Cleveland Browns: Jimmy Haslam talks about front-office shakeup

Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam probably never thought he'd have Ray Farmer as his general manager when the 2013 season ended.

(Marvin Fong / The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Plenty to talk about from the Browns' front office, the Tribe's pitching and the Cavaliers at the trade deadline.

About the Browns shakeup ...

Jimmy Haslam often says "we have to get this right."

After firing virtually everyone in a key position since becoming owner of the Cleveland Browns on August 2, 2012, there is no more "we" in the discussion. It's "he," as in Haslam.

He wiped out the front office and coaching staff of former owner Randy Lerner. Then a year later, he blew up his own selections for coach/front office. The only one left from when he bought the team is the man who bought the team.

Even if you agree that some massive changes had to be made -- and I do -- there comes a time when the owner has to trust the people that he has hired.

Someone who knows Haslam well told me that despite the major changes in his Pilot Flying J company, three of his top executives remain -- and they have been with him for more than 20 years. The friend insisted Haslam doesn't "like" all the upheaval.

Then it's up to him to make it stop.

He has to embrace new General Manager Ray Farmer and coach Mike Pettine as his guys. There is a sense that both men got their jobs almost by default.

Pettine survived a painful coaching search in which at least 10 candidates were interviewed, and several withdrew. There were seven coaching vacancies at the end of the season, and the former Buffalo defensive coordinator was the last one hired. Then the guys who hired him -- Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi -- were fired.

Farmer was not viewed as a GM candidate until Miami became interested in him in the middle of January. That happened as Haslam was losing confidence in Banner/Lombardi. Suddenly, Haslam seemed to think that he had an alternative already on the payroll.

Farmer turned down the Miami job. He insisted that he had no promises from the Browns about a promotion from his old assistant GM position. Perhaps that's true. But Farmer staying gave Haslam the option of changing the front office. And he did.

But that's something he can't do again, at least not for the next few years.

New Cleveland Browns GM Ray Farmer will work hard to develop a relationship with coach Mike Pettine.

About the new front office ...

1. When Haslam said that Pettine and Farmer will "report directly" to the owner, it may have sounded as if the coach and the general manager are on the same level. That's not the case. Farmer is in charge of assembling the 53-man roster. That means he's the guy picking the players. If there is a debate about which player to draft, Farmer has the ultimate authority.

2. Pettine will be in charge of deciding which 45 players will dress on game day. He obviously will pick the starting lineup, assemble the game plan -- all the usual things done by a coach. The idea is for coach and general manager to work together to assemble the team. As Pettine said, "The coach-GM relationship has to be the best in the building because if they're not on the same page -- not much gets done."

3. Pettine stressed that he's already off "to a great start" with Farmer. Both men are working hard to get to know each other, because Farmer was not part of the interview process. Both men have decided that's not important, let's get to work. Haslam is blessed to have two guys who seem without much ego and realize the tremendous opportunity they've received.

4. What the Browns have done is eliminated Joe Banner's CEO position. Under the old set-up, the general manager, coach and team president Alec Scheiner all reported to Banner -- who reported to Haslam. In many ways, Banner was much like the owner -- and that was necessary as Haslam has major legal problems with Pilot Flying J that was chewing up a lot of his time.

5. With Banner gone, the salary cap will be under general counsel Sashi Brown. Brown spent eight years in Jacksonville, where he handled the salary cap for several seasons.

Former Browns CEO Joe Banner did a lot to help Jimmy Haslam put the franchise in decent shape for 2014.

About Joe Banner ...

1. Because of how things crashed after the 4-12 season and the coaching search, Banner's impact on the franchise won't be noticed. At least, the things that Banner did that worked out well. If the new front office/coaching staff succeeds, it's Banner who hired Farmer, Pettine and Scheiner -- the three men that Haslam is trusting to turn around the team.

2. The 10 draft picks are the results of Banner's deals. Yes, he had input from others on the staff. But Banner had to make the gutsy decision to trade Trent Richardson after the second game of the season to the Colts for a first-round pick. Because Richardson played so poorly in Indianapolis (458 yards in 14 games, 2.9 average), the trade is clearly lopsided in favor of the Browns. But at the time, many fans and media people thought was a terrible idea.

3. The Browns have $46 million on the salary cap as Banner cleaned out a lot of veterans -- most of whom did not play well when moving to new teams.

4. He also renegotiated the lease deal with the city -- and helped get the stadium renovations going. Haslam should be very grateful for that as Banner secured an excellent deal for the franchise.

