We said this many times throughout this past baseball season, perhaps the best thing about the Cleveland Indians is that their two best players are 25 and under in Jose Ramirez (25) and Francisco Lindor, who just turned 24 a couple of weeks ago.
Lindor, who has two straight top ten finishes in the American League MVP voting at his young age, is under the Tribe’s control through the 2021 season, giving him four more full seasons with the Indians.
The Cleveland front office would undoubtedly like to sign their shortstop to a long term deal to keep him with his home ballpark being Progressive Field for the foreseeable future, but Lindor seems to understand his value gets higher every season, particularly if he keeps performing like he has.
At his age, he is getting nothing but better, and even with a slump last year in May and June, the switch-hitting Lindor still had a career high 842 OPS, mostly due to a career high .505 slugging percentage.
He had 81 extra base hits, made his second All Star team, and won his first Silver Slugger Award, in addition to being a finalist for the Gold Glove at short.
We are sure Lindor won’t sign this off-season either as he will likely wait until Bryce Harper’s free agency is resolved next off-season.
It has been said Harper could become the sports’ first $400 million player. If he gets that amount, you’d have to think Lindor will get close to that amount, if not exceed it.
Granted when Harper finished his third big league season, he was just 21 years old, two years younger than Lindor was when last season ended.
In those first three seasons, the highest finish in the MVP voting for Harper was 30th in his rookie season. He won the award the following season, his fourth year, but hasn’t been in the top ten since.
Harper and Mike Trout might be the faces of baseball, but Lindor’s definitely on a level right below those two. His personality and the obvious joy he plays with are things MLB should market, and will as he continues to get better as a player.
We made the point last off-season that if Lindor plays 10 years in an Indians’ uniform, he will be the greatest position player in franchise history. So, the stakes to keep him with the Tribe long term are very high.
In our lifetime, we haven’t had that player like George Brett, Derek Jeter, Tony Gwynn for this franchise. A truly great player who plays their entire career in Cleveland.
Remember that when Jim Thome goes into the Hall of Fame, perhaps next summer, he will be the first player to spend the majority of his career with the Indians to go into the Hall since Lou Boudreau. He was inducted in 1971!
Despite all the great players who were here in the 90’s: Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel, Thome, none of them can claim to have never worn another uniform.
We understand that’s not the way the sport is now, but wouldn’t it be nice if Frankie Lindor was that guy for our team.
We are sure the Dolan family, Chris Antonetti, and GM Mike Chernoff would like it to happen too. Lindor is that kind of player.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 