Francisco Lindor sat atop the wishlist of many fans and front offices alike throughout the holiday season, as teams ranging from the Dodgers to the Reds to the Mets were all repeatedly reported to have interest in Lindor. However, Cleveland president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti has stated in the past that he expects Lindor to be his Opening Day shortstop, and he was emphatic in reiterating that belief in a conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon (audio link).
“Yes, I still have every expectation that Francisco will be our shortstop Opening Day,” Antonetti said when asked about the persistent trade rumors surrounding Lindor. “I’m more confident today in saying that, as more of the offseason has passed, but that’s still our expectation. I’ve tried to be pretty consistent with this. I have never had a different expectation other than Francisco will be our shortstop Opening Day.”
Despite Antonetti’s public, straightforward stance, there’s nevertheless been plenty of reporting on clubs with interest and speculation on trade packages that could appeal to the Indians. Names like Gavin Lux, Dustin May, Nick Senzel and Jeff McNeil have been kicked about the rumor mill in various writings on Lindor, but Antonetti strongly suggested that he’s not the one initiating any talks on Lindor.
“I can’t control the conduct of other teams and them calling us with interest and wanting to explore things,” Antonetti continued. “As I’ve shared with you, we have a responsibility to be responsive to those teams when they engage with us. I can say that we’ve had conversations on the majority of our Major League roster and a bunch of players in our minor league system over the course of the offseason. The majority of those guys, with the exception of just a couple, are still with us.”
The Indians, of course, pulled the trigger on a Corey Kluber trade last month and have been widely reported to be aiming to scale back their payroll after reaching record levels on the heels of their 2016 World Series run. But Cleveland’s Opening Day payroll is projected to check in shy of $100MM — shy of $95MM if Jason Kipnis‘ buyout is counted against last year’s budget — placing them well south of their Opening Day marks in 2019 ($119MM), 2018 ($135MM) and 2017 ($124MM). As such, it’s unlikely that there’s any financial pressure to move Lindor and his projected $16.7MM salary (courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz).
Moreover, despite their trade of Kluber, the Indians aren’t embarking on any kind of rebuilding effort heading into 2020. They’re still intent on contending with the reigning AL Central champion Twins and the vastly improved White Sox as they look to take advantage of another year in which at least 40 percent of the division is rebuilding. Trading Lindor, even for a package of appealing MLB-ready talent, harms their chances of doing so.
It’s surely a frustrating carousel for Antonetti, as rumors of interest in Lindor won’t cease until Opening Day — and that will only bring a temporary reprieve. Even if Lindor remains with the club, he’ll surely be at least mentioned leading up to the July 31 trade deadline, even if the Indians are in the thick of the division race as most expect them to be. Reports of teams showing interest in Lindor and working to pry him from Cleveland’s grasp will persist, but Antonetti’s latest comments serve as yet another reminder that an actual trade involving the 26-year-old four-time All-Star isn’t especially likely.
I predict they’ll re-sign him for 10 years, $300,000,000,000.
$300 billion??
Not enough?
Definitely not. He should get at least 1,000× what Trout did. What is that? I think it’s something like $422 millinillion to the power of google duplex. That sounds about right. And yes… Millinillion is a number. Look it up on Wikipedia. Not enough for Lindor though. That’s why we had to estimate that number at the google duplexth power.
You mean 300 billion EACH year, for 10 years, right?
I truly hope the Indians do extend him…but boy would I love it for the dodgers to snatch him up if you guys can’t make that happen…lol
You want to see him surrounded by the Lake County Captains?
I think Indians fans should be really angry. The Indians are a competitive team, right now, but ownership has done the opposite of supporting the team in it’s contention window. They should be adding payroll but instead they have traded away first Bauer and now Kluber for packing peanuts.
Indian fans should vote with their wallets and stop going to games, stop watching them on air and stop buying the merchandise. Sadly, it seems Indians ownership has better fans than they deserve.
Tribe fans have spoken…Even when they’ve played well, they are in the bottom five in attendance….Don’t point to the 90’s, that’s ancient history, ask any Tribe fan…
Why are you exaggerating the point? They were 21st in 19, 21st again in 18 and then 22 in 17. You can look for yourself.
espn.com/mlb/attendance/_/year/2017
I can just as easily argue that the kind of owner that is selling off parts is the reason they don’t come in droves. Or perhaps I should take a page out of YOUR book and make a statistical claim that I havent looked up and say that Tribe fans pay top 5 prices.
I had them pegged, off the top of my head around 25, and clubbed me with 21, 21, 18 and 22….you win….
It’s not entirely fan interest but also population and conditions have changed sine the 90’s sellout years
Extremely accurate. Its possible things might be returning – The Browns are a sad case and the Cavs are in the middle of a rebuild with little end in sight. The question is do the sports fans in NE Ohio have enough disposable income for the Indians, or will the Browns keep getting it?
