A Brief Guide To Guardians Off-Season

Every baseball fan loves the off-season, at least the Hot Stove portion of it. It used to be the winter meetings would signal a bevy of trades and signings, but sadly, that has lessened over recent seasons because teams wait until the big free agents are signed before making deals.

When it comes to the Cleveland Guardians, a few things need to be remembered. First, the organization seems to have a new philosophy when it comes to hitting. They like guys who make contact, and preferably they want hitters who have decent strikeout to walk ratios.

Second, there is the payroll restriction. We know president Chris Antonetti has said the payroll will likely increase from 2022, but we would be stunned if the organization went out and signed someone like Aaron Judge. They made a long-term commitment to Jose Ramirez, so if a free agent would be inked, it will likely be no more than a three-year deal.

There are also some other organizational ideals that people need to remember when they look at possible moves. The Guardians value defense and handling the pitching staff at the catching position. If the guy can hit, that’s a bonus, but they better be able to block pitches and work well with the pitchers.

Since Yan Gomes was traded and Roberto Perez had his big year in 2019, offense has been absent at the position for Cleveland, and they don’t seem to care much. So, if they do go after a catcher via free agency or trade, it will be for someone who is solid defensively.

And yes, Oakland’s Sean Murphy, the guy wanted most by Guards’ fans, does check all of the boxes.

We’ve seen people talking about newly non-tendered Cody Bellinger, formerly of the Dodgers. Yes, Bellinger was the NL MVP in 2019, which coincidentally was his last good year in the big leagues. His batting averages since then? Try .239 in ’20, .165 in ’21, and .210 last year.

OPS? 789 in ’20, 542 in ’21, and 654 in 2022. And last season, he fanned 150 times with just 38 walks. He has a tremendously long swing, and again, it has been three years since he was a productive big leaguer.

Our guess is the Guardians have no interest in him. Plus, he’s a left-handed hitter and that doesn’t seem to be an area of need for Cleveland.

We think the Guards will be trading a starting pitcher this winter, but it will be curious to see if they will obtain an established starter from another team. According to our research, the last time Cleveland traded for or signed a starting pitcher who went straight into the rotation was when they traded for Derek Lowe in 2012, a year after they made a trade for Ubaldo Jimenez.

That’s a long time. Now, they have traded for other teams’ prospects and had them spend time in the minors or the bullpen before putting them in the rotation, but it’s been 10 years since they put someone from outside of the organization and made them a starter right away.

We think the Guards need to get a right-handed bat, and ideally that guy can play first base and the outfield. Again, we said ideally. The right-handed part is the bigger need, as really, the only power threat Cleveland has from that side of the plate is Oscar Gonzalez.

Our belief is Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff will do something in December besides signing a defensive catcher like Luke Maile.

By the way, thank you to all of you who read Cleveland Sports Perspective. We are grateful to our readers, not just of the blog but our followers on social media. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving Day!

Being Creative With Guardians’ Catchers

For many years, the Cleveland Guardians organization treats the catching position differently. They value defense and handling the pitching staff above everything else, and offense simply doesn’t matter for them.

And that’s fine. That’s their philosophy and the usual results of the pitching staff shows it has been successful by and large.

They had some years where the catchers have contributed with the bat, and as we know from the past few seasons, that’s the best-case scenario. In 2013 and 2014, Yan Gomes had very good offensive seasons, putting up OPS of 825 and 785 in those seasons, provided Terry Francona with great hitting and defense at catcher.

In 2019, Roberto Perez had a career year at the plate, belting 24 homers.

Still in reviewing those early years in Francona’s tenure, even if Gomes or Perez weren’t having very good offensive seasons, they still hit somewhere between .220-.230 meaning they were mediocre at the plate.

However, since 2020, the offense at catcher has really dropped off. That season, Perez hit .165 (480 OPS), Sandy Leon hit .136 (539 OPS) and Austin Hedges went 1 for 12.

Last season, Hedges hit .178 (527) and Perez .149 (564). This year, it’s more of the same, Hedges at .172 (497) and Luke Maile is at .174 (537).

So, the question is, why not treat hitting for this group the same as National League teams viewed a pitcher batting? If the #7 hole hitter (Cleveland’s catchers usually hit 8th) leads off and gets on base, have the catcher bunt him over, at least it would be a productive out.

