CLEVELAND (92.3 The Fan) – With the addition of Casey Kotchman last week as their new first basemen, the Indians have officially gone on the defense for the upcoming 2012 season.

The club spent the months of the offseason looking far and wide for a slugger from the right side that would help the offense, but after getting turned down a number of times, the club went for the best they could, which is how they wound up with Kotchman.

It’s been by design from day one with pitchers like Justin Masterson, Derek Lowe and Ublado Jiminiez, all groundball pitchers, that the Indians were going to need a steady defense.

With Kotchman’s addition, they got the best defensive first basemen in the division, and possibly the American League.

Kotchman has a career .998 fielding percentage, the highest for a first basemen with at least 700 games. With knowing that there’s going to be plenty of ground balls in the infield, grabbing a guy that has less errors in his career than Indians first basemen had all of last season is a solid move.

The Indians 2012 infield lines up like this – Carlos Santana at catcher, Kotchman at first, Jason Kipnis at second, Asdrubal Cabrera at short and Lonnie Chisenhall or Jack Hannahan at third.

It’s a defense that will help out when games are on the line, and teams are going to have to mash to beat the Indians, something that won’t be easy with the starting pitching staff.

Applaud the Tigers all you want for grabbing Prince Fielder, and yes, it was a big move after losing Victor Martinez, but remember it also moves Miguel Cabrera, who has awful range, to third.

Detroit will enter the spring as the favorites to win the division again, as well they should. Don’t though overlook what the Kotchman moves means for the 2012 Indians.

It may have not been the big signing that a lot of fans had hoped for, but it sets the tone for the Indians to have the best defensive infield in the division, and that may pay off when games are on the line in 2012.

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