The Indians and Twins are engaged in trade talks, according to Buster Olney of ESPN.com (via Twitter). The Indians were awarded the claim on Jim Thome, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com. Thome has a full-no trade clause and would prefer to play for the Phillies, however. The Indians are hopeful of working out a deal for Thome, according to Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com.
Thome, 40, played for the Indians from 1991-2002. The newest member of the 600 homer club now has a .248/.357/.485 line with 12 home runs in 238 plate appearances for Minnesota. Cleveland designated hitter Travis Hafner is on the disabled list with a strained right foot, so Thome could be a fit for the Indians, the team for which he hit his first 334 home runs.
Ben Nicholson-Smith contributed to this post.
LOL geesh! Give away half your team for a bunch of 2012FA, WHEN YOU DONT HAVE A CHANCE TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS!!
Of course they do. There’s still 35 games left on the schedule and 6 of those are head to head against the Tigers. You’re crazy to write them off already.
Kubal in a sox uni would be nice. Even if they are not in contention this season. He would be nice to have for next season to play left while vicedio plays right. Or dh with Dunn shipped back to his comfort zone, an nl club that is not in contention.
Doesn’t this pig have enough lipstick? (Ubaldo)
Wait a second… this article states that Thome would rather be in Philly. Jim, if that is really the case… you are dead to me. You already broke my Tribe loving heart once.
Can you blame him? The Phillies have a great chance of making it to the World Series and are basically a lock for the playoffs. He won’t be able to play many more years so I am sure he would like to win a championship now. The Indians are clinging to playoff hopes and can only pass the Tigers to get in. WC has been wrapped up for a while.
keep in mind it was the cleveland front office that screwed thome. They claimed to off him a contract with a hometown discount, but it was really just an insult. The only reason they offered him the contract was to make fans think thome wanted to leave cleveland which was very far from it.
Constantly booing thome when he would come to bat as another team, even though he played his heart out for you guys, just shows what kind of trash cleveland fans.
The guy left the Indians on terrible terms. Said all throughout his last year he wanted to stay even going as far as to say “you will have to tear this jersey off my back for me to leave.” They tried to work out an extension with him prior to and during his final year but he said he wanted to wait. If he hadnt been saying everything that he did they would have traded him and it would have helped their rebuilding. Just imagine if they had gotten a haul like the colon deal out of a thome deal? Christ.
Then the guy goes into free agency going back and forth between the phillies and indians using each other to up the other teams. He goes to the indians after doing this a few times and says up the phillies offer one more time and ill stay….soon after he signs with the phillies….Everyone says hes a great guy and he probably is but spurned the city that he “loved” and broke their hearts by lying and leaving and hurt the franchise in a way many fans dont realize by keeping them from trading him to help the rebuild process by making it seem like he was staying…they believed he was telling the truth and wanted to stay and he was a guy you could build around esspecially since Shapiro wanted to try to win while rebuilding.
The point is, he hurt the cleveland indians and their fans. If he goes into the hall of fame it will probably be as an Indian. With quite a few knowledgable fans still not exactly being happy with him for what he did, spurning the Indians again by turning down the trade to hopefully get released and sign with the phillies over the Indians AGAIN would be yet another huge hit to his reputation in Cleveland.
So what he has to decide hopefully by himself with out the help of his “my wife is my rock” mrs. is if he wants to be a fan favorite forever for his potential hall of fame team or go for a ring in phillie that he will have very little to do with being a pinch hitter even if he has a couple of big hits.
Legacy, reputation in Cleveland vs. a ring that you had little to do with? whats it gonna be thome
Few players have a place they can call their home team after a career is over will thome have a home or not…we will see.
So, if he goes to Cleveland he’s a good guy, but if he doesn’t, he’s a jerk? As a Minnesotan, I sympathize with good players leaving your team, but I don’t think you’ve painted the only scenario for whether or not Thome will have a legacy and reputation, and I don’t think his legacy is solely Cleveland’s to have. I’d prefer the Twins work a deal with Cleveland so my club actually gets something back for Thome, but if they don’t, Thome won’t be tarnished to anyone outside of Cleveland.
Cleveland screwed over thome and thome did everything he could to try to stay there. Cleveland had no real interest in signing thome to a long term contract either. Some guy named travis hafner was ready to play first base. Thome kept giving them chances to offer even a fair contract but they wouldnt. So when he went to the phillies, management immeadilty said he was only after money and didnt like cleveland, making thome look bad but themselves look good. Cleveland hosed one of the nicest guys in baseball, hope they dont win for a long time
They traded for hafner i think after Thome left, and they offered him i think the same contract just one less guaranteed year than the phillies did.
He will accept it and be the Indian by tomorrow because that what Greg Amsinger just said.