We would also carry a third player who can catch, and the Guardians have a player who fits that bill in Columbus in David Fry, who has played 34 games at 3B, 26 games at 1B, and four games behind the plate.

In total, he has started 127 games in his minor league career behind the dish, including 29 last season with the Brewers’ organization.

Having a third catcher on the roster would enable Francona to pinch hit for the catcher a second time in a game, an option he doesn’t have right now, although he would be hampered in this regard by carrying 13 pitchers.

It would bring to mind the way the Oakland A’s handled second base at times in their glory days of the early 1970’s. The starter was Dick Green, who was a poor hitter, but they would carry two other infielders on the roster, so when that position came up in a clutch situation, they would pinch hit, and Oakland always had some veteran pinch-hitters on the roster just for this circumstance.

Too many times recently, the Guardians have had rallies short circuited because either Hedges or Maile comes up in a key situation.

And this isn’t a knock on either catcher, as we said at the top, this is the philosophy of the organization, and they aren’t on the roster for their hitting.

However, maybe there can be a better plan than letting players who are not good hitters go up there and hope for the best. And because they are catchers, if they hit the ball on the ground hard, it’s likely a double play.

We understand there is a designated hitter in both leagues now, so the use of the bunt is a thing of the past. Francona has always used this tool more than most, so why not use it with the catchers?

As we said, at least it would be a productive out.

Cleveland Baseball Has Big Chore In Improving Offense This Winter

The Cleveland baseball team ended it’s season on Sunday, just missing a non-losing season at 80-82, their first non-winning season since 2012, when they finished 68-94 and Manny Acta lost his job.

They finished 13 games out of first in the AL Central, and 12 games out of a wild card spot, but despite almost breaking even this year, hopefully the ownership and front office realize there is a lot to fix if they want to be in the hunt for a playoff spot in 2022.

There are a lot of weaknesses on this ballclub that need to be addressed. According to Baseballreference.com, the Guardians have the worst catching in the American League, the second worst play out of their first basemen, and the fourth worst second base play.

Looking at the division winning White Sox, they have no positions ranking last or second to last in terms of value. NOTE: This is using WAR.

No doubt this organization values defense and handling a pitching staff at the catching position, but Austin Hedges and Roberto Perez were pretty much useless with a bat in their hands this season.

Hedges hit 30 points higher than Perez (.178 vs. .149) but still had a lower OPS (527 vs. 564) because he simply refuses to walk. It is doubtful (to us) that both will return in ’22, and our guess is that Hedges will be the regular. He is younger and makes less money.

Cleveland simply needs to get more offense out of the position going forward.

At first base, while Bobby Bradley looks like Ted Williams compared to Jake Bauers, especially in the power department, the fact remains, the Guardians need more offense out of the position. Bradley did slug 16 home runs, but by and large is an out maker, with an on base percentage of just .294.

He also still has severe contact issues, fanning 99 times in 279 plate appearances.

We are a little bit more optimistic at second, because we think Owen Miller’s minor league hitting prowess will translate. That said, it didn’t in the second half, but he did hit .236 (638 OPS) in the second half.

If we were in charge, he would get the first shot at the everyday job in spring training.

This team also needs guys who can get on base, and by this we mean not “out makers”. The only measurement of baseball is the number of outs, and Cleveland has a lot of players who make a lot of outs.

It is not a surprise that the top five teams in runs scored in the AL all rank in the top six in the league in on base percentage. We understand you need extra base hits too, to get those runners home, but the Indians/Guardians/Tribe has one player that gets on base more than 35% of the time: Jose Ramirez. Myles Straw fell just short at .349.

And there are not many who avoid making outs in more than 70% of the plate appearances either. The next closest player to Straw is the strikeout prone, hit by pitch king Bradley Zimmer at .325, followed by Franmil Reyes at .324, and then Amed Rosario, who finished at .321, despite a .282 batting average.

By the way, that’s tough to do.

We talked about catcher, 1B, and 2B, but in reality, Cleveland should be satisfied only with Ramirez, Reyes, and Straw. They should be looking for an upgrade at every other spot.

That’s a tall task for the front office.

You win with pitching, but you have to score runs to get to the post-season. Four of the playoff teams in the American League rank in the top five in the league in runs scored.

