Indians’ manager Terry Francona spoke clearly and confidently during an appearance on MLB Network Radio’s Remember When (audio link). According to Francona, Francisco Lindor is not on the trading block.
“I can guarantee you we’re not trying to trade Lindor. We have him for two more years. Keeping him is everybody’s goal. Also know that keeping him and fielding a competitive team is a challenge in our market. There’s no getting around that. It’s not gonna be easy. I think that’s as honest as you can be.”
This jibes more-or-less with what we’ve been hearing out of Cleveland for most of the offseason. Still, Francona lends the message a certain gravitas. If the tone was more forceful, the content doesn’t differ all that significantly from the the equivocating trafficked by front offices. The Indians, like many teams, are in a position of financial maneuvering. The payroll limits imposed by ownership charge the baseball ops department to act creatively and consider options at which they’d otherwise scoff.
Doom and gloom aside, the Indians aren’t devoid of talent. Despite missing the playoffs in 2019 to a Twins team that’s continued their full court press this winter, the Indians are coming off their fourth consecutive 90-win season. They won just one less game in 2020 than in 2016, the year they won the pennant.
How many times do Indians higher-up’s have to say this?
I realize that the Jon Paul Morosi’s of the world – having nothing of value to sell – have to make a living spreading innuendo via the Internet but when is enough, enough?
Agree on Morosi
This was all a pile of crap. Just like with the Red Sox trying Mookie. Neither was gonna happen.
I would throw Arenado into that mix, as well.
Agreed. Lindor was in the same position as Kluber and Bauer were last winter: there’s a difference between listening on someone and trying to trade them. If they had gotten a godfather-type offer for Lindor, sure, but they were never *trying* to trade him. Big difference.
Indians brass sends out there manager to make this statement due to all trade proposals they’ve got so far are laughable.
Maybe they’re just expecting too much.
Maybe they should be.
The payroll is under $100M right now. There are no financial constraints since they dumped Kluber like hot garbage. Now go spend some of that money!
They won’t, they too cheap
Idk what’s more frustrating; working in the baseball ops dept or being a fan. They should be adding to that roster
They have a middle of the pack farm system.. not enough talent in the majors to contend and they don’t wanna spend.. they view there window to contend as closed and are hoping on a miracle in a much tougher division for 2020.. how do you have a 90 win team and tons of free money from revenue and not spend it for the fans? It’s pathetic. Same can be said for the twins and starting pitching. They supplemented regression on the offense with Donaldson and have a HORRIBLE starting rotation. All they needed was starting pitching and bullpen help… it’s laughable for a 100 win team. White sox added like 80-100 homers 80 doubles, starting pitching, bullpen help. and everyone just keeps getting better on their team as they are young and locked up… It’s only a matter of time before they dominate and other executives know it.
If they viewed their window as being closed, Lindor would be gone. There would be no sense in keeping him and passing up good offers now just to keep him if they didn’t think they could contend. Maybe they still won’t win the division, but they don’t think their window is closed.
Also, within a year or two I expect their system to be one of the better ones in the league if a few guys keep developing. The average age of their top prospects is significantly younger than any other team, and if even a few of their guys in rookie ball and the low minors pan out, they could make some noise.
“If they viewed their window as being closed, Lindor would be gone. There would be no sense in keeping him and passing up good offers now…”
Maybe they just don’t like the “good offers” they’ve gotten, like the Sox with Mookie Betts and those offers. Maybe the Indians and Red Sox have simply been expecting too much. The Indians have time with Lindor. The Red Sox’s clock on Betts is ticking. They could be left with a fourth round pick next year.
Lindor is part of the Indians organization. If another team WANTS him, then that team should pay the cost it takes to get him. Yes, they can TRY to negotiate the asking price but ultimately it’s the Indians call.
The offers aren’t going to get better as Lindor’s remaining club control evaporates. They are going to get worse. The Indians are keeping him because they don’t view their window as closed just yet.
@jimthegoat This is what I was trying to say. I agree.
Middle of the road farm system? That’s completely untrue. You think one of the best starting pitching rotations is middle of the pack? Wow. Also, all they really need to do is solidify the outfield. They could re-sign Puig to achieve this or go after a left fielder. Otherwise, the team is pretty solid.
Remember When is a great show. Just wanted to mention that.
Treadstone is pretty good, too.
“Despite missing the playoffs in 2020 to a Twins team that’s continued their full court press this winter, the Indians are coming off their fourth consecutive 90-win season. They won just one less game in 2020 than in 2016, the year they won the pennant.”
Did I sleep through an entire baseball season?!
