Tribe Can And Should Sign Lindor

The recent signings of Manny Machado, Nolan Arenado, and Bryce Harper have brought the fate of Francisco Lindor into the minds of many Cleveland Indians fans.

What are the chances the Tribe ownership will sign the shortstop to a long term deal before he becomes a free agent in 2021?

Most believe there is no chance because the Indians are a small to mid market, and they “couldn’t possibly” dedicate that large of a percentage of the big league payroll to one player.

We consider those people to be supporters of the “Dolan Cap”.

First of all, there is no salary cap in baseball, meaning the Indians’ ownership could spend whatever they want. And remember, there will be a financial windfall from the new network television deal with Fox starting in 2022, the year after Lindor’s free agency.

Second, notice the first two signings at the beginning of this piece.

Currently, Forbes Magazine ranks the Padres, who signed Machado, as the 17th most valuable franchise in the sport. The Rockies, who kept their superstar in Arenado long term (a 7 year deal) is 23rd, one spot ahead of…the Cleveland Indians.

So, if these two mid to small market teams can sign great players, the Indians can too.

Arenado is particularly comparable to Lindor, in that both are better than Machado and Harper, who signed with the Phillies.

The Rockies third baseman ranked 3rd in MLB Network’s listing of the 100 best players in the game right now, while Lindor was 4th. For the record, Machado was 14th and Harper 15th.

Arenado is 27 years old, meaning Colorado signed him through his 34th birthday. Lindor is 25 years, so a similar length deal (7 or 8 years) would keep him in a Cleveland uniform through age 33, at which time he should still be a productive player if he stays healthy.

Which brings us to another argument we hear. This is NOT the same situation as Albert Pujols or Miguel Cabrera. Pujols was 32 when he signed his 10 year contract with the Angels. The team knew they would be paying big money for declining years.

Likewise, the Tigers inked Cabrera to an eight year deal when he was 32 years old. They’ve seen one very good year thus far, and two injury plagued campaigns.

If the Tribe would sign their shortstop after this season to a seven or eight year deal, they’d be getting his prime years (27-29) and he would be 33 or 34 years old at the end. While he most likely won’t be the Lindor we’ve seen to date at those ages, we would go out on a limb and say he would still be a very productive player.

We have advocated this for a long time, not only can the Indians keep Lindor long term, they should keep him long term. He is arguably the greatest position player in the history of the franchise, which of course, goes back to 1901.

The last time the Indians has a player this good at that age was Manny Ramirez, who departed after his age 28 season. The Dolans did make a big time offer to the right-handed slugger, only to be aced out by the Red Sox in the end.

Here are the seasons Ramirez put up in his first five years in Boston:

2001: 1014 OPS, 41 HR, 125 RBI, .306 batting average
2002: 1097 OPS, 33 HR, 107 RBI, .349 (batting title)
2003: 1014 OPS, 37 HR, 104 RBI, .325
2004: 1009 OPS, 39 HR, 130 RBI, .308
2005: 982 OPS, 45 HR, 144 RBI, .292

At the time of his departure, Ramirez had two top 10 MVP finishes. Lindor already has three.

The point is, Lindor is better than anyone who has worn a Cleveland uniform in the free agent era.

And the Indians have some very good prospects in the low minors too. While there is more risk in projecting those players, if they progress, they should hit Progressive Field around 2021-22, providing low cost talent just in time to pay big money to a superstar player.

Don’t forget Lindor’s appeal to the fan base either. It has been reported that after the home opener and the Yankees’ series at Progressive Field, the next two highest advance ticket sales are Lindor giveaway days.

Of course, Lindor and his agent still make the decision, but we say the Tribe front office should make an offer he cannot refuse.

Frankie Lindor presents the Dolan family with a huge dilemma. Not signing him will seal their fate as an ownership that didn’t take the extra step needed to bringing a World Series title to this area.

Tank Or Not To Tank For Cleveland Teams?

After it was announced that Manny Machado signed a $300 million contract with the San Diego Padres, the conversation around town quickly turned to Francisco Lindor, and the possibility of the Cleveland Indians keeping him after he can become a free agent following the 2021 season.

Being Cleveland, we heard many fans saying if the Indians weren’t going to try to sign the star shortstop, then they should trade him now and start rebuilding for the future.