Cleveland has to improve their offense next season. Hopefully, the front office isn’t fooled by some brief glimpses of hope by certain players in the last two months of the 2021 season.

Tribe Needs To Do Better Vs. Good Pitching

It would not be shocking to say the Cleveland Indians need offense in the off-season. After all they rank 10th in the American League in runs scored, 12th in drawing walks, and 13th in on base percentage.

They also have a dreadful record against the better teams in the league, save for the divisional rival Chicago White Sox, who they have an 9-9 record against.

They are 9-25 against the Rays, Red Sox, Yankees, Astros, and Blue Jays, all of whom have won 85 games or more this season, so they will all approach 90 victories. And throw in the beating administered at Progressive Field by Milwaukee a couple of weeks ago, and that mark drops to 9-28.

After an offensive resurgence in August, the hitting has been abysmal in September, as Friday night marked the fifth time (in 24 games) that the Indians were whitewashed. They have also scored 3 runs or less 14 times (more than half for non math majors) in the last month of the season.

The league average for runs scored by an AL team this year is 4.6, and Cleveland averages 4.38, making them below average, which we already established.

We wanted to see how they did against the best pitching staffs in the league. Tampa leads the AL in ERA and in the seven games against the Rays, Tribe hitters scored 23 runs, just 3.3 per contest.

New York is second, and thanks to the pair of drubbings in Yankee Stadium last weekend, the Indians averaged over five runs per game. They also had the best record against them out of all the AL East post-season contenders.

Third best in ERA is the White Sox, and although the Tribe is 9-9 against them, they are only scoring four runs. Fourth place Houston? Cleveland went 1-6, averaging exactly 3 runs a game.

Toronto is known for their hitting, but they are 5th in ERA and the Tribe scored just 22 runs in the seven games, which is a 3.1 average. Then comes Oakland, whom the Indians went 2-4 against, mainly because they scored just 17 runs in the six games, which is less than three per contest.

Why have the Tribe struggled against the good teams? Because they can’t score against good pitching staffs, and they have to get some bats that can succeed against the better hurlers in the game.

We have long maintained that you have to score runs to get to the playoffs. The top five in the Junior Circuit this year? Houston (likely AL West champs), Tampa Bay (playoffs), Toronto (wild card contender), Boston, (wild card leader), and the AL Central champion White Sox.

And against good teams, you have to execute offensively. How many times this season have the Indians had a leadoff double, only to see the runner never move off second? It happened Friday night when Owen Miller got to second base with no one out, only to see Roberto Perez, Oscar Mercado, and Bradley Zimmer not even put a ball in play.

Yes, the Indians are a young team, so there is room for improvement and growth, but on the other hand, we haven’t seen many hitters making adjustments from at bat to at bat against good pitching, recognizing what the opposing guy on the mound is trying to do and then counteracting it.

Some times you have to tip your hat to the pitchers. We have seen opponents have to do that to Tribe pitchers.

It can’t just be Jose Ramirez though. The Indians have to be able to handle good pitching, and it hasn’t just been this season. It’s one of the reasons the franchise hasn’t won a post-season game since they took a 2-0 lead against the Yankees in the 2017 Division Series.

Tito Mixing And Matching Nightly With Lineup.

Mike Hargrove said it when he was managing the Cleveland Indians, there are two things that every man thinks he can better than everyone else, those are cooking a steak and managing a baseball team.

And despite winning two World Series and getting to a third, Terry Francona still hears his share of questions about how he handles the Cleveland Indians. Heck, half the fun of watching a baseball game is trying to manage along with your favorite team’s skipper.

We do it too, we aren’t going to deny it.

The Indians rank 9th in the American League in spite of being second last in the league in batting average. Yes, we know batting average isn’t in vogue right now, so they are also 14th in the AL in on base percentage.

They are doing it with a team that really only has five regulars: Jose Ramirez at 3B, Cesar Hernandez at 2B, Eddie Rosario in LF, Franmil Reyes at DH, and when healthy, Roberto Perez behind the plate.

Everyday, Francona has to decide who should play at shortstop, first base, centerfield and rightfield. Now, Josh Naylor has been in the lineup somewhere on an everyday basis, so he’s either at first or in right. But, Francona has to mix and match at three spots on a nightly basis.

