What Can Tribe Add In Free Agency

The calendar has turned to 2019 and that means football season is over in Cleveland, and spring training for the Indians is just a little over 40 days away.

What will the Tribe look like as they take the field in Goodyear to start getting ready to defend the American League Central Division title that they’ve held for three years?

One thing is for sure, president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff have to address the everyday lineup, because as it stands right now, it’s not good enough to be a serious contender to get to the World Series.

Another thing to consider is the age of the everyday players. The Indians finished the 2018 season as the third oldest team in the AL, behind just the Mariners and Angels.

So, the challenge is not only to get better, but get younger as well.

The only way to do that, it seems, is to trade a starting pitcher, either Corey Kluber or Trevor Bauer, for a package which would consist of a young position player and a top prospect to help the upper levels of the farm system, which is kind of barren right now.

However, if the front office can’t make that kind of deal, what else can they do to upgrade the lineup.

They could trade some prospects, but as we just said, the upper level is thin right now, and with Bauer coming up on free agency, we would prefer to keep the Indians’ top prospect, Triston McKenzie, who could be ready to hit Cleveland later this season.

That means the only option to improve the lineup would be free agency, preferably on short term deals to give the team flexibility going forward. This would allow the organization to look at a deal involving a starting pitcher after next season.

We would look at Nick Markakis to play right field. Markakis had one of best seasons a year ago, and is a professional hitter and a solid defensive player.

And he hit .310 with a 851 OPS on the road in 2018, meaning his home park held down his offensive numbers. He is also walking more as he ages, which bodes well for him holding his production as he ages.

He is also very consistent, with only one season in his 13 year career having an OPS below 700. His lowest on base percentage over the last five years? .342 in 2014.

As the off-season goes on, it is more and more likely you can get Markakis on a short term deal, say a one year contract with a club option.

The other hitter we would look at is 2B DJ LeMahieu, who has played in Colorado his whole career. This would move Jose Ramirez back to third base.

His on base percentage has slipped in the past two years, but he is only 30 years, and again on a short deal, we feel he could rebound in 2019.

He’s a .298 lifetime hitter, albeit in Coors Field, but he is a guy who puts the bat on the ball, and he’s also a three time Gold Glove winner, so he brings outstanding defense as well.

These two moves would lengthen the lineup for Terry Francona, and also allow him to ease in young players like Jordan Luplow and Greg Allen without the pressure to produce immediately.

This much is clear, the team has to address the lineup. With two superstars in the lineup and perhaps the best starting rotation in the majors, this isn’t the time to be wishing and hoping.

Why Tribe Needs To Deal A Starter.

After the Cleveland Indians dealt Edwin Encarnacion and Yonder Alonso in separate deals last week, there were many who felt the Tribe no longer needed to deal a starting pitcher.

We don’t feel that way.

We still believe a starter, either Corey Kluber or Trevor Bauer, will be moved before spring training (probably before the end of the calendar year) to clear out more money and to bring some young, controllable bats to the Cleveland lineup.

As it stands right now, the Indians lineup isn’t that strong. Here is a projected batting order for Opening Day–

Carlos Santana DH
Francisco Lindor SS
Jose Ramirez 3B
Jake Bauers 1B
Jason Kipnis 2B
Jordan Luplow RF
Tyler Naquin LF
Roberto Perez C
Leonys Martin CF

Is that lineup good enough to win 85 games, let alone 90? That’s up for debate to be sure.

And while the Cleveland rotation would be the best in the game, in the regular season, you need to score runs to win. The only team that reached to post-season in 2018 that didn’t finish in the top five of their respective league in runs scored was the Milwaukee Brewers, who were 7th.

In the post-season, pitching can and usually does dominate. But you have to score runs to get there, and right now, we aren’t convinced the Tribe has enough firepower.

It seems like much of the talk recently is about Kluber, and we are sure the “jokes” about trading a two time Cy Young Award winner will be plentiful.

However, if you can move the right-hander and his $17 million salary for 2019, and get a bat or two, or perhaps a bat and a reliable bullpen arm in return, doesn’t that lengthen the lineup?

And that’s exactly want the Indians need.

Let’s say Kluber is moved to Cincinnati for a package centering around top ten prospect, Nick Senzel, who would play third for Cleveland and is major league ready, OF Scott Schebler (who we don’t really like, but…) and reliever Amir Garrett.