Which brings us to the question of the day: Tank or not to Tank?

With the Indians having the starting rotation they have along with two of the best position players (Lindor and Jose Ramirez) in baseball, a total rebuild is the last thing on the minds of the front office.

Especially with Lindor still here for three more seasons.

Now, if prior to the ’21 campaign, Lindor’s agents make it clear he will not re-sign with the Tribe and the team gets off to a poor start, dropping out of contention, you might see a deal for the guy who is arguably the best position player in team history.

However, no team is going to give up a chance to win a championship, and if the Indians win the AL Central they will have that shot, to start rebuilding.

Let’s look at two instances of rebuilding jobs in our own town–

The Cavaliers didn’t intend to tank this season, but when you lose LeBron James, drop your first six contests, and then lose your best remaining player for basically the entire first half of the season, you change your way of thinking.

Once you hit the end of November with one of the NBA’s worst records and Love is still going to be out until February, GM Koby Altman had to try and get one of the first picks in the June draft, and hopefully you get Zion Williamson with the first choice.

The Browns were stuck in mediocrity for most of the last 15 seasons, when then GM Sashi Brown decided to gut the roster, purging it of veterans and trying to go with young players who can hit their prime together.

We don’t believe he envisioned 1-31 over two seasons, but Hue Jackson’s guidance took care of that, and earned the Browns a franchise quarterback, and a franchise pass rusher.

In both cases, the circumstances (poor start and Love’s injury for the Cavs, an extended period of crap football for the Browns) dictated the tank.

Tanking isn’t guaranteed to work. While people point to the Cubs and Astros in baseball, both of those teams drafted very well, with Chicago getting Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber, and the Astros drafted George Springer, Carlos Correa, and Alex Bregman in the first round in a three year span.

Let’s say the Cavs wind up with the worst record and the fourth overall pick, do they subject their fan base to another year like this? It’s also tough for the front office/ownership to sit through.

And for the Browns, they tried a whole bunch of things. They tried helping young players by supplementing them with veterans. They tried getting veteran quarterbacks, getting players with local ties.

None of it worked.

Why not try what the Dallas Cowboys did when Jerry Jones bought the team and hired Jimmy Johnson. Gut the roster, accumulate draft picks, and see if that works.

We started to see the fruits of this plan, aided by hiring a good talent evaluator in John Dorsey, this past year.

If you decide to tank, here is the difficult question no one wants to ask–What happens when you don’t get the first overall pick?

You have to have a back up plan. If you don’t, you lose your job. That’s why more teams don’t do it.

Bad Winter For Supporters Of Tribe Ownership

If you have been a proud supporter of the Dolan ownership of the Cleveland Indians, this has been a tough winter for you.

The goodwill that came from hiring Terry Francona as manager after the 2012 season has been used up and once again, fans are questioning the ownership’s commitment to winning.

And when we say winning, we mean winning a World Series.

Perhaps the Dolan family got caught up in the emotion of getting to Game 7 of the Fall Classic in 2016, and gave Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff more to spend in the next two seasons, but that appears to be short lived.

A few days ago, Antonetti said in a story by Paul Hoynes in The Plain Dealer that we was told to trim the payroll. This is what has been feared all off-season. We figured the front office was just re-allocating money from declining veterans to younger players with upside.

However, we were fooled.

The ownership’s mantra has always been that they will spend when the time is right, and most fans figured that is when they had a chance to win. Most fans have to be scratching their collective heads wondering why the time isn’t right now!

The Indians have two of the best position players in the sport in Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez. They have arguably the best starting rotation in baseball.

When MLB Network aired it’s Top Ten Starting Pitchers Right Now, three Cleveland Indians’ were mentioned: Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, and Trevor Bauer. You could easily put all three in the top 15.

They are trimming the payroll when almost everyone who comments on the sport is proclaiming their outfield situation a mess. Their current set up would appear to be Tyler Naquin in LF, a platoon of Leonys Martin and Greg Allen in CF, and maybe Jordan Luplow or Oscar Mercado in RF.

Now, we like the centerfield situation. Martin is a solid bat against right-handed pitching and we have always liked Allen’s potential. We like him better than Bradley Zimmer, which may be heresy for some.

Since the end of July 2016, Naquin has accumulated 335 at bats, batting .248 with five home runs and 35 RBI. That’s not good enough for a team that should be viewing themselves as a World Series contender.