He’s tried going with the hot hand. Jordan Luplow was hot earlier in the season, culminating in a walk off HR against Minnesota. So, he started getting regular playing time. He responded by going 1 for 22 over a seven game stretch.

Amed Rosario had four hits, including the game winner Wednesday afternoon against the Cubs. He started the first three games of the Seattle series at shortstop in place of a struggling Andres Gimenez, and went 1 for 12.

Harold Ramirez came up for the Kansas City series and gave the offense a spark, getting four hits in the first two games. He followed that with a 2 for 18 stretch, before getting two hits, including a home run in last night’s 7-3 loss to the Mariners.

At first base, everyone thought it was a matter of time before Jake Bauers would be replaced by Bobby Bradley as the left-handed hitting platoon. However, it’s the right-handed half that seems to have lost his job.

Yu Chang pinch hit last night, but hasn’t been in the lineup vs. southpaws over the past week. Going 7 for 50 with just two extra base hits seems to have cost him his job, and soon, perhaps his roster spot. At AAA, Bradley has started off just 6 for 37 with 15 strikeouts. He has belted three homers.

Bauers isn’t exactly tearing the cover off the ball either, and that has resulted in Naylor playing more at first.

Our point is that it’s a tremendous challenge for Francona and whoever helps him make out the lineup to put a competitive attack out there. Consistency is the best feature a professional athlete can have, and the Indians don’t have many consistent hitters.

And before you say just bring up players from AAA, it has to be a good fit. The last thing the organization wants is for a top prospect to come up and get sporadic playing time. It generally doesn’t help the development of the player.

That said, we believe some changes will be coming soon.

The pitching has for the most part held up their end of the bargain. We’ve said it before, how successful the Cleveland Indians will be depends on how many runs they can score.

Terry Francona has a challenge getting his team to do that with the current make up of the team.

Tribe Has Many, Many Questions Heading To Goodyear

The people who run Major League Baseball seem to want to delay the season, but the players didn’t agree, so it appears spring training will start in about 10 days in Goodyear, Arizona.

What does the season hold for the Cleveland Indians? There are probably more questions surrounding the Tribe that for any other team in the sport.

It would not be surprise to us if the Tribe won anywhere from 75 to 90 games in the 2021 season. That’s how much uncertainty we have.

The starting lineup has few people entrenched. Jose Ramirez will play 3B, Cesar Hernandez will be at second, Eddie Rosario will be in the outfield, Franmil Reyes will be the DH, and Josh Naylor figures to be in there somewhere, outfield or 1B.

Roberto Perez and Austin Hedges will share the catching spot, and we would guess Jordan Luplow will be in the lineup whenever the Tribe plays a left-handed starting pitcher. Oh, and Shane Bieber will be the Opening Day starter, if he is healthy.

At first base, Terry Francona has a bunch of candidates. We believe Naylor is the frontrunner, but Jake Bauers, who spent all last season in the satellite camp, is out of options. He hit .226 (683 OPS) when we last saw him in 2019. There is also Bobby Bradley, who will turn 25 during the ’21 campaign. He hit 33 HR in AAA in ’19, but struck out 20 times in 49 plate appearances in the bigs.

Bradley hasn’t been on a Top 100 prospect list since 2017, so this spring is probably make or break for both him and Bauers.

At shortstop, which player obtained in the Francisco Lindor deal does Francona go with? Andres Gimenez or Amad Rosario?

Gimenez is 22, a left-handed hitter and had a 732 OPS a year ago. Rosario is 25, a right-handed hitter, but had a bad year in ’20, hitting just .252 with a 643 OPS. Gimenez is the better defender, while Rosario could also be a candidate to play centerfield.

As we said, the outfield is up for grabs with half the positions open. Rosario will play everyday and Luplow at least vs. southpaws.

Centerfield would seem to come down to Oscar Mercado, who had a solid rookie season, but was terrible last season, hitting .128 with a 27:5 strikeout to walk ratio, the perpetually tantalizing Bradley Zimmer, who outside of the first half of his rookie season (2017) has had contact and production issues, or could A. Rosario be in the mix?

And what about Daniel Johnson, who had a 868 OPS in the minors in 2019? He’s mostly played rightfield, but can and has played in the middle of the outfield.

We would rather see Johnson out there, at least as part of a platoon with Mercado, than Zimmer, who continues to struggle making contact.

