The Indians will pick up their $12MM club option on designated hitter/first baseman Carlos Santana, tweets Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports. The decision was a foregone conclusion, as Santana not only remained productive in his age-30 campaign but had one of the best years of his career in 2016.
Santana, 31 next April, appeared in a career-high 158 games and notched a career-best 688 plate appearances in 2016. The switch-hitting slugger also notched career-best marks in homers (34), runs scored (89) and RBIs (87) while posting a strong .259/.366/.498 batting line that checked in well above the league average. Santana spent most of his time as Cleveland’s DH this season, starting 92 games there, though he did also make 64 appearances as a first baseman. It’s yet to be determined exactly how that playing time will be divided up in 2017, as the team currently stands to lose its primary first baseman, Mike Napoli, to free agency. However, GM Mike Chernoff said prior to the conclusion of the World Series that Cleveland had a desire to keep Napoli in the fold, so the possibility exists that Santana and Napoli can once again provide the bulk of the power in manager Terry Francona’s lineup next season.
We’re also nearing the point at which Santana’s future with the Indians becomes a question mark. Originally acquired in a wildly lopsided trade that sent Casey Blake to the Dodgers, Santana has taken every at-bat of his Major League career whilst wearing an Indians uniform. Cleveland signed him to a five-year, $21MM pact prior to the 2012 season, and the 2016 campaign marked the final guaranteed year of that deal. His club option for 2017 was a no-brainer, but Santana will be eligible to test the open market for the first time next offseason if the Indians don’t broker a longer-term pact with him in the next 12 months.
He’s not perfect, but for that price, there aren’t many sluggers available that also have the versatility to lead off, because they have enough plate discipline to walk around 100 times each season. If he could get his batting average up, his OBP would be astronomical.
Curtis Granderson is the only other 30-homer lead off guy that comes to mind, and he’s making more than Santana this year. No brain required to pick up this option!
Indians should trade NOW while his stock is high. He will not duplicate this past season. The reason for success was the crazy hot summer we had. All the 90 + days. We have a normal summer next year & his stats will decline. The ball was jumping at Progressive! that won’t happen next season with normal temps & wind blowing in. Get 2 pitching prospects for Santana. Stack some arms cause I’m not big on Morimando, Plutko, Merritt, or Cody Anderson at this point.
lol this guy
yea bc home runs werent up in the league all the over the nation. The weather in Northeast Ohio is typically humid so I’m not understanding this one bit.
yea bc home runs werent up in the league all the over the nation. The weather in Northeast Ohio is typically humid so I’m not understanding this one bit.