With the money saved by dealing Kluber, the Cleveland front office signs Nick Markakis as a free agent on a one year deal. Suddenly, the Tribe lineup looks like this–

Santana DH
Senzel 3B
Ramirez 2B
Lindor SS
Markakis RF
Luplow LF
Bauers 1B
Perez C
Martin CF

And you would have Kipnis as a platoon player in left field and Greg Allen to play center against left handed pitching. If Senzel is the player everyone thinks he is, you now have a lineup that has more length, and should score more runs.

We don’t think something like this is possible without moving a starting pitcher. Perhaps the front office can be super creative and pull off a miracle, and we would love to see that.

Besides, your starting rotation would still be Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco, Mike Clevinger, Shane Bieber, and a mix of Adam Plutko, Cody Anderson, or perhaps Danny Salazar.

That’s good enough to get the Indians into the post-season, and once you get there, you only use four starters anyway.

It doesn’t have to be the Reds, certainly the Dodgers are a possibility and other teams as well. But, people who think the Indians only need one bat are delusional in our opinion, they need at least two.

The other way we see to make that happen in to deal from strength, and that means a starting pitcher.

We think the Tribe front office thinks the same way.

Tribe Deals Good First Step, Now What?

As baseball’s Winter Meetings came to an end, it appeared the busy week we all expected for the Cleveland Indians was not coming to fruition.

Then, in the next two days, Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff took the first steps in what we figured the organization wanted to do this off-season, reallocating the payroll in an effort to make the 2019 Indians better.

The first step was dealing Edwin Encarnacion to Seattle, and thus returning Carlos Santana to Cleveland. That saved (depending on where you get your information) an estimated $5 million on the ’19 payroll.

The other half of the deal sent Yandy Diaz, who it seemed the Indians were loathe to play, to Tampa Bay for 1B Jake Bauers, a top 100 prospect, who hit .201 with 104 strikeouts in 384 plate appearance for the Rays last season.

However, looking at the left-handed hitting minor league numbers, he didn’t have a profile of an all or nothing hitter.

We don’t understand the lack of gusto for Diaz, who’s high on base percentage (.361 in the majors, .415 in AAA) was never taken advantage of by the Tribe. We are disappointed in the lack of opportunity for a player whose only problem hitting was not getting the ball in the air.

Friday night, the front office cleared a spot for Bauers by dealing Yonder Alonso, another over 30 player whose hitting seemed in decline, to the White Sox for a minor leaguer, clearing another $8 million off the books.

This gives the Tribe a decent chunk of change to upgrade the roster and still keep the payroll where it was a year ago. And that figure might be the highest the ownership feels comfortable with, whether the fans like it or not, or they believe it.

If the organization doesn’t spend the saved money, then they deserve all of the criticism they will get. We don’t believe that will be the case though.

However, they still have a lot of holes. We believe to have a solid batting order, you need seven reliable hitters. Right now, the Indians have three: Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, and Santana.

That leaves them four short, and we don’t think they can fill them all in free agency. And don’t forget, they still need to address the bullpen too.

They need to either move Jason Kipnis in a deal similar to the Alonso transaction to free up more money, or continue to explore trading Corey Kluber or Trevor Bauer to fill two or perhaps three pieces.

Then you may be able to put a solid batting order out there every day.

We may be considered insane for saying this, but even if the Indians had the financial wherewithal to sign either Bryce Harper or Manny Machado, it really wouldn’t solve their problem.

It would simply make their top heavy batting order more top heavy.

We like what Jordan Luplow may bring, but he hasn’t proven it at the big league level. Same with Jake Bauers. Adding one or two players with some success in the majors, or a top hitting prospect (like Alex Verdugo of the Dodgers), would seem to be more helpful, and help the Tribe have the kind of attack which give pitchers nightmares up and down the order.

These two deals were a great first step for the front office, but now the real work has begun. Adding players who can help next season.

And don’t be fooled by people claiming they won’t have to trade a starting pitcher. They still do in order to reshape the team they want next season.

Tribe’s Off-Season “Plan” Makes Sense

We thought the Cleveland Indians would have made a major move by now, and by the time you read this, perhaps they have.

