The Indians never so much as made a contract offer to Michael Brantley before he inked a two-year, $32MM deal in Houston this offseason, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports within a broader look at the club’s struggles to retain top stars. Nightengale interviews both Brantley and CC Sabathia about their emotional departures from Cleveland as part of a piece that wonders whether Francisco Lindor’s eventual exit is anything less than a foregone conclusion. For his part, Lindor calls Cleveland “home” and adds that he hopes to stay before more vaguely stating: “When that time comes, we’ll decide.” Lindor’s long-term future has been particularly in question since Indians owner Paul Dolan ominously told fans to “enjoy him” while the team has him under control.
Indians fans will want to give the column a read not only for talk of Lindor’s future but also some heartfelt reminiscing from both Sabathia — “I cried like a baby when I was traded” — and Brantley. Both players offer nothing but fond memories of the city, the organization and the fanbase.
More from the division…
- Jose Abreu’s contractual status with the White Sox has been an ongoing story throughout Chicago’s rebuild. While he’s long been a logical on-paper trade chip, Sox brass has maintained that the first baseman’s clubhouse presence and leadership is virtually indispensable; both sides have openly stated a desire to continue the relationship beyond his current contract, but no deal has come to pass. Now, with Abreu months from free agency, GM Rick Hahn touched on the subject again — discussing the delicate balance of cold, hard statistical value and less quantifiable intangible means of value. “That’s the more, unfortunately, clinical side of things is, ‘OK, a right-handed hitting first baseman who’s produced at this level over the last few years at this age, what do you project going forward and what’s the value of that?'” Hahn asked rhetorically in an interview with The Athletic’s James Fegan. “It’s sort of that more touchy-feely, emotional side of things in terms of knowing the value that he has in this clubhouse and the leadership skills, the softer benefits that he brings to the club, that affects your valuation of a guy like that.”
- Since signing a minor league deal with the Twins, right-hander Cody Allen has pitched four shutout innings in Class-A Advanced Fort Myers, allowing three hits and no walks while striking out four hitters. La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes that Allen has made some mechanical adjustments to use his core and legs more effectively, and the Twins will move him to Triple-A Rochester shortly after the All-Star break. Allen’s stock tumbled in 2018 and cratered earlier this season when he was released by the Angels, but he’s a known commodity for Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey, who was in the Cleveland front office for most of Allen’s peak with the Indians. Whether he can return to form following his latest change of scenery is anyone’s guess, but Allen is a nice flier to have in the upper minors as Falvey and general manager Thad Levine peruse the trade market for bullpen reinforcements.
We want James Karinchak!!!!
He’s been on the injured list for several weeks
Abreu for the next centuries’ 100 first round draft choices. Then both teams have a chance to win in the next century. Great plan. Sox could go for more, but don’t be greedy.
What is Hahn getting to, about Abreu? So, if he’s sooo valuable in the clubhouse and saying how good Abreu numbers are – we’ll, sign him already.
I think Hahn knows Reinsdorf doesn’t like to spend money unless he subsidized by the taxpayers.
I’m an Illinois resident and I don’t recall my tax bill going up when Jerry Reinsdorf signed Jose Abreu to that 6yrs./$68M international free agent contract back in October of 2013. I suspect an Abreu contract extension will be for less dollars and years than his initial one and I don’t expect a tax increase to subsidize that one either. However, if JR wants to pass a hat around at the White Sox last home game in 2019 I just might throw a buck or two into in order to help keep the slugging 1B on the South Side a bit longer.
Abreu deserves a chance to win with the White Sox and he clearly wants to stay. The young players and coming prospects look up to him and deserve to have him in the clubhouse. He has been particularly influential in the development of fellow Cuban countryman Yoan Moncada and could do likewise for Luis Robert when the latter makes his White Sox debut later this summer or early next season. A sensible investment in Abreu can pay even greater dividends as the White Sox transition from rebuilders to contenders.
We want a pitcher, not a belly-itcher! We want a batter, not a broken ladder!
We want pizza!!
What’s the best pizza in Cleveland?
Pizza 216
No idea. I live in Southern California.
Pizza 216 is terrible… best pizza in Cleveland is Paninis on East 9th only and Guys Pizza (several locations)
Dawg what the heck ever happened to Trevor hildenberger
Seems like he lost his mojo or the scouting reports caught up to him hard core.
he was never that good to begin with.
He’s on the minor league IL with a forearm strain at the moment; not sure how much (if at all) that injury contributed to his earlier struggles after a solid start to the season.
If Abreu gets hit with a QO, he should take it.
Yup
Offer Abreu 1/12. It’s 4 more than he’ll get anywhere else.
I think he’d take his chances in the offseason. You may be right but I don’t think he’d do it now. I wouldn’t.
Cleveland can’t afford $16 million a year!!??
That’s wrong…..
