The Indians don’t expect to be able to sign Shin-Soo Choo to an extension and will listen to trade offers for him this offseason, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports. GM Chris Antonetti told Heyman the Indians have attempted to sign Choo long-term “multiple times” in recent years. However, Choo and agent Scott Boras have been unreceptive to possible extension discussions, Antonetti said.
Choo, 30, is on track to hit free agency after the 2013 season. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz recently projected a 2013 salary of $7.6MM for Choo, who will go to arbitration for the final time this coming offseason.
Antonetti pointed out that the Indians can trade Choo at next year’s trade deadline or hold onto him for the entire 2013 season if they don’t find an offer to their liking this winter. The GM suggested the Indians would make Choo a one-year qualifying offer if he’s still in Cleveland at the end of the 2013 season. Doing so would enable the Indians to collect a compensation pick in 2014. If the Indians trade Choo midway through the 2013 campaign, the acquiring team wouldn’t be able to obtain draft pick compensation the following season.
The Phillies, Pirates, Dodgers, Rangers and Reds were linked to Choo leading up to the non-waiver trade deadline last month. If Choo were available in the offseason, it wouldn’t be hard to envision teams such as the Mets and Giants expressing interest.
Cmon Sandy Alderson, make a move and go get Shin-Soo Choo!
I agree a choo for tapia or Lutz deal might work put him in right, sign BJ upton, put Valdespin or Baxter in left next year
That’s not even going to get you in the ballpark for Choo.
If the Jays are really “going for it” in 2013, as Beeston says, Choo makes some sense. Only have to commit to him for a year, so it still opens up LF for Gose/Marisnick/whoever in the future when none of those guys are really ready. And should allow them to get a draft pick after the year.
Never happen, AA is going to sit on his pile of prospects until each one of them either drops off the prospect chart or is ruined by a rush to the major league level. If Choo had 2-3 years left on his deal Id suggest it as a very slight possibility but with only a year left, I doubt it highly. He’s going after pitching in a huge way this off season and he actually said that which is odd. But this is AA were talking about and if trade partners arent willing to take a package of spare parts, AA wont pull the trigger.
Toronto is the perfect trade partner. Deep farm system in areas where the Indians would want back in return. The price would be steep, but for the Blue Jays well worth it. If Toronto’s interested, I’d consider them a front runner.
Tommy Hanson for Shin-Soo Choo. Get it done.
Remember a couple of seasons ago the Braves fans were touting JJ, Hanson, Beachy, and Minor as the next big things saying they were untouchable. Funny how things turn out.
I would kill to see him in San Diego, and he’d fit in the 3 or 5 hole in their lineup perfectly. He could even lead off. The Padres have a ton of prospects that could help the Indians, but I’d start with Gyorko since they haven’t had much luck with Chisenhall in the major league level and Headley finally took a big step forward in his development this year.
I was thinking the exact same thing, but only if the Padres can get Headley signed to an extension, then Gyorko would be a good start. If Byrnes is going to make a big splash, I would hope he would look into Andrus to take over a SS first however.
Yeah, obviously my idea of using Gyorko to get Choo would hinge on the Padres ability to extend Headley long term in the offseason. That’s a deal I believe gets done. It has to, to be honest.
Chase was drafted/developed by the Padres and they’ve waited a long time for him to evolve into a true run producer. It would be very hard for new ownership to convince the fan base that they are serious about building a real team if they didn’t extend Chase.
With the team considering moving the fences in, and some quality young players joining the big club this year, it shouldn’t be hard for them to reach a deal with Chase. My guess is they are already discussing it. I would expect it to get done early in the offseason. They Padres need to get that spot settled so Byrnes can focus on filling other holes without the “will they trade Headley” subplot consuming the team all offseason.
This should likely read, Indians will consider off season offers for anyone on the entire roster not named Carlos Santana.
Choo, Pagan, Pence……I’m ok with that!!
If he doesn’t even want to entertain the notion of an extension, trading him would be best. Perhaps to the Yankees? 😉
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Yanks try to go after him, that is of course if Swisher goes.
The Red Sox were rumored to be interested in him on multiple occasions when Theo was here, and with a possible need for a right fielder next year I wonder if that interest has carried over with Cherrington?
Duda, Taipa, and Lutz for Choo and a bullpen arm. Who hangs up?
Indians wouldn’t even respond. Not the type of offer they’d even consider. They’d rather lose Choo for nothing than let him go for org. fillers.
1 – those aren’t organizational fillers
2 – what do you expect to get for an of with one year of control left who is unlikely to sign an extension
1. The Indians have a handful of guys like Duda and Luitz; and yes, they are org. fillers.
2. Tapia doesn’t have the talent to be a headliner for Choo so i’m sure the Indians would want and will receive more talent for Choo. He’s not some throw away player you can get for scraps, which apparently you think. Acquiring him also gives a team a full year to negotiate with him and his reps.
Indians would laugh so hard that the Mets would never want to deal with them again. I’m sorry, it’s going to take Zack Wheeler, no questions asked.
That’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. Wheeler for one year of an OF who won’t sign a below market extension? The original Wheeler trade was horrible enough, and his stock has only gone up since then. The Indians will be watching Choo walk if that’s the price they set.
Everyone hangs up.
see this is what makes me mad leave to the indians to trade choo one of our most consistent players. we dont need to trade away consistency we need to trade away grady and hafner for more vets
grady and hafner are both on the last year of their contracts, both are currently on the DL (grady has been the entire year). why would anyone trade for them?
I’ve felt for a while he would be traded to the Yanks in the offseason when Swisher leaves.
Yankees don’t have the prospects Cleveland wants. Sure they got some pitching, but not a lot in the outfield. If Cleveland wanted Marte for Choo, my money would say that they would look to get a prospect to replace Choo.
NYY certainly has the prospects that would interest the Indians. The Indians also have a bevy relief pitchers to sweeten any deal. But I’m sure the Indians would have interest in Banuelos, Betances, Sanchez, Williams, Austin, Heathcott.
Not saying they’d be easy to acquire but fit the Indians needs; Talented, pitching, and outfielders.
It would be nice to see the Braves make a move for Choo. Not sure what his thoughts would be on shifting to left but with Prado moving to 3B next year it would be nice to have a set left fielder. If they are able to keep Bourn around that would be a nice outfield with Heyward.