Or does Johnson platoon in RF? Or does Naylor, if Bauers or Bradley win the first base job?

The thing to watch when exhibition games start (at the end of this month!) is who is hitting, and who are they hitting against?

And don’t forget the utility infielder spot. Does Yu Chang have the inside track for the spot? Don’t forget the Tribe brought back veteran Mike Freeman as an invitee, and although many don’t like him because Francona uses him like a security blanket, he is perfect in that he doesn’t require regular at bats to keep his swing ready.

The only question behind the plate is whether or not both Perez and Hedges open the season with the Indians. Both are among the highest paid Indians, and does the front office want to have two highly paid guys paying the same position?

That seems to be an odd question, but that’s life as we currently know it for supporters of the Cleveland Indians.

While many regard (and rightly so) the starting pitching staff as the strength of the team, but there are many questions there as well. We will discuss those next week.

Just think, next week, baseball fans can start getting reports about on the field activity. Finally. After a crazy 2020, that’s something to look forward to.

Some Praise For The Tribe: Getting Hernandez and Rosario A Plus

It has been reported that Indians’ president Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff had to ask Paul Dolan for additional funds to sign free agent outfielder Eddie Rosario. If that’s true, it should be a troubling situation for fans of the team.

Thankfully, the ownership gave them the okay.

However, on face value, it was good to see the front office improve the 2021 edition of the Tribe. Adding 2B Cesar Hernandez and Rosario certainly give the lineup a better chance to score runs.

Hernandez gives Terry Francona a legitimate leadoff option. He has a lifetime .352 on base percentage, and was slightly higher than that a year ago at .355. We know people don’t like the label of “ballplayer” in describing players, but that’s what Hernandez is, he knows how to play the game.

Rosario gives the Tribe a left-handed power bat they needed. A lot of pop from that side of the plate left with the departure of Carlos Santana and the trade of Francisco Lindor. But Rosario is a hitter who has a 162 game average of 28 HR, 90 RBI, and a 788 OPS.

And as a Twin at least, he loved hitting at Progressive Field, belting 11 homers in 45 career games, batting .353 with a 1031 OPS. He tormented the Indians for years while in a Minnesota uniform.

You would have to think the top five in the batting order is now set, with Hernandez and Rosario joining Jose Ramirez, Franmil Reyes, and Josh Naylor. This quintet should be very productive, especially if Naylor become the kind of hitter we think he will be.

However, we believe you need seven solid hitters to have the kind of offense needed to make the playoffs. That means two of the other four batters have to come through.

Right now, we believe those four are Roberto Perez at catcher, Andres Gimenez at SS, and whoever emerges in rightfield and centerfield.

We would love to see rookie Daniel Johnson claim one of those spots, and you have to figure Jordan Luplow with be somewhere in the mix, especially against left-handed pitching. We would still like him to get a shot at playing full time, because as we have said in the past, he didn’t have huge platoon splits in the minors.

By the way, we also think the Rosario signing probably forces Naylor to first base.

Now, as for the comment about needed to go to ownership to get extra money to sign Rosario.

As vociferous critics of the Dolan ownership, this just makes us shake our head. Even with Rosario, the payroll would appear to be around $50 million to start the season. Outside of Tampa Bay, who else is competing with a payroll that low?

It is another reason we believe one of the catchers, either Perez ($5.5 million) or Austin Hedges ($3.28 million) will be moved before the season gets underway. It doesn’t make sense if you want to reduce spending on players to have one of the highest paid guys in uniform on the bench in every game.

It would also be a reason that the club is listening to offers for recently acquired Amed Rosario. If the Tribe is going to slot Gimenez in at short, A. Rosario is likely headed for a super utility man with Cleveland, and perhaps a candidate for an outfield spot, probably CF.

However, it has been reported both Oakland and Cincinnati are interested in the former Met, so maybe the Indians can strengthen another area, rightfield, bullpen, an added starting pitcher, in a deal.

The Tribe’s season will come down to scoring enough runs and can their very young rotation hold up over a 162 game (or whatever the season will be) campaign.

They did get better in the former last week. However, is it enough?

An Endangered Species? Tribe Players Making More Than A Mil

It’s not a secret that the Cleveland Indians are on a cost cutting mode. Everything they’ve done over the last three off-seasons have had that in mind.

