Cleveland Indians: 5 most likely spots for Jay Bruce

With Jay Bruce entering free agency, here’s the most likely spots for the Cleveland Indians free agent entering the hot stove season.

Jay Bruce enters free agency well armed. He was a great player for New York before being traded to the Cleveland Indians before the waiver trade deadline.

Bruce was an excellent addition for the Tribe, and all he did was up his free agent value by belting seven homers. And then there was the postseason. The Indians lost the five-game ALDS to the Yankees, but Bruce was one of he reasons the Tribe was able to take it that far.

Bruce is reportedly seeking a four or five year contract in the 80-90 million range, which means you won’t find the Indians on this list.

Despite being contenders for the next couple of seasons, the Indians are just not in a spot to offer Bruce that many years on a contract.

If you have a hard time understanding this, just Google Travis Hafner’s contract and how that bogged down down the franchise for the better part of the mid 2000s.

There’s been some speculation that maybe the Indians could bring back either Bruce or Carlos Santana, but I fear both will signing elsewhere.

If that happens, the outfield could very well feature Jason Kipnis in left, Bradley Zimmer in center, and the platoon of Lonnie Chisenhall and Brandon Guyer in right. This assumes Michael Brantley replaces Santana at first base.

Bruce would continue to make the Tribe left handed heavy, and while it would be great to see him back on a two to three year deal, that just isn’t looking realistic.

Here’s five places Bruce is likely to end up.