Wedge seems resigned to his fate

AVON (AP) — Sitting on the gym stage, Indians manager Eric Wedge looked across at the bleachers packed with screaming elementary school kids and observed the future.

He’s not so sure about his own.

With two weeks left in Cleveland’s disastrous season, Wedge does not yet know if he’ll be back for an eighth season and the final year of his contract.

That decision rests with Indians owners Larry and Paul Dolan, who along with general manager Mark Shapiro, are expected to determine the fate of Wedge and his staff shortly after the Oct. 4 season finale in Boston, where coincidentally Wedge played briefly for the Red Sox.

Wedge, of course, would like to return.

“I’ve always been a big believer in trying to finish what you start,” the 41-year-old Wedge said Monday. “But I also understand the situation we’re in, the business end of where we are and the realities of where we are. That’s not for me to decide. I’ve been here for a long time and I’m very vested in this organization, so you always want to see it through.

“We’ll see what happens.”

The Indians are staggering to the finish. They entered the week on a season-high eight-game losing streak and are 3-16 in September. It’s not the conclusion Wedge had hoped for, and not the kind of last-lap kick his teams have mustered in previous seasons, but he’s not worrying about what he can’t control.

“This has been difficult, but it’s harder for everybody outside of baseball that’s around me,” he said. “It’s part of it. I understand that.”

The Indians came into 2009 expected to do more than contend in the AL. Some experts even picked them to make the World Series. But an atrocious start was followed by key injuries, and Cleveland was out of the race by early June. The sudden slide led to ownership’s decision to trade some of the club’s top assets, including third baseman Mark DeRosa, first baseman Ryan Garko, pitcher Carl Pavano, reigning Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee and All-Star catcher Victor Martinez.

Once this season was surrendered, Wedge, the AL’s manager of the year in 2007, was charged with two goals: win and develop younger players.

“We felt if we could get healthy, stay healthy and the guys we were counting on in the bullpen to step up into their roles, then we would have a pretty good shot at it, but none of that happened,” Wedge said. “And then there were the trades we made and I understand they were out of necessity, but that’s tough.”

The feeling was that if the Indians ended the year with a flourish, Wedge’s job would be saved.

Now, it appears the team may have no choice but to go in a new direction.

Closer Kerry Wood, who signed a two-year, $20 million free agent contract with Cleveland in December, said the players should be the ones held accountable for the Indians’ plunge.

“It’s not the coaching staff,” Wood said. “They do what they can for us to be better. They suggested adjustments and we didn’t make them. We have nobody to blame but ourselves for where we are.”

The Indians are rebuilding again, and soon, they may be doing it with a new manager.

“I know that sometimes change has to be made for change’s sake,” Wedge said. “You’ve got to be professional about it. You’ve got to understand it and I do.”