Indians Owner Paul Dolan On Team Name, Lindor, Francona
Indians owner Paul Dolan discussed several noteworthy topics regarding the team with the Akron Roundtable on Thursday, fielding questions from Amanda Rabinowitz of WKSU and a virtual audience, per Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com (links: 1, 2). Here are some of the issues Dolan touched on during the Q&A…
- The Indians are going to change their name, but the move may take longer than expected. While Dolan wants this to be the franchise’s final season with its current name, “It could be sometime in the middle of this year whether we know we’ve got it down where we can do it for 2022,” he said. “If not we’d have to push it to 2023. We’re working hard to get it done by then, but there’s no certainty in that.” Dolan added: “There aren’t many words in the English language that somebody doesn’t own in some shape or form. Particularly in the sports realm, that’s a real challenge.”
- Dolan also addressed Cleveland’s decision to trade its most recognizable player, shortstop Francisco Lindor, to the Mets during the winter. “We could afford a player like Lindor. We just couldn’t afford to build a team around him,” stated Dolan, who pointed out that it’s difficult for a small-market team to dedicate so much payroll to one player. It was no surprise the Indians dealt Lindor, as Dolan all but admitted in 2019 they’d eventually trade the four-time All-Star when he told the team’s fans to “enjoy him” while he was still on the roster. Lindor is down to his last year of team control, in which he’ll earn $22.3MM, and could score a $300MM-plus contract by the 2022 campaign. With Lindor gone, the Indians are projected to open 2021 with a paltry $53MM payroll, Jason Martinez of Roster Resource estimates.
- Terry Francona dealt with health problems last season and only managed 14 games as a result, but Dolan gave the 61-year-old a major of confidence Thursday. “I think he’s with us until he’s no longer managing,” Dolan declared. “He’s under contract for a couple more years (through 2022), but I feel like we’re now in a situation where he’s going to be here until he decides not to manage.” Francona, who previously won two World Series with the Red Sox, took over the Indians in 2013 and has helped them to a 673-519 regular-season mark with five playoff appearances and an American League pennant.
Latest On Potential Francisco Lindor Extension
In February, just over a month after the Mets acquired him from the Indians, shortstop Francisco Lindor said he would not be willing to discuss a contract extension during the season. That continues to be the case, the four-time All-Star told Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News and other reporters Tuesday.
“Like I said earlier, I will not be negotiating during the season,” Lindor stated. “I will go to free agency. If something carries on during the season, it’s not fair for me, it’s not fair for the team. I got to give everything I got into winning baseball games. So if it doesn’t happen in spring training, I will go to free agency. We’ll talk in November, December, whenever free agency starts.”
Based on his deadline, New York only has two more weeks to extend Lindor – a pending free agent who was its crown jewel offseason acquisition – but he revealed that the two sides have begun preliminary talks. The club gave up a package consisting of young infielders Andres Gimenez and Amed Rosario, right-hander Josh Wolf and outfielder Isaiah Greene for Lindor and righty Carlos Carrasco as part of an aggressive winter.
With Lindor on track to lead next offseason’s free-agent class, the Mets knew when they swung the deal that it would be a challenge to prevent the 27-year-old from testing the open market several months from now. However, considering the Mets have the majors’ wealthiest owner in Steve Cohen, they have a realistic shot to retain Lindor for what’s likely to be a long-term contract worth at least $300MM. Lindor noted Tuesday that he’s “very comfortable” as a Met, which should only increase their chances of reaching a new deal with him before the month is out.