4 comments before anyone noticed LOL
Surprised it hasn’t been updated, the problem with the Indians win total is the division. What really magnifies Boston’s crappy season last year was just 84 wins when they played the Orioles and Jays so often.
For some reason or other, the Red Sox are generally lousy vs. the O’s. Even in their good seasons.
I wonder just how they missed the playoffs by one game in 2020? How did they lose one less game in 2020 than 2016?? come on nobody caught that??
We figured out pretty quickly it was a typo.
They actually used ambiguous language and left themselves an out in case they trade him. He said they are not “trying” to trade him and keeping him is everybody’s “goal.”
Not intimating they will, just pointing out that it’s useless to keep asking because the same answer will be restated. I don’t blame Morosi, because these sports media guys are getting the information from people with access to that type of information, and their job is to report it.
Imo, they will keep him for the duration of his contract because they are still competing… unless they are blown away by an offer and literally get the farm.
Didn’t they ask teams to submit their best offers?
Russian: as a matter of fact, I believe you are correct, sir.
All just a show.
Not just a show, None of the “best offers” moved the needle. Obviously the Indians placed a value on him and the offers haven’t been up to their liking. They could still change their mind at any time. The Internet has created expectations but trades are best off not talked about until they’ve been made.
My theory is that they wanted everyone’s best offers to just put an end to the situation.
If they got a good offer then maybe they would have considered trading him, but I imagine that once they didn’t get a good enough final offer they decided enough was enough and just took him off the market entirely.
Just because you ask for everyone’s best offer doesn’t mean you are obligated to take one.
I think the people writing off this team are making a mistake. They dealt with a lot of injuries and still won 93 games.
Returning talent, if healthy, should give them a 90 win floor. Good enough to contend for a Wild Card.
The Indians started the season with a healthy Kluber, Bauer, and Cookie, and still lost 8 more games than the Twins last year. Two of those have been traded, the third is recovering from cancer, and their two main division rivals have gotten a lot better. They won’t be able to walk all over the White Sox again. They probably won’t win the division, and they’ll be hard pressed to win a wild card spot over BOS/NYY/TB/HOU/OAK/LAA. They’d have to be better than 4 of those teams and I just don’t see that happening. Their rotation is still Ok with 2 really good arms, but their bullpen is terrible and they have one of the worst outfields in the majors. Anything can happen, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
The Indians did indeed start the season with those players in the rotation, but let us not forget that Kluber (a notorious slow starter) was not effective and missed the rest of the season, Carrasco was pitching WITH cancer unbeknownst to him and the team, and Bauer was up and down. Plus the rotation lost Clevinger early on and for several weeks and Lindor missed nearly the first month of the season. Mercado started the season in AAA and Franmil wasn’t yet on the team. The team from early 2019 you mentioned is far different from the team that will start the 2020 season.
Ramirez also missed a month
How is the bullpen terrible? Was number 1 last year, no one was lost that can’t be replaced. Not saying they will be great, but bullpens are iratic from year to year any way. Rotation lost 1 guy that didn’t contribute last year. He might do well in Texas, but still isn’t a huge loss. They could sign ozuna and puig and have a dangerous lineup and the best rotation in the division. My hope is they sign one and give Johnson a shot. No matter what, to write them off as not being able to win the division is idiotic at best. The juiced ball gone, they should be the favorite. They may not be constructed for juiced balls, but they are constructed to compete against teams that are. So we will see what ball mlb uses and go from there
How is the bullpen terrible? Was number 1 last year, no one was lost that can’t be replaced. Not saying they will be great, but bullpens are iratic from year to year any way. Rotation lost 1 guy that didn’t contribute last year. He might do well in Texas, but still isn’t a huge loss. They could sign ozuna and puig and have a dangerous lineup and the best rotation in the division. My hope is they sign one and give Johnson a shot. No matter what, to write them off as not being able to win the division is idiotic at best. The juiced ball gone, they should be the favorite. They may not be constructed for juiced balls, but they are constructed to compete against teams that are. So we will see what ball mlb uses and go from there
The Indians are no longer in a cake walk division. It would be interesting to see how their pitching holds up. No team gets more out of soft tossers than the Indians.
It’s probably still the worst division in baseball, but it with three teams doing it three different ways, it might be the most interesting.
He’s off the market bc the trade market is desolate. No team cares to trade high end controllable talent. Not even for one of the best players in baseball. When both SD and LA passed I thought for sure the reds were going to trade senzel for him yet they passed too. Can’t give lindor away like the other players. Have to sit and wait and hope the market changes.
