To kick things off this Sunday morning, we’ll round up a few odds and ends from the American League.
- The Rays will look to address their offense this offseason, says GM Erik Neander (via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). Specifically, Neander singled out catcher as an area the front office will need to address. Travis d’Arnaud was quite effective in Tampa after being acquired in a minor trade with the Dodgers, but he’s now a free agent. The Rays could explore a reunion with d’Arnaud, Topkin adds, although his strong season positions him well among the second tier of catchers on the open market. (MLBTR forecasts a two year, $14MM deal for the veteran backstop). Mike Zunino remains under team control, but his $4.9MM arbitration projection makes for a tough call for an organization with ever-looming payroll limitations.
- Speaking of low-revenue clubs, when is the appropriate time for the Indians to market Francisco Lindor? That question is explored by ESPN’s Buster Olney, who argues that a Lindor trade is a question of ’when,’ not ’if.’ Lindor is unquestionably one of the game’s best talents and its most marketable personalities, but there’s no indication Cleveland believes they’ll keep him in the fold long-term. Lindor will take home hefty arbitration sums each of the next two years; MLBTR’s Matt Swartz projects a $16.7MM award this offseason, with another raise after next year almost certainly to follow. As Olney notes, the Orioles were underwhelmed with the offers they received on their superstar infielder, Manny Machado, when they shopped him in the 2017-18 offseason with one season remaining of team control. Perhaps Cleveland would be better suited to jump the market and trade Lindor while he still has two seasons before reaching free agency, although doing so would obviously be a massive blow to the team’s chances of contending in 2020.
- Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom joined WEEI’s Rob Bradford on the latest episode of the Bradfo Sho podcast. Bloom explained that he’s making progress in getting up to date on the Red Sox’s systems and getting to know key people in the organization, including Mookie Betts, who figures to dominate the rumors circuit until Boston makes a decision on his future. Bloom also addressed the difficulty for front office members in trading away players to whom they’ve developed personal connections, J.D. Martinez’s decision to opt-in to his contract, and the payroll discrepancy between his former employer, the Rays, and the Red Sox in a wide-ranging conversation.
D’Arnaud needs to be signed. He was one of the most productive Rays hitters in RBI clutch opportunities. (The Rays big hitting weakness)
Zunino although solid defensively was an automatic out. Embarrassing so
With the rays lineup they cannot afford an automatic out but solid hitting from 1-9.
Zunino has to go.
Signing D’Arnaud is the most important move for the rays this off season
Please note: D’Arnaud played every key game down the stretch and the playoffs
He must be signed.
People who follow have been following baseball closely over the past 5-10 years (Mets fans especially) laugh, and cry.
Laughing and crying: The Mets experience.
The issue has always been health and you’re buying high. Who’s to think his injury woes are behind him? He killed Boston and I believe the Yankees as well but even $7m per could be costly for a small market club
Travis d’Arnaud good fit for White Sox?
We need a guy who can work with young pitchers and a future catcher, be cool and make some plays. Share starts with James McCann, 1/3-1/2 time.
White Sox have Collins, who will get a long leash, if they swing and miss on Grandal.
Yam Gomes would be a great fit for the Sox.
The DH rule should be adjusted so that a DH could be used for any player in the lineup. Of course most times it will be the pitchers spot…great hitting pitchers such as Oteni….Bumgarner or Greinke will be allowed to hit no matter what league they’re pitching in.
Bumgarner: career .532 OPS
Greinke: career .600 OPS
Ohtani: career .883 OPS
One of these things is not like the others, and the others need to never hit in MLB, despite how much they enjoy being utterly terrible at hitting.
Unless a pitcher can OPS over .758 (the league average for 2019) there’s no use for them hitting, period. Stop arguing for this, a pitchers physical body isnt cut out for hitting, they use different muscles and its an entirely different skill, one a pitcher shouldnt have to be good at. Also stop killing jobs, there should be 30 DH jobs out there, not 15.
A pitchers physical body isn’t made out for hitting? Seriously? It worked just fine for over a hundred years until 1974. I’m not against the DH….just would allow 2 way players to apply their full ability. The DH could be used for any other player such as a defense first SS or 1B.