Luplow has very good minor league numbers, but he has less than 100 at bats at the big league level, and is hitting under .200 in those plate appearances.

Mercado has never had a big league at bat.

Couple those two positions with Jake Bauers (very good potential, but a .201 hitter and 726 OPS) and Roberto Perez, a lifetime .205 batter in the majors (638 OPS), and you have a lineup that would appear to have problems scoring runs.

As we always say, we aren’t expecting the Cleveland payroll to reach the same levels as the Red Sox, Yankees, and Dodgers. Why cut $15 million off the payroll going into the season where the front line talent is there?

We don’t believe for a single minute that the Indians are losing money, and we understand people own businesses to make cash.

In professional sports though, there is an obligation to win, particularly if you own a team that has the longest span without a championship in that respective sport.

Where is the commitment Indians’ fans deserve from the ownership? Let alone the commitment players like Lindor, Ramirez, Kluber, Carrasco, Bauer, and the rest of the players should be getting.

Tribe Front Office Not Exactly Appealing To Fan Base

The Cleveland Indians made some news this week, but not the kind the fans of the team wanted.

No, they didn’t sign a free agent bat, or trade a member of their deep starting rotation. But they did cause a stir because team president Chris Antonetti pretty much said the roster the Indians have now will be the one which will take the field in late March in Minnesota for Opening Day.

So, while the franchise isn’t in rebuilding mode, it does seem like they are no longer in “go for it” mode either.

Look, we understand the Cleveland Indians cannot have the same payroll as the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Los Angeles Dodgers. The market size simply doesn’t support that.

Last year, according to USA Today, Cleveland ranked 15th in the sport in money allocated to players salaries. Smack dab in the middle of all MLB teams.

They’ve shed the high salaries of Edwin Encarnacion, Michael Brantley, Andrew Miller, Yonder Alonso, Yan Gomes, and Cody Allen. The only high salary taken in this winter was Carlos Santana.

We agreed with many of these moves. Most of that group were aging players, their performance likely declining with the onset of Father Time. Unfortunately, it’s not like they’ve been replaced with young stud on the upswing.

Jake Bauers and Jordan Luplow could wind up being solid, if not very good, major league players, but in our experience, you can’t depend on two young players making quantum leaps to becoming solid contributors on a contending team.

Bauers has a career batting average of .201 in 350 at bats, while Luplow’s mark is .185 in less than 100 at bats.

And we know some of the money saved goes to increasing money to some of the Tribe’s stars. Francisco Lindor will make $10.5 million, Trevor Bauer around $12 million, and Corey Kluber will make an estimated $7 million more in 2019.

There’s too much risk in the current strategy. Would it be a shock if Bauers and Luplow don’t develop? Or Tyler Naquin can’t hit enough to play everyday? Or Jason Kipnis declines even more?

Even if only one of those happens, one would think the Indians are going to struggle to put runs up on the board.

Right now, they are assured of production at three spots: shortstop, third base, and wherever Santana plays.

With arguably the best starting rotation in the game, and two superstars in the lineup, why not spend at the same level as 2018? That’s the question for the Dolan ownership.

First, we would find it highly doubtful that the Indians lost money in 2018, or in any of the last five to ten years for that matter. The sport is flush with cash. They signed a new television deal that will provide all teams additional money in 2022.

Keep in mind, each team received $50 million last year when MLB Advanced Media sold some assets to Disney.

Stop blaming attendance too. While that took a slight dip in 2018, it is still 39% higher than the 2015 figure.

It figures to increase in ’19 because of the All Star Game being at Progressive Field this summer and there will be no Cavs playoff this year.

So, there’s no reason for ownership not to spend as much money as they did a year ago. Absolutely none.

A year ago, the Indians were on the same level as the Astros, Red Sox, and Yankees as the best teams in the American League. They’ve clearly taken a step back.

It’s not on the fans. It’s a decision made by the front office. If the Indians wanted to spend an extra $20 million in payroll in 2019, they could. It might not be prudent, but they could.

And there is no percentage of revenue teams must spend on payroll either.

Right now, the front office/ownership is showing they don’t want to go for it. And that’s something that should disturb the fan base.