Quick Hits: Mets, Lindor, Red Sox, Cordero, González
The Mets and Francisco Lindor will explore extension talks “in earnest” this week, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). Lindor has set opening day as the deadline for an extension, but the Mets have not appeared overly concerned by the limited timetable thus far. They are presumably confident in their ability to work something out in a short amount of time, or less concerned with the prospect of Lindor hitting free agency. If there were a year to allow a star like Lindor to test the market, after all, next winter is the time as there are plenty of potential options in the much-vaunted 2022 free agent class. While we continue to wait for progress on this front, let’s check in on some roster news from the Red Sox…
- Newly-acquired Franchy Cordero may not be ready for opening day, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. Cordero has yet to clear COVID-19 protocols. It would be understandable to be judicious with someone in Cordero’s position – a not-yet established big-league regular joining a new franchise. Especially considering Cordero’s spotty injury history, the Red Sox may want to prioritize getting Cordero’s year started with a head full of steam. The Red Sox are planning to start the season with a short bench, but Cordero’s delay could mean an early roster spot for Michael Chavis or Marcus Wilson. By adding Marwin González and Kiké Hernandez this winter, the Red Sox have afforded themselves plenty of roster flexibility.
- González figures to find himself playing left field against lefties even when Cordero returns, writes the Athletic’s Chad Jennings. But he won’t be much help in center, whereas Cordero could see some time in the middle. While they wait for Cordero – assuming Jarren Duran doesn’t make the roster – Boston is without a clear every down option in center. Alex Verdugo and Kiké are the two players on the roster most clearly prepped for the spot, but Boston does seem to favor Duran joining the team at some point during the 2021 season. Not only has the youngster received favorable comparisons to Grady Sizemore this winter, but he’s gone 5-for-11 with a .500 OBP through their first six spring games. Though that means very little in terms of statistical significance, first impressions at this level can certainly impact an organization’s viewpoint on a player.
East Notes: Mets, Orioles, Nationals
Mets President Sandy Alderson said that he expects extension talks with Francisco Lindor and Michael Conforto to begin soon, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). Both players are scheduled for free agency after the 2021 season. Lindor, for his part, has made clear that he will not negotiate an extension beyond opening day, so the window is now for Alderson and the Mets. Alderson also put forth Noah Syndergaard‘s name as a potential extension candidate as well, notes Tim Healey of Newsday (via Twitter). Syndergaard, of course, is on the way back from Tommy John surgery and won’t likely appear until mid-season, but he will also be a free agent at year’s end. Extending those three would certainly cost a chunk of change, but the Mets do have roughly $100MM coming off their payroll next offseason. Interestingly, Marcus Stroman was not mentioned as an extension candidate. His $18.9MM salary could help provide the necessary raises next season for Lindor, Conforto, and Syndergaard. While we’re here, let’s check in with some other clubs in the East…
- Orioles outfielder Cedric Mullins is giving up switch-hitting to bat lefty full-time, writes Rich Dubroff of Baltimorebaseball.com. After a horrendous 2019, Mullins bounced back somewhat in 2020, doing enough to stay on the Major League roster to appear in 48 games and 153 plate appearances with a palatable .271/.315/.407 slash line. Mullins is trying to make the Orioles roster as a fourth outfielder, though there are certainly more at-bats available if he proves capable. Giving up his right-handed swing could force him into a more straight platoon, but he hasn’t been helped by his work on the short side of that split anyhow. For his career, Mullins has hit just .146 as a right-hander with a 26 wRC+ (versus 90 wRC+ as a lefty). The split was even more pronounced last season when he earned a 118 wRC+ as a left-handed hitter versus 34 wRC+ from the right side. If nothing else, Mullins should be able to simplify his routine by focusing on one swing.
- Erick Fedde may have stumbled upon a solution to his wandering fastball command, writes Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. In his first start of the spring, Fedde turned to his cutter, a pitch that has long eluded him as he has tried to establish himself as a Major League pitcher. Fedde’s cutter did not help his cause in either 2018 or 2020, per Fangraphs pitch values, though in 2019 it was his best offering. Fedde is competing for the Nats fifth starter job, though he’s not likely to win the job out of camp. With one option remaining, the Nationals have more roster flexibility with Fedde than with his competitors Joe Ross and Austin Voth. For Fedde to stick long-term, he probably needs both his sinking fastball and his cutter to work with more consistency.