They are owned by Dolans.
The same family that has ruined the Knicks…..
I’m guessing he didn’t get an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Why cant they just resign him
Because it takes two sides to make a contract.
Lindor is great, but I still say deGrom, Alonso and McNeil are untouchable this year. Their all under control until mid-decade. It doesn’t make sense to trade any of them.
Yeah it makes far more sense for them to be on a 4th place team for the next 5 years.
“Hiflew lmfaooo you’re an idiot sorry”
Mets and Reds cant afford to resign Lindor if they traded for him — Dodgers are the only team that has the suspects to trade and the cash to sign him long term
Do you really think Cohen wouldn’t front the money up front and pay for it himself if he felt this was the guy he wanted?
As met fan I don’t want him and we already have McNeill who is just as good
Really?
Really,why would I want a guy who’ll be asking for 30+ million in 2 years when we already have a guy who’s just as good for four years at a fraction of the cost?
@peraza Is the Mets FO giving you all drugs? McNeil is not “as good” as Lindor or in the same class. You could say he is as valuable if you’re talking in control but he is not Lindor They’re not even in the same category level. Lindor is a top 5 (maybe top 3) player. Not only that, but Lindor is a franchise player. He is a guy you can build your whole organization around. No one has or ever will say that about McNeil, in any lifetime. He is a good player but he is not Lindor. He is not even the best player on his team. He may not even be top 3 on that team. You could try to argue he is as valuable to the Mets as Lindor is the tribe but that is not true either, because Lindor would be a main reason they make the playoffs or not. With or without McNeil, the mets are not sniffing postseason. Please stay away from the hard stuff. This is not fantasy baseball.
It’s the usual suspects again, isn’t it?
Indians will screw it up, wait too long, lose him for draft pick in FA. The end.
Do you really consider keeping a top 5 player in the game for 2 years when your team is playoff worthy “waiting too long?”
“Playoff worthy” in the sense that they have an outside shot at a weak division, but they’re barely even wild card contenders as constructed.
They won 93 games last year without Kluber. Ramirez had a terrible first half and Lindor missed the first few weeks.
In good health and with that pitching staff, they should be right there contending
Trading Kluber and his contract gave Antonetti all the leverage in the world with the Lindor trade negotiations. Gave him the budget space to re-sign Lindor (along with other minor moves potentially) to force would be acquiring teams to face the reality he might actually re-sign. Or go get him now and lock him up and control your future. Antonetti is in the driver’s seat rn.
@coldbeer. Your name should be caseofcoldbeerconsumed if you think that they can/will extend Lindor. Antonetti is only in the driver’s seat in regards to the timing of any trade, but not the amount of money available to spend on player payroll. He’s likely given a budget and ordered to work within it.
I’m afraid that other teams are attempting to low ball the Indians for Lindor’s services due to the fact that they already know that they cannot afford to extend him. If this is the case, and I fully expect it to be while continuously worsening, then the small market clubs like the Indians will rarely, if ever compete and be stuck in a constant rebuild. MLB is in a sad state of affairs when it comes to competitive balance. Worst in professional sports by a long shot.
I like how you assume the acquiring team will be able to “just lock him up.”
jimthegoat, IMO, a team acquiring Lindor at the deadline is likely in it to push their team over the top. The flip side would be a team acquiring him now may believe they can lock him up. Just my thoughts
It’s not good to think in those terms.
If CLE was offered any of those four dudes they should have jumped right into final negotiations.
Smart move — he’s already been taken to the cleaners once this off-season trading a 2-time Cy Young winner coming off a down year for a RP with upside and (not that Delino DeShields). Spend that savings well, Chris.
Maybe to keep Lindor…
He’s saving $300M to extend Lindor??
How much is it going to cost to keep him?
They can learn the lesson the O’s did by holding onto Machado way too long. Or they can get on it and maximize his value before his inevitable departure.
The Orioles are in the same division as the Yankees and Red Sox. They HAD to take advantage of a time frame when neither of those teams were at their best. I respect them for trying to win during one of the very few times when the AL East competition was weaker than usual.
It’s the same reason that the White Sox were foolish to start their rebuild when they did. Sure they have accumulated prospects, but they sold off their 80 win team at the exact same time as KC and Detroit sold theirs and before Minnesota’s farm jelled. That 80 win team could have easily become a 90-93 win team with a couple of FA buys and later sell offs and got them a couple of division titles. Or at least put them in serious contention. Instead they sold off and basically let Cleveland win a 1 team division for 3 years.
Rebuilds are necessary at times, but you have to pay attention to where your division rivals are in their time frames as well. Otherwise your rebuild might coincide with a richer rival’s rebuild.