What is puzzling is the way a possible major trade by the Tribe front office is being viewed by many baseball fans here.

Part of it is reflex. Many people (including us) lived through the desert from 1960-1994, where the Indians where pretty much a joke throughout the sport, struggling to make payroll, and seemingly without a plan on how to be competitive.

The other part is the nagging thought that the Dolan family wants to cut the team’s payroll. Now, it is fair to say they don’t want to increase the budget for major league player’s salaries, we will stay firm to our belief that the Cleveland payroll will still be somewhere over $120 million in 2019.

After reaching the World Series in 2016, and having the best record in the American League the following year, last year’s team showed signs of regression.

Cleveland has the third oldest position player roster in the AL, and 4th oldest in all of the majors a year ago, behind the Mariners, Giants, and Angels. Every regular was over 30 years old except for Jose Ramirez and Francisco Lindor.

It’s tough to figure on any increased production for any player who has entered his 30’s. We aren’t saying it’s impossible, but it certainly isn’t likely.

So, the conundrum the front office has is improving the everyday lineup, and to do that, they likely have to deal from the strength of the team, the starting rotation.

Think about it. Comparing last year’s team to a possible 2019 lineup, where do you see improvement?

1B–Yonder Alonso was a disappointment and would not figure to get better.
2B–Jose Ramirez will be better than Jason Kipnis (but see below)
SS–Lindor, enough said
3B–We like Yandy Diaz, but he isn’t going to have a better year than Ramirez
LF–If Kipnis is the nominal starter there, he’s not hitting better than Michael Brantley
CF–A platoon of Leonys Martin and Greg Allen, might be an improvement
RF–Jordan Luplow? Are we sure he’s better than the Melky Cabrera/Brandon Guyer platoon?
C–Roberto Perez won’t likely hit better than Yan Gomes did a year ago.
DH–Edwin Encarnacion is turning 36 next month.

That’s three spots where you can legitimately think of increased production with people currently on the roster. Doesn’t bode well for a more balanced and better hitting attack in 2019.

So, if you can trade a starting pitcher like Corey Kluber or Trevor Bauer and improve your team at one or possibly two spots, doesn’t that make sense?

And if it’s Kluber, and you gain some cash to upgrade another position through free agency or my by getting a player another team wants to unload because of salary, isn’t that the right move?

This isn’t the NBA, where other teams will give you a good player for the expiring contract of a mediocre player. So, no one is going to give you a young, ready to play prospect for Jason Kipnis.

The front office knows they need to make the everyday line up better, and they are trying to make a trade from a position for strength.

It might be tough to swallow, but it absolutely makes sense.

Gomes Move Is First Step To Reallocating Payroll

The Indians dealt another key member of the team over the last five seasons on Friday, moving catcher Yan Gomes to the Washington Nationals for two minor leaguers (the 7th and 8th prospects on Baseball America’s mid season report.

Immediately, the criticism began from the Tribe is cheap faction in fandom. We say let’s see. If the Indians’ payroll is not close to where it was last season, then there is a valid argument.

However, as we have said all along, if Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff want to improve the 2018 Indians, they will need to clear some cash from the books, and that would give them the flexibility to add some players.

The Plain Dealer’s Paul Hoynes said it is difficult to contend while you rebuild, and while we agree in most cases, when you have two of the league’s top ten players in Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez, it is a bit easier.

Gomes will turn 32 next July, so he is past his prime. While still an excellent defensive catcher and handler of a pitching staff, here are his OPS since coming to Cleveland in 2013:

2013: 826
2014: 785
2015: 659
2016: 527
2017: 708
2018: 762

Last season was Gomes’ best offensively since ’14, so logic tells you he was going to slip back a bit in 2019. He’s not a guy who has real strike zone judgment either, his career high in walks being 31 in 2017.

In our opinion, that doesn’t lead to a player sustaining decent offensive numbers as he ages.

With Gomes making $7 million this year and with club options for ’20 ($9 million) and ’21 ($11 million), the brass figured they didn’t want to pay that kind of money for a season that probably won’t be as productive as last, so they dumped his salary.

That doesn’t mean there is a “fire sale” going on, it simply means the Indians are doing what we said they need to do since the off-season began, and that is reallocate the payroll.