Extension Notes: Lindor, Correa, Bieber, Bichette
New Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor revealed that there’s “mutual interest” in an extension, though he believes “it’s too early” for serious talks to start, per Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com. Lindor said in early January, shortly after the Mets acquired him from Cleveland, that he wouldn’t want to discuss a new contract during the season. His feelings on that subject seemingly remain the same, as he notes, “It would be unfair for me and the rest of the team to have ongoing conversations on an extension, and we show up on Opening Day and our mind is somewhere else.” Considering Lindor’s stance, the Mets figure to spend the next month-plus trying to lock up the 27-year-old, who has been a premier player throughout his career and who was the biggest acquisition the club made in the offseason.
- The Astros’ Carlos Correa could join Lindor as part of a star-studded class of free-agent shortstops next winter, but he would also like to secure a new deal before the upcoming season, Brian McTaggart of MLB.com writes. “If the Astros want to extend me, I would like to get it done before the season starts,” Correa said. “I feel good, my body feels great and I feel I’m going to have such a great season. Once the season starts, I don’t want to be involved and distracted with those conversations.” Correa, 26, put up uncharacteristically mediocre production in 2020, but he stayed healthy for the first time in a few seasons. He avoided arbitration Feb. 6 with an $11.7MM agreement for 2021, but he and his agent haven’t heard from the Astros about a long-term deal since then, McTaggart relays.
- Indians ace Shane Bieber hasn’t discussed a long-term deal with the club, but he’d be willing to do so, Zack Meisel of The Athletic tweets. The Indians don’t necessarily have to urgently sign Bieber, who won’t be eligible for arbitration until after 2021 or free agency until the end of 2024. But with the club’s low budget in mind, it could behoove it to extend the reigning AL Cy Young winner sometime soon.
- Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette told Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet and other reporters that he’s open to an extension, but the team hasn’t made him an offer so far. The 22-year-old Bichette has been a revelation for the Blue Jays dating back to his 2019 debut, having slashed .307/.347/.549 with 16 home runs and eight stolen bases in 340 plate appearances. Fortunately for Toronto, it isn’t in danger of losing Bichette in the near future, which would explain the lack of urgency in inking him to an extension. Bichette still has two pre-arbitration years remaining and isn’t slated to reach free agency until after 2025.
East Notes: Lindor, Yankees, Springer, Mets, Jays, Braves
The Yankees never made a formal offer to the Indians in talks regarding Francisco Lindor, writes Buster Olney of ESPN. The two teams kicked around frameworks involving Lindor before Cleveland dealt him and right-hander Carlos Carrasco to the Mets, but the Yankees evidently never put an official proposal on the table. It seems the Yankees were deterred by Lindor’s lofty projected arbitration salary for 2021, which eventually landed at $22.3MM. New York’s main focus all winter has been agreeing to a long-term deal with DJ LeMahieu, which the team finally pulled off this week.
More out of the East divisions:
- The Mets and Blue Jays have been the two teams most closely connected to George Springer this winter. Jon Morosi of MLB.com feels the Mets have the geographical upper hand, noting that the Connecticut native and former UConn star would prefer to play close to home. (Springer’s home town of New Britain is approximately a two-hour drive from Queens, compared to seven-plus hours to Toronto). Of course, geographical ties of this sort are often discussed as potential tiebreakers for prominent free agents but are rarely enough to overcome significant discrepancies in teams’ respective contract proposals. Indeed, Morosi acknowledges the possibility the Mets eventually turn their attention elsewhere, particularly if they manage to sign reliever Brad Hand.
- More from Olney, who notes that the Braves “appear highly unlikely” to re-sign outfielder Marcell Ozuna. The 30-year-old slugger had an incredible season in Atlanta after signing a one-year deal last offseason. Ozuna is now in line for a much bigger multi-year accord this winter. That doesn’t fit the general approach of Braves’ GM Alex Anthopolous, who has tended to shy away from longer-term deals since taking over baseball operations. Just last winter, the Braves watched Josh Donaldson, who had starred on a similar pillow contract in 2019, walk for a four-year deal with the Twins. MLBTR projects a $72MM accord over that same length for Ozuna.