,,,,,Then stick to the American League with the 4-5 hr. Games,then meanwhile the others will watch better Baseball with 3-4hr. Games.The Nats proved that some of these silly Matrix will disappear soon and teams that don’t play little ball will not win the World Series.
The angels don’t even let Ohtani hit when he is pitching. Teams aren’t required to use the dh. They do it because it makes their lineup better. The giants let MB hit in an AL ballpark a couple years ago once.
Two comments back at ya;
First, you comment about pitchers hitting being just fine up until 1974….most pitchers that hit their weight were considered outstanding for their position and while maybe not an automatic out, certainly wasn’t considered a lineup strength in the 74 and before days…
Secondly, what you are describing regarding the DH is what we call in High School Softball as the DP/Flex, which has a bunch of stipulations about using but basically allows you to nominate an offensive player to hit for a player who only plays defense…bunch of other requirements but injects a bunch of strategy into a ballgame other than a straight DH position.
Were pitchers throwing 100+mph from the deadball era to 1974? The game is continuously evolving. I’m all for tradition, but when you have peak athletes like in today’s game, you need professional hitters. Pitchers getting hurt running the bases or standing in the batter’s box shouldn’t happen. They have enough to worry about putting mileage on their arm.
Also, I’d love for the Dodgers to have a realistic chance at signing someone like JD Martinez or Nelson Cruz without having to worry about their defense. Or giving our players some rest days from fielding and still keep their bat in the lineup. DH is long overdue.
Agreed. The DH was created to add offense and should be abandoned with an agreement payroll won’t suffer.
The main reason why Ohtani doesn’t hit when he pitches is because unless he throws a complete game, you lose your DH when a reliever enters.
Every league in the world other than the NL use a DH. It’s time for the NL to bring it on. I would much rather see a professional hitter in the line up
You probably can figure out that I’m old school. The lack of strategy is as boring as the jacked up game we saw last year. This way it’s a manager choice and gives opportunities to 2 way pitchers. More offense we found out does not make for a better game.
I’d like to see a compromise in NL where once per game the manager can allow a hitter for a pitcher without removing the pitcher from the game. This way you not only keep the strategy element that the NL currently has, but you add to it, since the manager has to decide whether he wants to burn his one chance to hit for the pitcher.
@LADreamin
“Were pitchers throwing 100+mph from the deadball era to 1974? ”
Of course they were. Yeezus..Gibson, Koufax, Drysdale, Ryan, Richards, Walter Johnson, Bob Feller and many others easily threw gas. The difference is, if you didn’t have control then you likely didn’t last long. Also, hitters didn’t sell out for power and strike out as much. Not because the pitchers didn’t have the velocity but because hitters made more contact back then. In today’s game, if you can throw in the high 90s-100 mph you can at least be a relief pitcher if all else fails.
Throwing hard isn’t a new thing. Not having a second or third good offering or not having control doesn’t matter as much today. And the dead ball era was pre-1919 and it wasn’t that those hitters weren’t capable of hitting for power but it was more about contact hitting. When Babe Ruth came around and starting obliterating home run records you a piece of poo like Ty Cobb who was jealous and made a point of saying he too could hit 30 hrs or so if he wanted to. But he was about using his speed and putting the ball in play on the ground. Hence, he never struck out more than 55x in his 25 year career.
Throwing hard may not be a new thing, but 95% of the league throwing 95+ surely is.
@dynamite drop in monty
Yes, Because most of those guys would still be in the minors because you needed more than a fastball to pitch. Consider the number of teams that didn’t exist back in the 40s/50s and the new walk/strikeout/homerun approach to the game. I don’t think the talent is all that different.
“A pitchers physical body isn’t made out for hitting? Seriously? It worked just fine for over a hundred years until 1974.”
It worked so well having pitchers suck at the plate for over a hundred years? No, it didn’t. Good riddance to the half that are no longer getting up to bat. Good riddance.