Tribe Needs To Go For It, Not Reduce Payroll

In Sunday’s issue of The Plain Dealer, columnist Terry Pluto clubbed fans of the Cleveland Indians in the heads with his comment that the Tribe’s front office wasn’t going to equal last season’s payroll for this year’s team.

Many of us who thought the Indians were simply re-allocating payroll, meaning moving some high salaried veteran players to bring in some younger guys with more of an upside were living in a fantasy rule.

By the way, we don’t doubt Pluto has this correct. He’s one of the most respected writers in the country, and has very good contacts within the Tribe organization.

So, all of the critics of the ownership of the city’s baseball team can claim to be correct in believing this was a payroll dump all along.

Once again, it appears the Dolan ownership is hitting supporters of the team with the idea of spending money when fans buy tickets.

We understand the Indians have been very successful on the field over the last three season, reaching the World Series in 2016, and making the playoffs in each of the last two years.

Attendance jumped from 1.39 million in 2015 to 1.59 million in ’16, and then to 2.05 million after winning the pennant.

The number of paying customers did dip last season to 1.93 million. However, this is still 340,000 more people than visited Progressive Field in 2016.

It seems all ownership looks at is the slight dip from ’17 to ’18, and not the gain made from 2015, when attendance was a half million less than last season.

Look, we understand ownership probably went to the max in regards to payroll a year ago, but when you have a chance to win a World Series, which the Indians do, make no mistake about it, cutting the amount of money you want to spend on players seems counter intuitive.

First of all, the Indians have two of the best players in the game on the roster in Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez, and a starting rotation that is the envy of every other team in the sport.

As for this year’s attendance, we would project a bump because of the All Star Game being in Cleveland this season, and also because the Cavaliers won’t be a factor this spring.

In the past four years, the Tribe has been kind of an afterthought as the Cavs made their way through the post-season, which had them playing into June.

That won’t be the case this year, which we would imagine would free up some sports entertainment dollars for the Indians, if the organization would give people a reason to be excited.

News of a reduction in the payroll isn’t going to get people in northeast Ohio excited about the Indians. Signing a free agent or making a trade to improve potentially the least productive outfield in the game might garner some interest.

And starting to put out comments like the payroll is going to be cut because attendance dropped in 2018 certainly isn’t going to fuel positive interest.

We have said this before, but fans don’t care about whether or not the Dolan family makes a profit. To them, success is measured by wins on the field, and after 2016, when the Indians were this close to their first world title since 1948, they want progress in the post-season.

They want the front office to go for it.

We understand the financial limitations operating a team in this market, and we believe most fans get the Tribe can’t spend with the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers.

There is still a month before the Indians gather in Goodyear for spring training. Let’s hope management spends some of the cash saved to improve the team from last year.

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.

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.

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.

Examining Tribe Free Agents & Other Stuff

It’s been a week since the Cleveland Indians’ season ended after getting swept in the American League Division Series by the Houston Astros.

Thus, the Tribe joins all but four major league teams in looking forward to the 2019 season. Barring something drastic, the Indians will enter next season as the favorites for a fourth consecutive Central Division title.

However, there has the potential to have a pretty large roster turnover for Cleveland, and there probably will be. What should the Indians do to improve next season?

First, the everyday lineup needs to be deeper. The lineup was top heavy for most of the past season, and when Jose Ramirez slumped in the middle of August, there wasn’t enough hitting by everyone hitting after Edwin Encarnacion, and by that we mean consistent hitting.

The Indians have 11 free agents this winter, including Carlos Carrasco and Brandon Guyer, both of whom have club options for 2019. The other nine are as follows–

Cody Allen
Michael Brantley
Melky Cabrera
Lonnie Chisenhall
Rajai Davis
Josh Donaldson
Andrew Miller
Oliver Perez
Josh Tomlin

We would exercise Carrasco’s option, but let Guyer walk. Guyer was lethal against southpaws when he arrived in 2016, but although he had an 804 OPS vs. LHP in 2018, he hit just .233, which isn’t good enough. And he’s 32 years old.

The qualifying offer for free agents will be around $17.5 million, and there is no doubt the Tribe will make the offer to Brantley. They may also pick one of the two relief pitchers, Allen or Miller, as well.

That will get them draft pick compensation depending on the size of the contract they sign with other teams, should they go elsewhere.