Mets, Francisco Lindor Avoid Arbitration
The Mets and newly acquired shortstop Francisco Lindor have avoided arbitration with a $22.3MM agreement, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Lindor is a SportsMeter client.
Lindor’s settlement checks in even higher than the $17.5MM to $21.5MM arbitration projection MLBTR made for him earlier in the offseason. The four-time All-Star was still in Cleveland then, but with the team knowing it wouldn’t extend him before free agency next winter, it decided last week to send him to the Mets in a mega-trade.
Unlike Cleveland, the Mets look well-equipped to meet the 27-year-old Lindor’s demands on an extension. Lindor figures to eclipse the $300MM mark on his next contract, but that shouldn’t serve as a roadblock to deep-pocketed new owner Steve Cohen. The Mets may have to act quickly, though, as Lindor stated this week that he does not want to negotiate a contract during the season.
Francisco Lindor Open To Extension, But Won’t Negotiate During Season
The New York Mets introduced new shortstop Francisco Lindor to the media today via a zoom call. The video has been provided here by Newsday.
Of course, one of the topics discussed early in the conversation was the possibility of a long-term extension. Lindor and his representation at SportsMeter have yet to begin contract negotiations with the Mets. That said, Lindor isn’t against the possibility of staying in New York long-term. Per the Athletic’s Tim Britton (via Twitter), Lindor said, “I live life day by day. I’m extremely happy and excited about what’s happening right now, but I haven’t really sat down and talked to anybody (about an extension). I have never been against an extension…. We’ll see what happens.”
Lindor made clear, however, that if he does sign a new deal, he expects to do so before the seasons begins, per Britton and others. That’s been Lindor’s policy in the past, and he does not intend to change his stance this year. With spring training a little more than a month away, the Mets and Lindor have enough time to hammer out an extension, but they have a smaller window than the Mets might prefer.
Lindor was acquired last week from the Indians after Cleveland failed to reach an extension with their star shortstop. Lindor acknowledged that both sides made a good effort to get an extension done, but it just didn’t happen, per the Athletic’s Zack Meisel (via Twitter). The Indians offer never got as high as $300MM, and any extension Lindor signs will certainly cross that threshold. Despite the breakdown in negotiations and the eventual trade, Lindor had only positive things to say about his time in Cleveland, notes Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY (via Twitter).
MLBTR Poll: Grading The Francisco Lindor Trade
The Mets and Indians made perhaps the biggest trade of the offseason earlier this week. Star shortstop Francisco Lindor and right-hander Carlos Carrasco are now Mets. They represent the biggest pair of additions for a New York club that has been expected all offseason to pursue star-level talent.
Lindor, of course, was seen as a near-lock to be moved all winter. The Indians seemingly never came close to working out an extension with the four-time All-Star. With Lindor one season removed from hitting free agency, it looked apparent Cleveland would trade him away. Carrasco was less obviously going to be moved this winter, but it wasn’t a huge surprise the Indians parted with him, either. Carrasco’s two-year, $27MM deal (with a 2023 option) marked the biggest guaranteed contract on Cleveland’s books. Lindor’s projected arbitration range ($17.5MM — $21.5MM) would’ve easily been the Indians’ largest 2021 expense.
Each of Lindor and Carrasco remains a bargain at those rates relative to their on-field production. But Cleveland’s ownership has signaled a desire to cut payroll this winter; it wasn’t hard to foresee that coming via jettisoning the team’s highest-paid players. Cleveland’s estimated $40MM payroll, per Roster Resource, is now less than half the team’s 2020 season-opening outlay (prior to prorating).
While finances were an obvious element of the trade, it wasn’t a mere salary dump. The Indians brought in four young players, two of whom are immediate big leaguers. Amed Rosario is a former elite prospect who has been up and down over his first three-plus MLB seasons. Andrés Giménez was a highly-regarded farmhand himself and had a decent if unspectacular rookie year. The pair of prospects, right-hander Josh Wolf and Isaiah Greene, are recent high school draftees. They rank 25th and 28th, respectively, in the Indians’ farm system at FanGraphs.