Since the end of the 2018 season, the front office has said goodbye to Michael Brantley, Cody Allen, Andrew Miller via free agency and traded Yan Gomes, Edwin Encarnacion, Corey Kluber, and Trevor Bauer. All except Encarnacion were big time contributors to the American League champions of 2016.

All either were or had the potential to make big money, and in reality, the front office was correct on most of the players. While Brantley and Bauer have been very productive since leaving the Tribe, the rest have declined significantly since departing.

That’s not a bad percentage, although with the production of the offense the past two seasons, particularly in the outfield, the loss of Brantley stings big time.

Unfortunately, with all the money saved with these departures, very little has been reinvested in the team. Since the Indians won 93 games in the last complete season, and made the expanded playoffs in the coronavirus shortened 2020 campaign, you could make the argument that it hasn’t affected the operations of the team.

Looking ahead, as of right now, Cleveland has just six players making more than $1 million on the roster, meaning Brad Hand’s payout is the 7th highest paid Indian.

One of those half dozen players is Francisco Lindor, who by all accounts (and much to our chagrin) will be traded before the season starts. That leaves Carlos Carrasco, Jose Ramirez, Roberto Perez, Austin Hedges, and Nick Wittgren, who settled with the team yesterday on a contract as the lone millionaires on the roster.

And there are rumors that Carrasco, the longest tenured Indian, and a candidate to be someone who plays in the major leagues for more than ten years with all of them in a Cleveland uniform, could be moved this off-season as well.

That would leave just two players, Ramirez and Perez, making over $5 million this season, although that depends on who comes back in any deal for Lindor and Carrasco?

If you get beyond the gutting of the payroll, it’s quite an odd mix. Two of the highest paid Indians play the same position, catcher. It’s hard to imagine investing so much cash in a spot where only one of the men can play each day.

And quite frankly, it’s odd to have a middle inning reliever as one of the highest paid players as well. We aren’t saying Wittgren isn’t a good guy to have on the roster, he’s been pretty effective in his two years here, but if you want to cut payroll, why not start with a pitcher who doesn’t start and doesn’t usually pitch in the 8th or 9th innings?

We are sure several major league teams are looking enviously at Tampa Bay and their success over the past three seasons and think we can do that too. The Rays have actually have been over .500 in nine of the past 13 seasons.

But Tampa is a team with a roster that is always turning over. They make any move they can if they feel it improves the team, and that isn’t how the Tribe has operated over the years. They can be loyal to a fault.

Is the Rays’ way a blueprint other teams can follow? Right now, no one else spending so little has done it. We guess that doesn’t stop teams like the Indians from trying.

A Monumental Off-Season For The Tribe

To say this off-season is monumental for the Cleveland Indians is truly an understatement. Yes, the Indians made the playoffs in the shortened regular season, and only five key players on the roster are over 30 years old, but it feels like a shift in the franchise is at hand.

Will Terry Francona still be the manager or will his health issues cause him to take another role within the organization.

Roster wise, you can feel confident that only three regulars will be in their same positions when the Tribe reconvenes in Goodyear next February: 3B Jose Ramirez, DH Franmil Reyes, and C Roberto Perez.

The biggest elephant in the room is the status of SS Francisco Lindor, who can be a free agent after the 2021 season. The most likely scenario is president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff will see what they can get for their star player and trade him.

To us, that could signal in a rebuilding phase, albeit maybe a short one.

The Indians struggled to score runs all season long, so on the surface, it would seem like dealing one of your few dependable hitters (yes, we know Lindor didn’t have a great season, but he was one of four players with an OPS+ over 100) would not be a way to help the offense.

Carlos Santana will turn 35 around Opening Day 2021 and is coming off the worst year of his career, and has a $17.5 million club option, that the Indians will surely not pick up. Will they be willing to bring him back on restructured deal? If they do, they need a back up plan. Could that be Josh Naylor or perhaps Jake Bauer?

Cesar Hernandez was a great pick up from the Phillies, but he will be 31 in ’21 and had one of his best years, so we would imagine he is looking for more than the $6.25 million he earned this past season. If that’s true, does that put him out of the Indians’ range?

And Brad Hand will also turn 31, and seems to have lost some velocity off his fastball. He has a $10 million club option for 2021, but with Emmanuel Clase coming back, we would predict the only reason the organization picks it up is to trade the closer and get something back.