5. Banner had his weaknesses. He was hurt by the decision to make Mike Lombardi the general manager. How much of the moves to acquire Davone Bess and some of the free agent signings were on Lombardi or Banner? Who knows?

6. Banner made the ultimate decision to fire Rob Chudzinski. I wonder if they had kept the coach, would Banner still be president. Because it was during the coaching search that Haslam became very concerned about the front office.

7. Or had Banner simply made Farmer the general manager from the start (rather than Lombardi), would things have been different? Impossible to know, although Farmer has a much better image with the fan base and most of the local media than Lombardi.

Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel said some very nice things about the Browns, but his real goal is to be drafted by Houston.

About Johnny Manziel ...

Give the Texas A&M quarterback credit for doing his homework on the Browns. Of course, he is represented by LRMR, the group that includes Maverick Carter and works with LeBron James.

Nonetheless, Manziel was smart to tell Houston Chronicle reporter John McClain: "If something happens and it's the Cleveland Browns, I'm going to pour my heart out for the Dawg Pound and try to win a Super Bowl for Cleveland. I don't care if they've had 20 starting quarterbacks since 1999. I'm going to be the 21st and the guy that brought them the Super Bowl."

But 90 percent of the story was about Manziel selling himself to the Texans as the No. 1 pick.

It will be fascinating to see if Houston can resist Manziel, the favorite of the Texans' fan base.

Carlos Santana may be the only player in the big leagues who can catch, play third, play first and bat cleanup.

About Carlos Santana ...

Terry Francona caught my attention when talking about Carlos Santana, and the move to third base.

"He's a guy that hits right in the middle of our order," said the Tribe manager. "If he can play third, or he can catch, that's a skill set that not one person in the league has. And the fact that he's our cleanup hitter, that makes it an unbelievable skill set."

The Tribe has been trying to temper the enthusiasm about Santana playing third, where he played for more than 30 games in the Dominican winter league.

The fact is the Tribe isn't sure what to expect from Lonnie Chisenhall. A year ago, the stories from Goodyear were about about Chisenhall's sensational spring. He batted .400 (24-of-60) under the Arizona sun. At the time, he was 24, and had already been in the majors for parts of two seasons.

So the 2008 first-round pick seemed ready to claim third. But he opened the season batting .214 (20-of-94) and was sent to the minors, where he batted .390 at Class AAA Columbus. Upon his return, he batted a modest .231 with eight homers and 25 RBI in 195 at-bats. In August, he lost the starting job again by batting .145 (9-of-62).

For his career, Chisenhall is a .194 hitter (24-of-124) vs. lefties.

At the very least, the idea of Santana at third vs. lefties is attractive. And Francona is right. Who else bats in the middle of the order and is able to play third, first and catch? Few players with Santana's hitting ability are so willing to try the different positions.

Santana batted .268 (.832 OPS) with 20 homers and 74 RBI. He was a .299 batter vs. lefties.

So Santana can make a huge difference in the lineup playing some third base -- and also catching a few times a week so that Yan Gomes does not wear down.

Michael Brantley is a career .314 hitter with runners in scoring position.

About Michael Brantley ...

There are so many good things about Brantley's four-year contract extension with the Tribe:

1. He received a $3.5 million bonus plus a $1.5 million salary for a total of $5 million in 2014. The rest of the deal is $5 million (2015), $6.5 million (2016) and $7.5 million (2017). That's $25 million over four years. The team has an $11 million option in 2018. Before the extension, Brantley could have been a free agent before the 2017 season. Brantley is only 26.

2. By signing Brantley, the Tribe still has something to show from the C.C. Sabathia deal. In case you were wondering, Matt LaPorta signed a minor-league deal with Baltimore.

3. As Francona said: "He is a prime example of what makes us good." He meant that Brantley would prefer to play center and bat leadoff, but moved to left to make room for Michael Bourn. He hits anywhere in the lineup.

4. "Whether he loves it or hates it, he handles it," Francona said of moving Brantley around in the batting order. More importantly, Brantley always acts as if he's OK with whatever the manager asks. As General Manager Chris Antonetti said, "A lot of guys say, 'I'm a team player, I'm a team player.' Michael lives that every day."

5. It's important that two of the younger players who recently signed contract extensions -- Santana and Brantley -- are so willing to change position in the field and the batting order. That does send the right message to other players.

6. Brantley batted .375 with runners in scoring position. That's high, but his career mark is .314. He is a good clutch hitter.

7. Brantley batted .284 (.724 OPS) with 10 homers and 73 RBI. Those are modest numbers for a left fielder, where you'd like more power. But Francona has talked about the comfort that he feels when Brantley is at bat with runners on base in pressure situations -- and that goes beyond the raw numbers.