Out of the two, we would pick Miller, because he didn’t pitch as much this season, and let’s face it, he’s the more dominant of the pair. If he accepts it, and he might to rebuild his value, you have another back end of the bullpen reliever.

Allen seems to have shown the wear and tear of averaging 68 appearances per season in his seven seasons with the Indians.

As for Brantley, we would explore bringing him back, but only on a two year deal max. The outfielder will be 32 years old next May, and we have seen the negatives of signing players over 30 to multiyear deals.

He hasn’t had a fall off in performance with the bat, but his defense has declined, and he had the injury issues in both 2016 and 2017.

The organization seems to have an issue with Chisenhall, who would seem to be an ideal candidate to bring back on an incentive laden one year deal. The former first round pick has been limited to 320 at bats, batting .297 with 13 homers and 62 RBI in the past two injury plagued seasons.

He’s a solid offensive player, particularly against right handed pitching.

They have to make room for Yandy Diaz to play everyday. It seems absurd to think the organization sent someone to the minors coming off a year at AAA where he slashed .350/454/460.

Diaz can hit, and he needs to be doing it at the major league level.

And the front office has to improve the batting attack by getting more consistent hitters. We believe you need seven solid hitters to have a solid lineup.

We will look at the free agent list when it is complete to examine who is on the market.

Oh, and one last thing. After Manny Machado and Bryce Harper sign, start working on a long term contract with Lindor.

This is a big, big off-season for the Tribe front office. Simply put, they must improve this roster around the core of Lindor, Ramirez, and the starting rotation.

A Tribe Post Mortem

The Cleveland Indians season came to a disappointing end in the American League Division Series for the second straight year, and this time they can’t even complain about blowing the series.

Giving up 21 runs in a three game series, while scoring only 6 doesn’t make anyone wistful about what might have been.

We were worried about the Tribe’s offense throughout the season, and our worst fears came true, as the Indians got just three hits in each of the first two games, and had only four yesterday until the Astros blew the game open off the Cleveland bullpen, which by the way, was another concern.

The offense was top heavy all year long, buoyed by excellent seasons by Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, and Michael Brantley. When Ramirez’ bat went AWOL around the middle of August, the offense really sputtered.

One thing that is needed during the winter is the addition of some solid, consistent bats to pick up the slack with that trio, and Brantley may not be back, isn’t hot.

While we all look at statistics, particularly the new ones, the analytics people need to realize that going 4 for 5 on a given night, and following it up with a couple of 0 for 4s, makes you 4 for 13 (.308 batting average), but you didn’t do anything offensively on two of those nights.

This year’s Tribe had too many players (Yonder Alonso, Jason Kipnis, anyone playing centerfield and rightfield) who did nothing at the plate on a nightly basis.

Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff have a lot of spots in the lineup that need an upgrade.

And while the starting rotation is the cornerstone of the team, the bullpen will need a massive overhaul. Brad Hand and Adam Cimber will return, but beyond that duo, who knows?

Cody Allen and Andrew Miller are free agents, and it is doubtful they will be back.

Terry Francona tried to force Trevor Bauer into the Miller 2016 role in the series, but Bauer is a starter, and being moved out of his normal role didn’t work.

He did it because he no longer trusted Allen and Miller to get big outs when needed.

And speaking of the skipper, he needs to do some internal auditing as well.

The patience vs. stubbornness fine line continues to be an issue. He wanted Miller to be the ’16 edition when he brought him out of the bullpen in Game 2, and probably pulled Carlos Carrasco too early as a result.

But that Miller disappeared midway through last season. Hoping he would come back didn’t help against Houston.

Perhaps there should be a dissenting voice on the staff. The current staff has been with Tito for awhile, and they probably think a lot alike. Sometimes, it’s good to look at things with a different slant.

The first order of business will be the free agents. If Brantley wants to stay on a one or two year deal, we would welcome him back. Let’s face it though, he’s declined defensively, and ideally should spend much of his time at DH.

However, the Tribe has Edwin Encarnacion for another season.

The contention window is not closing. The Indians still have a strong rotation, and still have two of the top ten players in the sport in Lindor and Ramirez. However, you can’t have below average players everywhere else and get to where you want to go.

That and rebuilding the bullpen are the biggest jobs the front office has this winter.

For Tribe fans, this loss with sting until spring training begins in mid-February.