The Indians were the first runner-up to the second Wild Card team in 2019 and haven’t lost anyone truly important this offseason. No reason to believe they can’t contend in 2020. Trading Lindor would kill their chances of doing that though.
Are you counting Kluber as unimportant because of his absence in 2019? That would make sense. On the other hand, is Cleveland strong enough without Kluber to overtake Oakland or Tampa Bay (or Minnesota), or hold off the improved Chisox?
Yes.
They were almost strong enough without Kluber to do all that in 2019. A few things are going to have to break their way but the same is true for almost every team with any hope of contending. If they trade Lindor they don’t have a chance.
Jury is out on whether the Indians are a better team in 2020. We know the White Sox have improved, and perhaps the Tigers and Royals snag another win apiece against Cleveland over their 2019 total. If the Chisox gain a couple more victories in head to head, that means trouble for the Indians.
Even if they extended Lindor, that contract would hamstring them so bad that the rest of the roster would be sub par in the coming years.
At what point in time do teams like the Dodgers stop even attempting to trade for players like Lindor and just opt to be extremely aggressive when they reach FA? MLB is broken and they better fix it or the season will be a playoff of 4-5 teams and that’s it.
That is where it gets complicated. On the surface it definitely would cause some issues with payroll if they extended him but that probably wouldn’t be an issue until 2022 or 2023 when all the young pre-arbitraion players start to get raises. You figure some of them will be replaced with by players coming up through the minors that should be ready by then and look to be better but it will still be a spike in payroll. They will also have a large amount coming off the payroll after 20 or 21 with Hand and Santana depending on the options which would help to cover those raises.
The problem there are factors that we don’t know. Nobody knows what could change in the CBA after 2021 that could impact things. The Indians also have a rather low TV deal that only pays out 40 million a year that ends after the 2023 season. Based on the deals other teams are getting that are in smaller markets and have worse ratings than the Indians its being predicted that they should be able to get double that amount if not more when they renegotiate. If the team is breaking even at the 110-120 million mark then there would be no reason that they couldn’t translate the extra money into a considerable increase in payroll while still making a profit. It comes down to whether they want to take a calculated risk on it and based on what we have heard it doesn’t sound likely.
MLB isn’t broken, some owners just pocket the money they get. The Dolans own cablevision so if they wanted they could afford 9 lindors. Some fans are just stupid like cdav45. Some owners want to win, others just want to be competitive, so they can keep lining their pockets.
@peraza34688. How am I stupid? I never gave a reason why they can’t afford Lindor or even if they actually can. All I’m saying is that they won’t sign him because of the limited payroll flexibility it would create. Even if the limit on payroll is BS, so you can GFY.
That is where the Dodgers made a huge mistake this off-season. The Dodgers needed to give Boras a blank check and let him know that they needed to sign one of his big three players. That would have allowed them to hang onto the two or three top young players who have such surplus value versus their controllable years, that if you overpaid even by $50 million on any of those three players, you would still be good shape by keeping young core talent. $350 or $375 million or more for Cole for 9 or 10 years, so what? He would have been the key to maybe multiple championships over the next five years.
Dodgers just flushed 80 million down the toilet on Pollock and Kelly last off season. Not a huge deal if you flushed a similar amount down the crapper on the back end of a Cole, Strasburg, and a lesser extent on Rendon.
True I remember the New York hockey rangers, also owned by Cablevision who before the NHL salary cap spent over 90 million a year in payroll and missed the playoffs each of those seasons. All these teams have money, but they don’t feel any real urgency to win. They just want to be competitive so the fans keep spending money on tickets and merchandize.
Love it Jersey shore !!!!!! Lets not forget the innagurial 80 mill flushed to Kaz and Mccarthy that is STILL on the books (kaz 8 mill this year)!!!!!!
These guys have no clue how to spend money….I agree overspend on a no brainer guy not a guy in Pollock who didnt even start game 5 of their elimination game last year- Great points !
Sickest part is nobody was going near that range on Pollock and Kelley……. they over-pay piles of dung then set stringent lines on actual impact players disgusting
If all things MLB were equal the Indians would keep Lindor (who would replace LBJ in the hearts of Clevelanders) and still have enough to build a team around him.
I have just as much of a chance of retiring a billionaire.
Baseball is a market driven sport. The Indians will never have a bankroll to compare with larger market teams and that means Lindor should be traded IF the return is there.
I love what Kluber has meant to the Indians but they waited a year too long to trade him. A year ago a trade would have netted a bigger return and more flexibility: look at what the Twins did with the money left over from Joe Mauer.
The bottom line is the Indians aren’t a major market team. That means Lindor finishes his HOF career elsewhere with the only hope that the team can get a good return in a deal. No change of ownership is going to change that
Maybe a time machine?
I believe a deal for Lindor before spring training starts will be struck