8. The Indians believe Brantley should be considered for a Gold Glove in left field. He hasn't made an error in 245 games, and threw out 11 runners last season. If Bourn is injured, Brantley can shift into center and do a good job.

About pitching depth ...

The Indians are backing up one of their reclamation projects with another one.

The first is Shaun Marcum, who was 1-10 with a 5.92 ERA last season. He is recovering from surgery for "thoracic outlet syndrome." He may not be ready until after the season opens, and the Tribe doesn't want to rush him. Marcum has battled other arm problems over the years, but he is effective when healthy. He was 26-15 with 3.59 ERA in 2010-11.

To keep the pressure off Marcum, the Tribe signed Aaron Harang to a minor-league contract. He was 5-12 with a 5.40 ERA for Seattle last season. At the end of the year, he was with the Mets and pitched reasonably well (3.52 ERA in four starts).

In 2011-12, Harang was a combined 24-17 with a 3.62 ERA for the Padres and Dodgers. He is a 35 and has won 110 games, mostly with the Reds.

The Tribe has four rotation spots set: Justin Masterson, Zach McAllister, Corey Kluber and Danny Salazar. Top contenders for the fifth spot are Carlos Carrasco, Josh Tomlin and Trevor Bauer -- probably in that order.

But the Indians want to make sure they have extra starters in case they are hammered with injuries. That explains the presence of Harang and Marcum on minor-league deals.

So if you add up all the names, you have nine starters.

It does not appear that the Cavs will trade Anderson Varejao.

About the Cavaliers' trade needs ...

1. Expect David Griffin to make some type of trade by Thursday's deadline. The interim general manager believes the Cavs are close to a playoff team -- three games out of the final spot thanks to the current four-game winning streak. Griffin also would love to have the interim title taken away from his name, and he works for an owner (Dan Gilbert) who wants his general manager to be aggressive.

2. The Cavs are looking for outside shooting. A big problem is spacing. Teams tend to clog the middle on the Cavs because they don't have a power forward -- or even a small forward -- with 3-point shooting range. Former General Manager Chris Grant saw the same weakness, which is why he tried very hard to sign Kyle Korver and Mike Dunleavy last summer. But free agents took a little less money to sign elsewhere -- Korver with Atlanta, Dunleavy to Chicago.

3. Luol Deng has not been close to 100 percent physically since joining the Cavs. He was bothered by a sore Achilles, and that limited his practice time. He also had the stomach flu and couldn't eat for three days in the final week before the All-Star break. The Cavs hope he can re-energize during the All-Star break, and his Achilles is feeling better.

4. The Cavs are 7-10 with Deng in the lineup. He is shooting .417 (.358 on 3-pointers), averaging 14.6 points and 5.1 rebounds. I may be in the minority, but I think the Cavs need to be patient with Deng and see if he can get somewhat healthy. If they don't re-sign Deng, they will be looking for a player like him as a free agent or in the trade market.

5. The Cavs hoped Alonzo Gee would learn to make 3-pointers from the corner. Didn't happen. Gee shoots .314 on 3-pointers and seldom looks comfortable on those long-range shots. For a while, coach Mike Brown had Earl Clark trying to fill that role, but he's only at .345. Anthony Bennett is .258 on 3-pointers. The NBA average this season is .358.

6. Not sure if he's a target, but the team should talk to Boston about Brandon Bass. The 6-8 forward lacks 3-point range, but is an excellent mid-range jump shooter. He's averaging 10.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and shooting 48 percent. He is under contract through 2014-15 ($6.9 million).

7. The Anderson Varejao/Omer Asik rumors with Houston are back. I'd be shocked if the Cavs made that deal. Also on the shopping list is another big man to help Varejao and Tyler Zeller. It's a long shot, but Asik may fit in that category. But it won't be in a deal for Varejao.

8. The Cavs are excited that Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters are making a better effort to play together. The front office underestimated how difficult it would be for them to blend into the same backcourt because both so dominated the ball in college.

9. Waiters and Irving went out with one of the Cavs' coaches to shootaround together early Friday afternoon before the start of all the All-Star events. They have been doing things like that to build their relationship.

10. I doubt the Cavs will deal Waiters, unless it's in a monster deal. They believe he is just starting to understand how to play the NBA game. The guard from Syracuse is in only his second NBA season. Waiters shoots about 43 percent from 3-point range when he simply catches the ball and shoots it -- no dribbles. When he takes even one dribble, it drops to near 30 percent.