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He can run: eighth in the league with 21 stolen bases this year.
He ranks first among active players in career stolen bases, second in triples and fifth in runs scored. He has more career hits than Manny Ramirez, Ken Griffey Jr. and Joe DiMaggio. He's a winner: He has played in 10 League Division Series, six League Championship Series and two World Series.
Who cares if he's 40 years old?
The Indians need Kenny Lofton. And now they have him.
For what is believed to be the first time ever, the Indians have acquired a player three times in his career, sending minor-league catcher Max Ramirez to Texas on Friday in exchange for a player they acquired the first time through a trade with Houston in December of 1991 - when Grady Sizemore was 9 years old.
Friday night, the Indians took the field with the franchise's two most exciting center fielders of the last 50 years playing side-by-side.
Sizemore in center, Lofton in left.
Vroom-vroom!
For a team with a desperate need for speed, a left-handed hitting outfielder and a chippy, cocksure, fierce competitor, Lofton is a perfect fit.
Perfect.
Let the division-slash-wild-card race begin. The Indians are better today than they were 48 hours ago. He may not be the game-changing, blinding bullet-train bundle of dynamite who ignited the muscle-bound 1995 Indians lineup that bulldozed its way to the American League pennant, but Lofton can be a very valuable role player down the stretch for this year's edition.
Lofton - hitting .303 with 62 runs scored - should certainly add more juice to the Tribe's lineup than has the ho-hum David Dellucci/Jason Michaels - a combined .256 with 54 runs - left-field platoon.
Lofton, in fact, seemed like an ideal fit for the Indians' outfield for the last two years. Certainly better than the two free-agent outfielders signed by the Tribe last winter, Dellucci and Trot Nixon.
"We pursued Kenny in the offseason, but at the time he wanted to play center field," said Tribe general manager Mark Shapiro. "Now his priority is he wants to win."
Friday was a good day for the man who has 171 more stolen bases than any other player in Indians history (Lofton: 450, Omar Vizquel: 279). In going from Texas to Cleveland, Lofton gained 13 games in the win column and a nice ride on the express elevator, going from last place in the AL West to first place in the wild-card race.
"You've got to put a little old with the new. I guess that's where I fit in," said Lofton.
The addition of Lofton gives Manager Eric Wedge all kinds of intriguing lineup options, including the one he used Friday night, with Sizemore and Lofton hitting 1-2.
How bad do the Indians need Lofton's speed? Sizemore and Lofton entered the game with a combined 48 stolen bases. The next six hitters in the Indians' lineup combined had six.
Wedge says he'll keep Sizemore in the leadoff spot for now, but it wouldn't be a surprise at some point to see Lofton hitting leadoff and Sizemore dropped into the No. 3 spot. Wedge himself has said in the past that Sizemore could hit in the middle of the order, but not until the Indians had a viable alternative to hit leadoff.
They do now.
A Lofton, Casey Blake, Sizemore, Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner top of the order would have more left-right balance than Friday night's configuration, in which three of the Indians' first four hitters were left-handed.
It will take some time for Lofton to adjust to playing left field every day for the first time in his career - hold your breath the first time a ball is hit into the gap between two speedy center fielders in full gallop - but it beats the alternative.
And the alternative for much of this season was Sizemore roaming almost from foul line to foul line under his "catch whatever you can get to" marching orders.
Beyond that, though, the acquisition of Lofton brings more electricity to the lineup. It's a sign the front office is, with the non-waiver trading deadline approaching, willing to be aggressive and take on payroll in order to make the most of this postseason window.
Lofton cost the Indians Ramirez, a catcher who is an accomplished minor-league hitter with marginal defensive skills. He was acquired in the Bob Wickman white-flag trade of a year ago.
"We like Ramirez and are disappointed to lose him,'' said Shapiro. "But we're willing to give up players we like if it increases our chances to win. We don't take lightly the chance we have to make it to the playoffs. That doesn't mean we'll trade anyone. But we've got to be more open to discussions on any of our guys."
Especially if it helps create more room for some vroom.