They have a lot of money tied up in players who no longer are producing up to the level of their contracts: Edwin Encarnacion ($21.7 million), Jason Kipnis ($14.7 million), and Yonder Alonso ($8 million).

All of these guys are on the other side of 30 years old, and there performance has declined. Let’s say the Indians could manage to trade all three of them, plus Gomes, and that would clear over $51 million in salary, and if they plan to have a payroll close to 2018 level, it gives them a lot to spend.

If they decide to deal a starting pitcher, again, it is a move designed to reallocate funds and also a trade made from strength.

With the emergence of Shane Bieber, and the coming arrival of Triston McKenzie, there may be no better time to move a starter.

We would hate to see Corey Kluber dealt, but he will be 33 in April. If you can move him and get a young hitter and another young pitcher in return, you have to think about it.

You still have Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, Mike Clevinger, Bieber, and you can get another veteran starter with the money you save to hold you over until McKenzie is ready.

Remember too, the three pitchers Cleveland was obtained since the end of the season (Chih-Wei Hu, Walker Lockett, and Jeffy Rodriguez) all have starting experience in AAA.

So, don’t make any rash judgments on what the front office is doing until they are finished. We aren’t someone who think the Dolan ownership does no wrong, but right now, we believe the front office is just moving soon to be dead money in favor of younger players with upside.

And that’s what they should do.

Tribe Roster in ’19 Will Look Very Different.

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.

Keeping Lindor Should Be Tribe’s Priority

Earlier this week, Major League Baseball announced a television broadcast contract extension with Fox, which will pay each team an additional $24 million starting in 2022.

Coincidentally, the Indians’ Francisco Lindor is eligible for free agency following the 2021 season. So, we’ve found a good way for the Indians to spend that extra TV money.

We have pounded the drum on this for the past few years. If you can keep Lindor with the Indians for a total of at least ten seasons, or through the 2024 campaign (when he will be 31 years old), we will become universally recognized as the best position player ever to don a Cleveland baseball uniform.

Lindor currently has accumulated 23.9 WAR over his four years with the Indians. The all time franchise leader is Napoleon Lajoie with 79.9. The recently turned 25 year old shortstop had 7.9 WAR in 2018, and at his age, it would not be a stretch to think he will improve for the next several years.

So, let’s say he averages 9.0 WAR over the next six years. That would get him to 77.9 for his career, very close to Lajoie’s total, and ahead of Tris Speaker for second place.

However, this statistic has Kenny Lofton 4th in club history. We loved Lofton as a player, and believe he should have received serious Hall of Fame consideration, but he’s not the fourth best position player in team history.

Let’s look at traditional statistics.

Lindor has 665 base hits currently, getting 183 a year ago. If he averages 180 over the next six years, he would have 1745 knocks, which would rank 5th on the Indians’ all time list.

Home runs? The switch-hitting Lindor has 98 dingers to date. Averaging 30 through the 2024 season would give him 278 homers, second in club history behind recently inducted Hall of Famer Jim Thome. Keep in mind, Lindor has hit more than 30 in each of the last two years.

As for RBIs, Frankie is sitting at 310, getting 92 last year. If he averages 90 through ’24, that would give him 850, tying him for 7th with Ken Keltner in Indians’ annals.

Our guess is Lindor will be moved down in the batting order as soon as this year to take advantage of his pop, so that estimate might be conservative.

And in runs scored, Lindor has 377 runs, scoring 129 in 2018. Averaging 100 per year for the next six seasons would give him 977 tallies, putting him 3rd on the Tribe’s all time list.

So, as you can see, keeping Lindor for ten seasons puts him near the top in most of the major categories in Indians’ history. And we were conservative with some of the numbers because, so he might rank higher.

Keeping him beyond that, or dare say, for his entire career would probably put him at the top of those lists.

Also, at 25, and with just three full big league seasons under his belt, he has three top 10 MVP finishes.

We understand it takes two to tango, and Lindor has to want to stay here for awhile. But we say make it worth his while.

The big contracts this off-season will be Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. Once those deals are agreed to, the Tribe front office should have a good idea of what it will take to sign the shortstop.

We don’t want to hear about being a small to mid market in this case. Lindor is one of the top ten, if not five players in baseball. If you have to go over your comfort level to keep him, you have to do it.