$18million on a guy that can’t stay healthy? No. Time for a salary cap, with a floor and ceiling.
I never understood Cleveland’s payroll issues. I mean, they’re a smaller market but it’s not that crazy small, is it? Their payroll is just a few dollars from being in the bottom 10 during a competitive window, and they’re looking to cut??
You know revenue isn’t based on population, right?
They have terrible attendance and a terrible TV deal.
I think the tribe should move to Nashville. I always had a love hate relationship for the tribe, being a tigers fan. But after these last 3 years it’s evident Cleveland is no longer a baseball town. Virginia Beach area or New Orleans would do wonders as well.
I think the Tigers should move there.
Meh
dolan sucks. i gave him the benefit of the doubt when he went and got andrew miller and then got edwin and then jay bruce and josh donaldson over the past 3 years, but this offseason just letting everyone walk without so much as an offer in any form, and telling us to enjoy lindor while we can? that pushed me over the edge
It seems he took a shot when window opened. And maybe made great for a decision to not extend on way too big money Lindor.
What 200 million plus contract for position player looks good?
I would rather have my team invest 200 million in training staff, analytics, and minor league facilities.
He’ll end up somewhere else this year in trade and probably sign with Boston (or another) for less than ten million after. I’m tired of “leaders” the leader is the man being paid to be a manager.
Horrible article on the Indians. The big chip for the CC trade was Matt LaPorta, Brantley was the fourth player and wasn’t picked up for MONTHS as he was the PTBNL. Brantley would have to have been given a $17.9 million qualifying offer to stay in Cleveland. His value was estimated to be around 4 years/$77 million. That would have been more than 50% of payroll for a guy who spent a lot of time on the DL. It was smart business for a small market team no matter how much we miss Dr. Smooth.
Thank you, somebody finally gets it. Plus their training staff was all too familiar with him and his inability to stay healthy. One bad contract on a gimp will cripple a team in their size market, see Travis Hafner…
If CC is so fond of Cleveland, why did he say this?
“I definitely want to be around the Yankees for years to come,” said Sabathia.
They’re paying his salary today. If he said he wanted only to work for 5he Indians would be odd, but I’m sure he couldn’t sign on fast enough if that call ever camel
Lindor’s as good as gone. Drafting a bunch of low ceiling-high floor infielders in the last few drafts and international signings won’t disguise the fact that Dolan & Co. are cheapskates….
Yes, they should open up the checkbook and sign him immediately to a $300+ million contract because a team in a market like that would then have so much money left over to put a great lineup around him. Somehow that’s the ownerships fault….smh
What are you talking about? Indians recently tend to favorite HS and Latin America for position players and College pitchers in draft. 18 yr old HS and 16 yr old Latin kids don’t have higher floor compared to college picks. If you want to say the infielders are undersized and lack elite power upside/projection, pretty that’s the Lindor profile from HS.
Indians do go over their signing bonus pool in draft and international amateur recently. They spend the maximum plus tax penalty when possible every year, how do you called them cheap in this aspect? Do you prefer them to spend so much that they would forfeit future draft picks…no team has even done that.
It is remarkable that the Indians have started winning so much in early June and have continud this trend in July. They are undefeated this month.
The Tribe faced so many free agent related decisions this past offseason. They deserve credit for being as competitive as they are with such a different roster than they had last year.
There is nothing productive about moaning concerning who is no longer with the team. Of course,everyone has a right to do so. Keep in mind that the 20/20 vision of hindsight is not something any front office has when decisions must be made.
“We’re going to be very good. If the White Sox don’t sign me, I’m going to sign here anyway. I’m going to sign myself here. I’m going to be here, believe me. I don’t want to miss this. I don’t want to miss what is coming.”
Courtesy of Jose Abreu.
Can’t imagine the list of AllStar 1B men that would love to play for the White Sox is all that long. Sign him to a 3 yr deal already Rick !!!!
Rick Hahn is exhausting. Never has someone said so much to convey so little.
What do you expect him to say? He’s a GM.
Yeah, he should take a page from Theo’s book and threaten to make “big changes” without actually doing anything.
Maybe you should criticize the writers that ask the same question over and over and over again.
Indians will be sellers at the trade deadline, because it’s going to be hard to run the gauntlet and catch the twins in the central and hold off the hot A’s for the wild card!
It’s going to be hard for the Indians to catch the red hot twins, but they are in the wild card for now with a red hot A’s team right on there tail, so i think the Indians will be sellers, but will be wanting a quality for their players they trade not just minor leaguers but major leaguers who can still produce to win games
It’s been pretty tough for Indians and White Sox, considering. Twins can’t hold up, we’ll both claw our way back in there.
The whole signing Alonso & Jon Jay experiment b/c theyre close to Machado failed miserably. Hahn should have been calling Cleveland about E.E. instead. Get me a Jose RamireZ
EE is older than my dad, and he just turned 70.