@phamdownbytheriver
“You probably can figure out that I’m old school. The lack of strategy is as boring as the jacked up game we saw last year.”
The world disagrees. There are only about 500,000 fans of the double switch. The rest of the people attending and watching games aren’t even paying attention when it happens. Could care less about your clever little “strategery.” Your dated boredom is duly noted by the millions watching the game.
@southbeachbully
“Were pitchers throwing 100+mph from the deadball era to 1974? ”
‘Of course they were.’
That’s an unsubstantiated assumption on your part. First of all, you fail to acknowledge the benefit of a raise mound…
“The main reason why Ohtani doesn’t hit when he pitches is because unless he throws a complete game, you lose your DH when a reliever enters.”
If Ohtani hit when he pitched, you wouldn’t have a designated hitter to begin with. A DH cannot also play a fielding position.
@Mo4ever
What’s “unsubstantiated”? There were a lot of pitchers that threw in high 90s and 100. All of those guys mentioned did.
Not really all that happened is they changed the way they define pitching speed. Rather than clock the pitch speed by mph as it approaches the plate they clock it from when it leaves the pitchers hand. Then BAM everyone is throwing harder
There are no great hitting pitchers (Ohtani is not just a pitcher).
d’Arnaud is trash, watch him for several years where he hits infield pop ups and strikes out every at bat between constant injuries. The small sample size the Rays got wasn’t what he’ll do going forward. Be happy with what you got cause you won’t get it again.
I would worry about regression with D’Arnaud. His solid performance with the Rays surprised everyone.
Tribe should really move Lindor & Kluber this year
Between the both of them they can get a haul that would put them in position to compete for years.
Idk if now is the time to move Kluber, not after last year.
Tribe’s already in position to compete for years, plus they have some strong pieces developing in the minors already.
The smallest media market in MLB is Cincinnati. When did the Reds write that Joey Votto contract? Then they wrote Homer Bailey a huge contract and they were paying Brandon Phillips substantial money too.
There are exactly zero MLB teams that cannot afford to write Francisco Lindor a contract. The bloodsucking Dolan family are the issue.
The Reds have also finished 19th, 23rd, 26th, 27th, 29th, and 21st over the past 6 seasons. Maybe Cincy’s large contracts are not the best example.
Forest, how successful have the Cincinnati Reds been during those years. How many times did they make the playoffs? How many World Series appearances? Then ask those same questions about the Cleveland Indians. It is very difficult to run a small market team successfully with a huge contract. MLB is set up very unfairly against the small market teams.
Large market teams can make a mistake like Ellsbury and still survive because of their much larger local revenue streams such as local tv contract. Small market teams can not afford to make those mistakes. Compare local TV contracts in LA and NY them look at Cleveland and Cincinnati. The system is unfair.
@hockeyjohn
Don’t confuse “unfair” with “unbalanced”. It’s not the big market teams fault that those franchises exist in small markets.. Most of those teams that have been around for 100 years were created when FA didn’t exist. The Yanks and Red Sox still had a slight advantage back then too but it just became more and more distant once TV dollars came into play.
Southbeach,
I am not blaming the large market teams. They are just taking advantage of the current system and their larger money avenues. I am blaming MLB for the imbalance. The luxury tax was a small start, but it does not go far enough. Try to spend some time in the shoes of a fan of a small market team.
The Yanks and Red Sox still had a slight advantage back then too
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The RS were considered nothing until 1967 and the Impossible Dream in 1967. They drew 652,000 in 1965. The city itself is much smaller than just The Bronx alone.
The reason I mention this is that some of these franchises blame demographics, instead of simply developing their franchise. Virtually no one lives in St. Louis, but they’ve developed the most loyal following in sports.
A team like the Mets invest almost nothing compared to their market size.
legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/na…
When have the Reds contended since writing that Votto contract? They could not afford it and it has hamstrung their organization.
Hoping the Indians ownership is smarter.
@Koamalu
ForestCobraAL.was arguing that small market clubs have the money, as Cincy showed; mostly they just hoard it, put out an inferior product, and print money.