You drafted and signed this guy, and watched him become a great player. They need to make sure he never plays anywhere else.

And your fan base deserves a player who never plays anywhere else too.

Bigger Market For Kluber Or Carrasco?

When baseball’s GM meetings took place a week ago, the rumors started that the Cleveland Indians were willing to move some of their veterans, excluding MVP candidates Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez.

Then came word the Tribe was talking to the Yankees about starting pitchers Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco in a big time trade.

That got us thinking…who would the fans rather see moved, and more importantly, who might bring the haul if they were moved.

Certainly, Kluber has had the more accomplished career. He’s a two time Cy Young Award winner, has finished in the top three in the voting four times, and is coming off his first 20 win season.

Carrasco has been one of the sports’ best starting pitchers since 2015, winning 60 games over the past four seasons, with an ERA under 4.00 each season. He has fanned 200 or more hitters in three of those seasons.

However, Kluber is older, he’ll be 33 on April 10th, and has more miles on his arm, having thrown 200 or more innings in each of the last five seasons. It also appears to many people that his arm slot became lower as the season went on in 2018. Kluber has the longer contract, which would give potential targets cost certainty for the next three seasons.

But the deal is for big dollars, he will earn $17 million in 2019, $17.5 million in 2020, and $18 million in 2021. Those last two years are at a team option.

Carrasco is signed for the 2019 season with a club option for 2020, at a deal that is far below what his performance has merited. He is making slightly over $7 million for ’19, and has a club option for $9.5 million for 2020.

Based on this information, Carrasco might bring back more in a trade than the Indians’ ace. The lure of getting a top notch starting pitcher at below market dollars could bring a huge return from other teams.

The market would seem to be contending teams for Kluber, while Carrasco could interest teams that are building for a playoff run in 2019.

Regardless, teams that would be a good match for the Indians would be organizations that have a very good farm system, particularly with major league ready talent.

A perusal of the top farm systems in the sport show several teams that would be interested in adding a top of the rotation starting pitcher. Those teams would be the Braves, Rays, Phillies, Yankees, A’s, and Dodgers. The Tribe wants to get younger on the field and would likely be looking for a young, controllable pitcher as well.

The Indians are able to consider such a move because of the depth of the starting rotation. Let’s say Carrasco is moved. The rotation would still be comprised of Kluber, Trevor Bauer, Mike Clevinger, and Shane Bieber.

The fifth spot would be between Adam Plutko and either a decent veteran signed in free agency, or somebody obtained in the deal for Carrasco.

Not many teams have that kind of rotation depth.

By the way, we like the minor trade the Tribe made yesterday getting OF Jordan Luplow from Pittsburgh for utility man Erik Gonzalez.

As we have said for years, we don’t believe Gonzalez will ever be a productive regular because of his lack of strike zone judgment. His career strikeout to walk ratio is 79:9.

Luplow has hit .300 in AAA with a 857 OPS at that level, and is solid defensively. That resume would put him in line to start in 2019 based on who the Indians have right now.

We are sure there will be more to come.

Hold On! Tribe Trying To Restructure, Not Blow It Up

The Cleveland Indians were in the news over the past weekend and extending into today after it was reported the team would be willing to trade some veteran players, not including Francisco Lindor and/or Jose Ramirez.

Many fans took this to mean Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff were going into rebuilding mode. This could not be further from the truth.

Of course, the team also declined to make qualifying offers to Michael Brantley, Andrew Miller, or Cody Allen, the Tribe’s primary free agents.

We have talked about the fact that the Indians’ offense was very top heavy in 2018, largely dependent on Lindor, Ramirez, and Brantley, and the latter doesn’t look to be on the roster next spring.

Combine that with the payroll in ’18 was as high as the franchise can have, and you can see some restructuring of the roster has to be done.

If you look at the every day lineup from the end of last season, outside of Lindor, Ramirez, and Greg Allen, everyone else was over 30 years old, which means improvement isn’t likely, so we are sure the Indians want to get younger.

The issue is that among the Tribe’s top ten prospects (from Baseball America) show the only position player who played above the AA level last season was 1B Bobby Bradley.

So, there is no help on the horizon from the minor leagues.