And based on this info. Bryant’s return is I’ll be so low I’ll be able to hear cubs fans crying all the way from Louisville
I would agree after seeing the return for Kluber
You are correct Les. Teams aren’t trading premium prospects anymore. 5 years ago the Indians could have easily gotten a Lux and May or a Gore and Patino package easily for a star like Lindor. Prices have changed. They just haven’t been offered enough to make it worth their while to trade him.
Cubs fans are still expecting both the moon and stars for any of their tradeable assets, none of whom are as good as Lindor. They are going to be quite disappointed yes!
Dunno. They’ve been skating, relying on a terrible division. But Minny looks better, the White Sox could easily get on a roll; either way, they’re definitely coming. Indians young pitching is excellent, but there’s little positional depth. And I think they miss Kluber at “nut-crunching” time.
The AL Central is a real division now.
And then they will play the games!!!
MN has horrible starting pitching, some of whom won’t be playing for half the season. Chicago has proven nothing to date. The Indians have the best rotation in the division and plenty of depth there. If they want to trade Lindor, the time to maximize his value is the trade deadline, not now. Contenders will be more likely to give up prospects if they’re close than they will right now. If the Tribe isn’t in first place, or within a few games, they’ll probably get offered much more for Lindor then.
It seems like the Indians going conservative on costs/salaries gained momentum after minority owner John Sherman sold his approximate 30% of the club and bought the Royals. Coincidence?
That isn’t quite common knowledge yet but it’s a theory that’s been floated around for a while
it doesn’t jibe at all, TC. Kluber’s (imo idiotic) salary dump notwithstanding, there is a massive disconnect between the media drooling over big stars on Cleveland like Frankie and clevinger playing for bigger markets, and the willingness of Cleveland to actually make deals that would effectively be torpedoing any playoff chances.
Translated: We didn’t get any offers we liked.
To your point: Since they DIDN’T get ANY offers that THEY LIKED, they are going to KEEP him. He’s under contract with them for 2 more years. How many of you have a $100 U.S. dollar bill? I will give you $10 for it. What? No takers? What a surprise.
More like dollars against some foreign currency that has been going up. Where $100 used to be worth 1000 of said foreign currency, it is now only worth 200. The Indians can still hope for 1000, but they won’t get it. The market has changed. Rental prices have dropped, especially for high end, expensive rentals.
Dumb question. Is Cleveland really a small market? If so, why?
They have NFL and NBA teams, which is usually indicative of a strong economic base.
Being able to support three different sports teams isn’t necessarily indicative of a large market (Minneapolis is another that came to mind, and they have four teams there). In relation to other markets, Cleveland’s is relatively small.
Who the f:&;€k still used a pay phone
To quote the great Alex Lifeson at Rush’s induction at the RRHOF………….
Blah, blah, blah…. BLAH BLAH!
Everyone is on the trading block always. Some are just more near “impossible” to get than others.
Would love my Braves to somehow get him. Shift Swanson to 3rd maybe? Cost would be insane so if I’m being honest if the Braves weren’t willing to pay the cash to get JD, they won’t be willing to pay the cash and prospect capital to get Lindor (which combined would cost way more)
I’m not knocking the article at all – and I agree that the Indians aren’t actively shopping him – but of course the manager would say his best player’s not being shopped, even if he was.
He will probably b traded now with his comments, for the right package it will b a done deal!!
I’am still mad that our front office couldn’t sign Brantley for 14 -17 million what a bargain , telling me we would have not won more games with him , cheapskates
Don’t forget Brantley’s injury history. Let’s see if he stays relatively healthy in back to back seasons.
Thank you, now will my fellow Reds fans please drop it and focus on something else!
I don’t think Francona is in any way being disingenuous in what he’s saying, but there’s a big difference between “trying” to trade someone and having no intention or plan to trade someone. Where the Tribe is in July will be the biggest determinant of Lindor’s location. Based on the growing strength of the Twins and White Sox it’s very possible CLE could be in 3rd at the ASB.
I think part of the situation is that there’s a team who consistently and repeatedly looks to take the best player off of a competitor to try to buy a championship. Whether it’s greedy cole, aroid, giambino, rocketman, moose, cece bean, randy’s johnson, kevin’s brown, chef yield, wells bells, matt damon, smells buried treasure, stanton on the sidelines, sack britain, how old is chapman, or any of the other suspiciously flawed characters of this millennium, this team might as well be in every rumor about any good player on any decent team.
What’s it been? Two hours since your last Yankee bashing? Have to trash an Indians thread with your vomit? You’re obsessed. You think about the Yankees more than your own Red Sox. Like an 11 year old Red Sox fan. I know because I grew up with them. You’re a child. Add Manny and Big PEDi to your list, if you care to be intellectually honest.