The Indians organization has been smarter,. That is why they have been a playoff contender for several years. Many teams continue to hire Indian employees to help their organization.
“The Indians organization has been smarter”
How’d that work out for them this year? And with all those smarter employees being hired away to other organizations, as you suggest, how do you think the Indians will do going forward?
You’re right, they could’ve tripled their payroll and still missed the playoffs this year. Considering all of the injuries they suffered, it was amazing they were in it as long as they were.
Are you talking about the Yankees?
Boston
They already should have. Kluber, Carassco, (guy who was good two, three years ago), Kipnis (right after his contract was signed), Lindor and Ramirez (misspelled) could have been shipped out over the last year, Ramirez in the off-season and Lindor probably then also. Carassco first, then Kluber the next year or so could have been shopped until the deal was right. Lindor+ could have been sent to Tb, for Pham/KK, Addams, Duffy, Wendle, Gibaut, Yarborough, Bauers (the hitter), K Wong, etc… They probably wouldn’t all be involved just naming some filler. The Rays also should have gotten something more out of Dickerson and Cron. Dickerson should have been kept, saving three million (From not signing Gomez) to pay his salary until a better trade came along. Hudson the return, cost less but they sent a million to cover the rest. Cron’s return was Palacios (I believe) was underwhelming. I don’t know if either would do it but NYY had a need, Rays could have gotten Galagos (misspelled) then either kept him or got Voit from St.Louis. It might seem sideways to do but it cost the Yankees a few million extra if nothing else. Cashing in on Cobb and a few rp’s was a must they missed out on. The biggest miss was not trading Oddorizi for Tatis. Oddorizzi might not have been on the same level Shields was believed to be in but he was cheaper and I believe had the same or more time left, but mainly the ten or twenty million saved shod have been a difference maker. Poopoo the trade for Lindor all you want but Addams looked good at in the second half (since May 27th or so) and has control, Duffy plays 3rd for two years until their next infielder is ready, Addams at ss, Wendle at 2nd, Bauers 1st, Lf, Dh, and the other help the rotation bp with Pham (If involved) in Rf, Cf, Lf. It helps Cle retool, while saving money and still competing. They’d be on their way to competing with Min for the next six, seven years.
Gotta love the fantasy baseball geniuses that live in hindsight with the would’ve could’ve should’ves.
I was saying the same thing then.
I remember when some Phillies fans were upset at giving up 3 top prospects in D’Arnaud (the teams catcher of the future), Kyle Drabek and Michael Taylor for Doc Halladay.
That was a great trade for us
Drabek looked phenomenal in the minors and Taylor showed a ton of promise too, amazing they just totally bombed.
Pretty sure he’ll be a Brewer. It just seems the stars aligned on that matchup. Someone has to pair with Manny Pina.
Travis D’Arnaud that is ^^^^
Travis D’Arnaud that is ^^^^^
With no disrespect to Mookie Betts, if his true intentions are to test the free agent market, then a trade to restock the farm is in order.
That’s what a lot of us have been saying since the season ended. No brainer to trade mookie now. Possible he gets traded at the deadline if nothing substantial is offered back at this time.
Wouldn’t restock the farm. You’d be shocked how little Mookie would bring back. Last year of deal, no chance of extending. One awkward dive in RF and you get nothing at all from him (not that he’s injury prone). Probably returns a couple guys from the 3-5 range from a good system.
He’s played 150+ games three of the last four years. Last year was a step back and his war was 6.8. People who are saying he’s overrated are nuts. He’s a great player
Dont think you can be so sure that the 2019 season was a step back and not just normal. In 2017, Betts posted 6.4 WAR. The 2018 season kind of looks like the exception while this year fits in better with his body of work.
The 2018 season kind of looks like the exception while this year fits in better with his body of work.
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2017 was one of the best seasons in the history of baseball. Of course it is an exception. Still, ignore 2017. His average WAR from 2016-2019, even without 2017, is the second best in baseball.
Probably returns a couple guys from the 3-5 range from a good system.