While we are sure the front office would love to move Edwin Encarnacion, Jason Kipnis, or Yonder Alonso, our guess is there wouldn’t be much of a return for that trio, it would pretty much be a salary dump for low level prospects.

So, you have to look at players who you can sell high on, and that brings us to Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, and Yan Gomes.

There is no question the strength of the Indians is their starting pitching, and they brought up a rookie into the rotation this season in Shane Bieber, and their top prospect is another starter in Triston McKenzie, who was at Akron last season.

Both Kluber and Carrasco are under reasonable contracts for the next two years, so they would have huge value for teams looking for starting pitching.

We believe you should A). Deal from strength, and B). Better to trade someone a year too early than a year too late.

Kluber is going to be in the top three in the Cy Young Award voting this year, the fourth time in his career that will be the case. However, he did show signs of wear and tear as the season went on.

Keep in mind, he has thrown 200 innings or more five consecutive seasons. His strikeout rate was the lowest since before his first Cy Young season in 2014. Is he starting a decline? That’s what the organization has to ask themselves.

His salary jumps from $10 million to $17 million this year and basically stays there through 2021 on club options.

Carrasco has less wear and tear on his arm (only one 200 inning season) and is still making under $10 million in 2019 and 2020.

Carrasco might fetch more in a deal for that reason.

Gomes is 31 years old and is coming off perhaps his best season in the major leagues. It would be a good baseball move to try to trade him at his peak.

This current group perhaps went as far as it could in 2016, and the organization gave them two more shots to win a title.

The front office knows they need to address the offense and they need some younger position players who have an upside.

The core remains the same. The Indians are still trying to get better for 2019. They aren’t starting the rebuild.

Hot Stove Season Opens For Tribe

Now that the World Series has ended, the Hot Stove season has started for major league baseball teams, and initially there are a lot of procedural things that must be done.

The first is making decisions on the contract options for many players. The Indians historically don’t offer many (if any) player options, they like to be the one making the decisions on an extra year for a player in question.

Both decisions made yesterday by the front office were no brainers, in our opinion.

The Tribe picked up the option on Carlos Carrasco, one of the best starting pitchers in the sport. Carrasco has won 35 games over the past two seasons, striking out at least 200 hitters in each year.

They passed on outfielder Brandon Guyer, saving $2.75 million. Guyer is a platoon player who feasted on left-handed pitching when he came over from Tampa in 2016, but in the subsequent years, he’s had injury issues and his production, while still good, isn’t at an elite level versus southpaws anymore.

Next on the agenda are making qualifying offers to the prospective free agents. We are sure such a deal will be offered to Michael Brantley, but the real questions would be Andrew Miller and Cody Allen.

If you make the offer, you have to be prepared the player will accept, and that’s why we would extend the deal to Miller only. If he’s healthy, which he hasn’t been since the middle of last season, he’s still a dominant reliever.

Allen has declined in performance in 2018, perhaps due to the wear and tear of making a lot of appearance over his seven years in Cleveland. It’s a tough decision and a tough business because Cody Allen has been a loyal player, willing to do whatever Terry Francona wanted him to do.

To improve the roster for the 2019 season, the Indians will need to gain some financial relief, meaning it would behoove the front office to look at highly paid players, who aren’t producing to the level of their contracts.

The chief players to look at here are Edwin Encarnacion, Jason Kipnis, and Yonder Alonso. It is doubtful Encarnacion can be moved, because being a DH limits him to American League teams.

The other two would be in play, but there is no question in our mind that Cleveland would have to eat some money to make any deal happen.

Moving both would lop about $22 million off the team’s projected salaries, minus whatever the team would have to pay to make it work.

Although they will be the favorites to win the AL Central for the 4th consecutive season, it would be hard to take them seriously as a World Series contender with an outfield of Kipnis in LF, Tyler Naquin in RF, and a platoon of Leonys Martin and Greg Allen in CF.

There is also the matter of rebuilding the bullpen, which with Miller and Allen’s likely departure has just Brad Hand as a proven, reliable option.

It appears the organization has high hopes for Jon Edwards, but it would be nice to have another proven arm in the ‘pen going into spring training. The cost for relief help would seem to be less than that of a solid big league hitter.

In a few days, we will know who is available in the free agent market and can examine some possible low cost options who could help.

The Indians have the stars, now they need to surround them with better secondary players.