he spent the entire 1992 season in the minors and on march 30, 1993 he was released by houston and signed with the cleveland indians. in his first season with cleveland, he went 3–4 over 10 games, and in 1994, went 5–2 with a 4.57 era in 14 games. grimsley is known for his leading role in the 1994 bat burglary involving albert belle and an allegedly corked bat that was taken away by umpires for examination by the league. grimsley was the player who crawled through a comiskey park air conditioning duct to reach the room where the confiscated bat had been secured. he took the corked bat and replaced it with a clean bat. the incident made espn.com's "biggest cheaters in baseball" list at number 4. the next season, he was used mostly as a reliever, making only two starts. following the season, on february 14, 1996 he was traded to the angels.