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I’m guessing slightly more, but even that is substantial. Last year, for the Padres, their 3-5 were (all tied at 55) Gore, Paddack, Urias & Patino. For the LAD, it was one of Lux or May, tied at 55, and one of Smith or Verdugo, tied at 50. For the WS, it was Madrigal, Robert & Cease. Atlanta’s 3-5 range included Riley, Soroka, Anderson & Wright.
That is nowhere close to ‘how little’. And my guess is that we would get a MLB player that doesn’t fit their existing lineup, Naylor from SD, for example.
If I were White Sox, I don’t move Luis Robert, Nick Madrigal or Dylan Cease. stay the course with the plan.
Agree – Betts to the Cardinals for Badger and Reyes. That might be too much
Not badger bader
Throw in Skinny Pete
@seamaholic
Sox should be able to get at least 1 top prospect for Betts. It likely won’t be from a non-contending team for obvious reasons but forget about that 3-5 top org picks. Easily a top 50 at least.
Betts is a special talent. Look at what 3 months of Chapman netted the Yankees. That is the kind of deal Betts will get the Red Sox. 3-4 young MLB players or top prospects.
Yeah I don’t think the 3-4 player deal will happen. The Chapman deal is by now considered a major heist by Cashman. It won’t be repeated. Not even (or especially not) by Cashman himself.
Really your best scenario here is sign a deal to avoid arbitration and get cost certainty.
Once you do that, kick in 5 to 10m in salary relief, and try to trade him early for a young controllable pitcher with upside, plus a couple prospects.
By doing it early you let the acquiring team go spend some FA $$$ on a pitcher to replace what they gave you, hopefully improving the trade calculus.
Wmr he IS going to test the market. Stated so numerous times. Get what you can for him now. Should have done it at last year’s trade deadline.
Agree 100%
With JDM opting in, Red Sox should just suck it up and go for it one more time before Mookie and JDM leave next year. No one is taking Price’s albatross contract, even with a partial paydown. Don’t know why they’re giving up.
I see what you’re saying but mookie is too big a chip to hold onto and let walk for nothing. Plus I Have Faith In Bloom to make a few other moves with long-term benefit to the Red Sox. Maybe at the deadline somebody will take on one of those starters contracts?
Shouldn’t they have moved Mookie before bringing on Bloom? Imagine that pressure on the young bro.
Consider Mookie will be at $27M. That’s not much of a discount for his new team. He’s also said he wants to test the FA market, so he’ll be a rental. I just don’t see a huge return for him given that. It may be bigger than the compensation draft pick, but not that much more, especially when keeping him gives them a shot at the playoffs.
mookie is too big a chip to hold onto and let walk for nothing.
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I agree 100%. It depends on the haul, or course, but I think they’ll be plenty of teams that want someone to push them over the top. At the end of the day, how many games will we win have Mookie for one year, as opposed to Verdugo, Downs & Gray over the next 6 years?
Interesting thing is that one of the few teams with the muscle to do a deal for Betts (pay his $27MM and fork over players), a team that could use him in CF for one year (maybe more if the stars aligned) is a team that is off the table: the Yankees. The Yanks could offer a bullpen piece, like Kahnle, which the Sox need, and a top prospect like OF Florial. But that sort of thing wouldn’t happen in a million years!!!
@Mo4ever
If it were to happen, with any team, it would cost a LOT more than a relief pitcher and a yet to prove himself prospect like Florial.
Florial is not a top, prospect in any sense…
If a player gets traded mid season doesn’t the draft pick comp go away?
Yes, which is why Betts is more valuable now.
He was more valuable last July, even though his second half (OPS .992) was much better than his first half (OPS .859).
Unfortunately, last july is when we had our hot streak. We absolutely wiped out TB and NY, and had 5 straight quality starts. So we sat on our hands. Except for that mini-streak, I’d have traded Betts for sure.
Odubel Herrera, Nick Williams & Adonis Medina for Mookie Betts & Nathan Eovaldi
@Phiilies2020
That’s a pretty awful trade even if they take on Eovaldi’s contract.
Herrera sucks get him out give us something else
Castellanos could do wonders for the Rays lineup as the DH/4 hole hitter.