Like the Red Sox buying David Price and trading for, then buying Chris Sale? Effectively buying and then cheating to steal the 2018 WS with a record payroll of $246MM, $30MM than the next highest payroll, and sign stealing?
Just because I toss a pebble at your window doesn’t mean you have to open it up and throw up all over the bushes. It’s good fertilizer but it smells awful.
A pebble. Ha! And you do this 20 times a week. Obsessed. You’re obsessed! You’ve spewed your crap so many times, do you really think you’re adding anything new or of value to the conversation? No, you’re not. You’re just being anti-social and trashing threads.
You remind of the guy who walks into mixed company at a Thanksgiving celebration of extended friends and family and starts spewing offensive political opinions. Like everyone owes it to him to listen. He’s depending on THEM to be polite, listen, and bear it, so he can have his audience and say whatever the heck he wants, without consequence. What happens? He starts and argument. Does he take responsibility for it? No.
This is mixed company here. Try being sociable. Just try it.
Since they cant get what they want for Lindor now and I assume his trade value gets less with each month that goes by because of team control, why not try to extend him? Hes got to understand if they offer him a fair long term contract with money they have saved & with always the possiblity that injury could lessen his value, he may sign.
They’ve already attempted to extend him, and he’s chosen to bet on himself.
I understand betting on himself. So if Indians offer him the best they can maybe including a little bump in this year contract and over what he should get next year. And if they cant sign him, get best offer they can, save the 18 millionish this year and more next year, take trade pieces from Lindor and look for free agent or agents next year with what they saved in salary.
Except he’s been vocal about hitting the open market, hasn’t he?
Then Cleveland should trade him from a position of strength has Lindors return from a trade diminishes with each passing month. They may have to come to realize teams looking to obtain Lindors “rental” services will not trade the “farm” for him because they would then be in the same position as Indians.
Trade Lindor and get the building block to be a contender sooner than later
they already ARE contenders.
For what? The Twins are going to win the Central and even if they get a wild card, the Yanks and/or Stros will obliterate them. The A.L. is just a bad place to be right now and instead of losing Lindor for a lone comp pick in 2 years, the Tribe could be getting 2 or 3 good prospects/major league ready pieces.
Lies
The pertinent statement about Lindor is the one Paul Dolan made.
“Enjoy him. We control him for three more years. Enjoy him and then we’ll see what happens.”
fox8.com/2019/03/25/indians-owner-on-future-of-fra…
I don’t know enough about the Indians to speak knowledgeably about them let me make that disclaimer. But Kluber and Bauer are gone I do know that. That seems like an awfully big subtraction. Personally I didn’t see them as any guarantee this year or for the future but from their playoff run a few years back those two names seemed to be brought up a lot when breaking down their chances. Haven’t heard of any free agent signings that would make me believe they’ve been replaced. Do they have young in house options to take over those positions? If this a retool then where are the additions I’ve only seen the subtractions. They may have added a prospect or two but that’s not retooling that’s rebuilding. Retooling means taking an asset off of your mlb roster of high value then using either money saved, mlb talent directly in return, or prospects in return to use in other areas. I’m pretty sure that hasn’t happened. All I’ve seen or heard is offloading of the rotation for prospects(maybe not enough on that front)and instead of hearing how they are looking to use them combined with the payroll reduction to add we are hearing rumors of more unloading. At this if you are only going to subtract then subtract while you have assets and have a quick rebuild. If you’re going to retool then add already and quiet these rumors
But Kluber and Bauer are gone I do know that. That seems like an awfully big subtraction………Do they have young in house options to take over those positions?
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Yes, easily, but that depends heavily on Carrasco. But between Carrasco, Clevinger, Plesac, and Civale, they could add ~ 60 starts. That would replace Kluber (5.80), Rodriguez (4.63), & Plutko (4.86)..
If the rumors are true the Indians wanted Lux for Lindor. The .Dodgers would not do that.
Thats exactly why they wont trade him there gonna get everything they can from him while hes still wearing their uniform because they cant and wont be able to resign him. So theyll just keep him and sell it to the fans that they are still wanting to win even tho they arent getting past the wildcard
No need to delay the inevitable. Get the best deal you can by the summer and move on. We know you’re not going to make any real effort to resign him: stop with the BS and end the farce.
They can just take the Reds approach with all the great talent that will all soon be free agents. Just hold on to them until it’s to the point there trade value drops and then get garbage for them. You know like Cueto and Chapmen.