Little by little, the Cleveland Indians we have come to know are leaving the team. Some we knew quite well, others passed through quickly.
Lonnie Chisenhall, one of the longest tenured players in the organization signed a one year deal with the Pirates on the same day Josh Donaldson, who spent less than a month with the Tribe, signed with Atlanta.
And of course, there have been rumors of trades, mostly regarding more players who have been with the Indians since Terry Francona was hired prior to the 2013 season.
Players like Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Kipnis, and Yan Gomes are primarily mentioned.
While not all of them will be traded (we think), there is no question the 2019 edition of the Cleveland Indians will look very different from the past.
Obviously, no matter what occurs in the next couple of months, the Tribe will be led by Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez, both of whom finished in the top six in the American League MVP voting, and regardless of a trade, a stout starting rotation.
We have read comments from fans and media alike calling this a fire sale, or the Indians cutting payroll, but we don’t believe that’s the case.
Any moves made will involves redistributing the money the ownership can spend, because right now, they have a lot of money tied up in players in the decline phases of their careers.
Take Gomes, for example. He is scheduled to make slightly over $7 million next season. He’ll be 32 during the 2019 season, and had his best offensive season (762 OPS) since 2014 (785 OPS).
Why not trade him now after a good offensive season, in addition to his excellent defense and handling of a pitching staff? And you give yourself some additional money to address other areas of need.
As for Kipnis, it’s a matter of moving a player who appears to have peaked in 2016 and is owed a lot of money next season. It is doubtful the veteran will bring a lot in return because of his bloated salary. In fact, the Indians may have to kick in some cash to make the deal.
Even if they have to throw in $4 million, that still gives the organization an extra $10 million to upgrade other areas.
And we still believe Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff will move one of the starting pitchers to bring in the biggest prize, a young controllable bat who can add depth to the batting order.
We still believe Carrasco will bring the biggest return.
It may not end there either. The front office would love to move Yonder Alonso and/or Edwin Encarnacion freeing up more cash to spend, not to keep.
While we have seen some moves around baseball already, our guess is the Tribe will look to deal off some veterans before adding the new faces to the roster.
However, we reiterate that what the front office is doing to reallocating the payroll to try and prop the window open for several more years. At the end of the season, we came to the realization that everyone in their normal lineup was over 30 years old, save for Lindor and Ramirez.
That’s not a recipe to get better, especially offensively.
That’s the off-season goal of the front office in our opinion, to get surround the two MVP candidates with players with upside.
That, and rebuild the bullpen.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 