Unfortunately we already have too many DH type guys. Maybe if he can fill in at RF majority of the time.
Travis d’Arnaud will be this year’s Nate Eovaldi. Success over a short stretch with lots of hype will result in a team regretting his contract. Also, there is no market for Betts. He’s making $27 million (estimated) and is determined to go to free agency. Any return on Betts is insufficient. Sox fans are delusional if they think they’re getting a haul for Betts.
Perfectly put
Lol the Eovaldi and D Arnaud situation doesn’t make sense D Arnaud won’t make that much
d”arnaud has come into his own and showing the talent other teams were waiting to see. He was such a clutch hitter for the Rays while the rest of the teams failed so often with men on base. Pay the guy the 6-7 mill for 2 years he’s looking for.
And my take at this point by reading what the BoSox owners and Bloom have said and done is that they are terrified of the fan response if they let Betts go either a) at all or b) for a “price” the market will bear, so they’ll do the stupid thing and hold him and get even less…
Thank you
I disagree with the assumption that trading Lindor means the Indians step back in the short term. The idea of trading stars with 2 years remaining is a new paradigm and as such should be reconsidered top to bottom.
A contender in good long term shape trading a star should be looking to get major league players in return and hopefully be even better after the trade.
If ownership decided they weren’t going to pay him in free agency I would move him now and I would expect to be better after the trade in addition to being in better financial shape. I’d probably tell other teams that’s what I was looking for and I think most teams could and would meet that threshold.
Judge, Severino, Andujar and Sanchez for Lindor and the Yankees could sign Grandal and Cole as free agents while the Indians sign Didi.
Come on. That would be most lopsided trade in baseball history. No way Yankees would consider judge+ for Lindor
“Judge, Severino, Andujar and Sanchez for Lindor”
Sorry but that is the dumbest comment I have EVER read on MLBTR. By far. Even just Judge for Lindor wouldn’t work.
@emac22
When healthy Judge and Severino have each been 5+ WAR easily. Even though the defense of Sanchez and Andujar result in a lower WAR both guys have tremendous bats. You are absolutely insane if you think 2 years of Lindor is worth those 4. You wouldn’t get Judge or Severino by themselves for Lindor. Stop 420’ng and posting dude.
The Indians are a low revenue club. While they still have a window to compete right now it will come at a high payroll price. It may be better to trade Kluber, Lindor and possibly even Cleavinger and add a very large load of prospects and young MLB players to the system.
They may have to eat a small amount of his salary to move Kluber, but he is not that expensive to begin with and many teams would take a chance on him because he is a a one year commitment with an option for a 2nd year.
Please, Koamalu, don’t give fans of other teams the idea to propose terrible trades for Clevinger. It is hard enough to put up with some of the crazy proposals for Lindor.
A small market team does not give up when their window is open. They are not trading Clevinger or Lindor unless it makes them better in 2020, as well as, help in the future like the Trevor Bauer trade did.
What terrible trade for Clevinger did Koamalu propose?
Mo4ever,
Check your reading comprehension. My exact words were, “Please, Koamalu, don’t give fans of other teams the idea to propose terrible trades for Clevinger.” Please read carefully before jumping to conclusions.
Exactly how did Koamalu “give fans of other teams the idea to propose terrible trades” without proposing a terrible trade?
How tortured is that construction?
Mo4ever,
I did not accuse him of proposing a bad trade for Clevinger. Find where I said that. I can’t help that your reading comprehension is poor. I responded to his comment where he stated that it may be better to trade Lindor, Kluber, and maybe even Clevinger.
Joe Sherman and a ST. Louis reporter come out with articles saying that their respective teams should trade for Lindor. After that hundreds of trade proposals have filled this site and other for Lindor, many of which were so one sided and ridiculous. My comment was to not give posters here the idea to propose more crazy trades for Clevinger. My comment is not that hard to understand.
Without the background on “Joe Sherman and a ST. Louis reporter” and “hundreds of trade proposals have filled this site” your comment was less directly understandable than you presume.