Turning things over to the readership, how did each team fare in this week’s blockbuster?
(poll links for app users)
Grade The Lindor Trade For The Mets.
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A 79% (22,641)
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B 15% (4,346)
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C 3% (889)
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F 2% (432)
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D 1% (298)
Total votes: 28,606
Grade The Lindor Trade For The Indians.
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C 41% (10,729)
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B 22% (5,777)
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D 21% (5,437)
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F 11% (2,915)
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A 5% (1,288)
Total votes: 26,146
NL Central Notes: Carpenter, Alvarez, Cubs, Lindor, Reds, Eckstein
After struggling in both 2019 and 2020, Matt Carpenter has reshaped his offseason training routine in advance of what he considers to be a make-or-break year or perhaps even his final year in the big leagues, Carpenter tells Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Carpenter’s contract with the Cardinals is up after the 2021 season, unless he records at least 550 plate appearances to trigger an $18.5MM vesting option for 2022. “As far as guarantees, this is the last guaranteed trip to spring training, period, for me. Maybe for any baseball team, let alone St. Louis,” Carpenter said. “I think about that, and that’s why I say it’s such an important season for me personally. And that’s not even to say whether I want to play past this season. I just want to finish strong.”
Carpenter is entering his age-35 season, and he is likely correct in guessing that another tough year will greatly lessen his chances at anything beyond a low-cost MLB contract or even a minor league deal next winter. Carpenter finished ninth in NL MVP voting as recently as 2018, but has since hit .216/.332/.372 over 661 plate appearances in 2019-20. Between the Cardinals’ COVID-19 outbreak and the compressed schedule of make-up games once they returned to play, Carpenter didn’t feel the 2020 season was “a fair representation, hitting or pitching, good or bad” for the entire club. Still, Carpenter knows he needs to get on track, saying “the last two seasons, in my eyes, our offense has been about a bat short….I have basically been the one bat missing. I put a lot of the responsibility for the offensive woes the past two seasons on myself.”
More from the NL Central…
- As rumors swirl about Kris Bryant trade talks between the Cubs and Mets, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports (via Twitter) that Chicago has a particular interest in Mets catching prospect Francisco Alvarez. Currently ranked by MLB Pipeline as the 58th-best prospect in all of baseball, it isn’t surprising that the Cubs (and probably many other teams) would like to have Alvarez in their farm system, particularly if Willson Contreras might also soon be dealt away from Wrigleyville. In regards to a Bryant trade, it seems unlikely that New York would deal Alvarez for just one year of Bryant’s service. Even with James McCann now signed to a four-year deal, Alvarez might still be the Mets’ catcher of the future since he is only 19 years old, so the Mets surely have their eyes on grooming Alvarez to be ready by the time McCann’s contract is up.
- “The Reds were not involved in making any push to acquire Francisco Lindor” before the Indians dealt Lindor to the Mets on Tuesday, MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon writes. Acquiring Lindor to fill their hole at shortstop would’ve been quite the pivot for the Reds, whose offseason focus to this point has largely been on cutting salary, between trading Raisel Iglesias to the Angels, non-tendering Archie Bradley, and being open to trade offers for many high-priced stars. This isn’t to say that Cincinnati might not yet sign a shortstop from amongst the well-known free agent names still on the market, but Lindor was likely a bridge too far, given the prospect cost to pry him away from Cleveland and the likelihood that the Reds wouldn’t be able to sign Lindor to an extension beyond the 2021 season.
- David Eckstein is leaving the Pirates after two years as a special assistant to the baseball operations department, according to Alex Stumpf of DK Pittsburgh Sports (Twitter link). Eckstein made the move in order to spend more time with his family. The former 10-league MLB veteran is best remembered for his role in helping both the 2002 Angels and 2006 Cardinals win the World Series, even capturing Series MVP honors with St. Louis.