It’s pretty clear to everyone the outfield needs to be overhauled. Cleveland’s OF ranked lowest in the AL in WAR this season, and two of the starters, Delino DeShields Jr. and Tyler Naquin could wind up being non-tendered. We find it improbable that next year’s OF will be comprised of three unproven youngsters.

That leaves the Lindor situation, and we can all get ready for a winter filled with speculation on where the shortstop will spend next season. We feel a deal involving Lindor would likely signal the closing of the contention window.

We know the organization has tremendous pitching, but can they survive a 162 schedule struggling to score runs.

However, the safe bet is Lindor will be dealt in the off-season, but we say why not play it out, especially since the Collective Bargaining Agreement end after the 2021 season.

It is unlikely the Indians will get a fair return for their star shortstop. Keep him, try to win and make the post-season next season, and see what the new rules for baseball will be following the season.

For all we know, there could be a “franchise player” clause. Or revenue sharing might be more prominent, or what about a salary cap with a corresponding salary floor.

All might be more advantageous to keep Francisco Lindor, and the added benefit is another chance to make the playoffs.

Without a doubt, this is a very important fall and winter for the Cleveland Indians’ organization. What this team will look like in February is anyone’s guess.

Tribe Roster Needs More Versatility

With the shortened training camp for Major League Baseball, teams were allowed to carry 28 players on the roster, instead of 26, which would have been one extra player than in previous seasons.

Somehow, the Cleveland Indians have a lot of duplication among those 28 players, and with so many struggles offensively, it seems like the front office should give Terry Francona and Sandy Alomar Jr. some options.

First, look at the catching position. We know and understand the organization values defense and handling pitchers above everything else at that spot. It has worked for them since Francona took over, as he’s used primarily Yan Gomes and Roberto Perez.

However, right now, the roster has three catchers who basically do the same thing. When healthy, Perez is the primary backstop, and we would say he’s the best hitter of the bunch, hitting a career high 24 home runs last season.

Right now, he’s hitting .167 (494 OPS) in 22 games. He’s not walking as much as normal, and hasn’t driven the ball, but that could be because of his shoulder problem, which put him on the injured list once this season.

The primary backup is switch-hitting Sandy Leon, who is hitting .150 (568 OPS) although he has drawn 12 walks in 2020. They also added Austin Hedges, another defensive whiz, in the big San Diego trade at the deadline. He’s batting .156 with a 559 OPS, and has fanned 22 times in 78 plate appearances.

They seem to be basically the same player, the only discernible difference is Leon has the ability to hit left-handed.

The same seems to be true in centerfield, where the Tribe is carrying two right-handed hitters whose primary job is to provide good defense in the middle of the diamond.

Delino DeShields Jr. has received the most playing time out there, and quite frankly, he can’t hit, batting .247 with just two extra base hits and a 587 OPS. Oscar Mercado had a decent rookie season in 2019 (761 OPS), but this year has just 63 at bats, with a .143 batting average.

Mercado is two years younger, and his rookie season was better offensively than anything DeShields has done in his five major league seasons with Texas.

Our point in bringing this up giving more options for the Tribe manager, either Tito or Alomar. Wouldn’t the team be better off having a left-handed hitting option in center, maybe giving another shot to Daniel Johnson, who went 1 for 12 in five games early in the season?

Also, Johnson is 24 years old, and perhaps he could lay some foundation for a roster spot in 2021. And as we always ask, what are the odds he would be worse than the duo currently patrolling that position for the Tribe?

As for the catching situation, is there a need for three, especially since the Indians rarely pinch-hit for one of them early in a game. And if there would be an injury, they can always bring Bo Taylor back as a second catcher.

What could be done with that extra spot? You could have a second reserve infielder. Last week when Jose Ramirez’ hand was bothering him, Mike Freeman played third base, and the Tribe was left without another option.

Or perhaps another outfield bat to choose from, especially with the club platooning at least at two spots. It could give the skipper an alternative for a favorable matchup earlier in the contest.

Again, none of this would probably be necessary if the outfield was providing any type of production, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and more options.

We are sure the Indians would love for someone to emerge with a hot bat, even if it’s just for a couple of weeks. It doesn’t hurt to have more choices for who that will be.