Thanks hockeyjohn, agreed. Also, there is absolutely no way they sell low on Kluber and eat salary to move. Your suggestions make zero sense for the Indians.
Trading Bauer did not make the Indians better for 2019 or 2020.
How do you figure? They expelled a pricey arbitration contract in Bauer for a left handed power bat in a predominantly right handed hitting lineup with years of control in addition to a fringe top 100 prospect in Logan Allen. Who has major league service and is ready to contribute now, ala, 2019 & 2020. The Indians have proved they can develop arms, do you plan on them just passing that skill up in terms to Allen?
Sorry, right handed hitting power bat in a predominantly left handed hitting lineup*
If Kluber’s value was so low that they’d have to eat salary to move him they would have just declined his option.
@Koamalu
I remember when the Indians were very aggressive when it came to signing their young talent early in their career. If the Indians have to trade their home grown players 4 years into their careers then they might as well close the franchise and move elsewhere. A team can’t have a 4 year cycle and rebuild. In most trades for major stars the prospects in return seldom match the value of the main star so you have to figure, most of those prospects are going to fall short of becoming stars.
Rather, why don’t they be more aggressive with retaining them?
Southbeach,
The Indians continue to try to sign their young talent early in their careers. Kluber, Carrasco twice, Ramirez, and Santana have all signed early contracts that gave the Indians at least one year or more of their free agent years. They have tried with Lindor, but failed. That is why they are where they are at. They have to decide this offseason whether to trade him now or next offseason. He will play for the Indians in 2020 unless they get a package that they think really helps them extend their contention window without hurting 2o20. We will see what happens.
Exactly. And locking up a guy that could get say a $65 million deal for $50 million is one thing and you get guys like Ramirez and Carrasco to willingly take that trade off for a lifetime of financial security; but to expect a talent like Lindor to do the same on a $300+ million deal is ludicrous. Even if they could get him to do that they can’t afford to put so much of the payroll into one player. If they did it would be like ARod in Texas and Stanton in Miami all over again. Signing a dealing they have no chance of seeing through to the end because they can’t afford to put a competitive lineup around that one player.
I think the best reasoning I saw for a Lindor extension rather than a trade was on another board. If the Indians sign Lindor long term then they have to compete by drafting well and taking advantage of low cost pre arbitration players and team friendly extensions. If they trade Lindor they have to compete by drafting well and taking advantage of low cost pre abitration players and team friendly extensions. They are going to do the same strategy whether they are committing the money to Lindor or not but the difference is you don’t have an elite player at a premium position to help hold it together.
They competed this year with almost 30 million committed to 2 players that were basically non factors for most of the year in Kluber and Carrasco. They only have 21.4 million and 12 million in guarenteed contracts for 2020 and 2021 respectively and nothing after that. Even if you project multiple guys getting large arbitration raises and the young guys that hit arbitration in 2021 and 22 getting large 1st time arbitration due to breaking out the payroll would still be in the 125-135 million range. And for the ones that don’t work out by then it is around the time that all the young prospects currently in A ball should be ready to contribute and reset it back to another young pre arbitration core again.
Missing one thing: your concluding paragraph/sentence.
As I understand it, Lindor would probably cost $25MM+ over a 5-7 year contract. I do not see how the Indians could responsibly commit 20% of its payroll to one player. Its got 7 other position players, a DH, a 5-man rotation, 8 relievers and the 26th man to cover… So how does that work? Why would you want your team to proceed on that basis?
Yeah they should’ve known a perennial Cy Young contender would get hurt and another top arm would contract a life threatening illness…SMH…
That was actually my point bringing them up. We never could have know what would happen to them last year but we have enough options in the rotation that we managed to win 93 games still while paying them about 25% of our payroll. We filled out a team that was young and had some issues but the team played its best from June to August with about 90 million on the active roster. And we still have more promising young pitchers in the system. I see no reason that they couldn’t offer Lindor a 30-35 million deal and still manage to build a team around him that could win for years to come.
The Bradfo Interview with Chaim Bloom was the worst interview I’ve ever heard. The host asked 0 interesting questions.