needs to be more creative than their competitors when it comes to getting the most bang for their buck. In other words, it’s imperative that the Indians devise some creative solutions for holes in the roster as opposed to simply spending their way out of trouble.

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Now that the 2013 MLB season is finished, the hot stove rumor mill will heat up and the Indians will likely be mentioned a lot. Contenders tend to get more air time than bottom feeders and the Indians and their somewhat surprising season will have them on the national radar. The Indians certainly have some concerns and some holes to fill.

The weaknesses of last year’s team were pretty clear and positions like third base and right field will dominate the fan base’s offseason intrigue. But, the bullpen, which as we know is Jekyll and Hyde from year-to-year, may be my biggest concern for next season. Last week, I looked at the starting rotation, specifically the situations with Ubaldo Jimenez, Scott Kazmir, and Justin Masterson. As I continue to delve into the offseason question marks, the bullpen may be the most important. The Indians can expect bounce back seasons from Asdrubal Cabrera and Nick Swisher, but can they expect the same from Vinnie Pestano? Can they expect Cody Allen to be as effective? Is Bryan Shaw that good? There are few certainties with bullpens, but that’s especially true of the Tribe’s pen as we enter the 2013-14 offseason.

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Whoaaaaaa! The Indians do not waste any time when the World Series is over. For the third straight year, they've made some big time decisions shortly after the last official game of the MLB season was played.

And one of them is going to dramatically impact their team and their offseason plan. 

So with that, let's skip the gibberish and fluff and get right to the meaty part of our first big piece of offseason news because it is quite tasty.

[FIRE EXTINGUISHER, TRIBE CUT CP]

That's right, the Indians have cut ties with their closer for the past few years, Chris Perez in what was an unexpected first move of the offseason. The writing was pretty much on the wall that Perez would likely not be with Cleveland in 2014, but in the manner that this went down is pretty surprising. The Indians wasted no time in cutting ties with their controversial back-end reliever who is due yet another raise in the arbitration process, his final year of it before free agency.

"He was arbitration-eligible again this year and he was due for another raise," Antonetti said. "We had to make some determinations of where our team needs are and how we're going to allocate our resources moving forward."

And this is why the Indians cut him. It has nothing to do with him getting charged with possession or the comments or anything. This had everything to do with money. You don't pay a closer what could be close to a $10 million dollar salary. And considering he would get that in the process, why would he sign a shorter deal? 

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