Cleveland Indians trade chatter: Tribe won’t be buyers at deadline

As the Cleveland Indians march toward the MLB trade deadline, this one thing we know is true: After an offseason of slashing payroll, the Tribe won’t be buyers.

The All-Star break is right around the corner for the Cleveland Indians and the front office will have to decide if the organization will be buyers or sellers by the July 31 trade deadline.

If the Indians deem they are sellers, then who needs to go to add to their youth movement?

Is it time to try and get a bundle of prospects while Francisco Lindor is controllable for another three postseasons? We’ve heard ownership and they’ve already admitted they can’t afford to re-sign him.

Trevor Bauer, another player they probably can’t afford to retain is still here. But his performance numbers are down. He’s 7-6 with an era of 3.74. Not bad but not what he was last season. The team that gets Bauers will have him for two postseason runs.

Brad Hand would command a haul on the trade market, but losing their All-Star closer would certainly dent what’s been one of the AL’s best bullpens.

Corey Kluber was also talked about in trade talks last winter, but after breaking his arm, no one seems to know when he’ll pitch again.

But the question remains: Do they sell or not? We know with the ownership counting their pennies there’s certainly not going to be any buying. The entire offseason was spent cutting payroll. This isn’t an organization looking to take on money.

Terry Pluto had some eye opening information in his latest article. In case you missed the Tribe is exactly one game behind their record last year. They are, after their opening win Tuesday night, 46-38 and last year they were 47-37.

With a win against the Royals Wednesday night, the Tribe improved 47-38.

Those pesky Minnesota Twins were just other worldly to start the year. Nobody saw their hit parade coming. Their pitching was also better than the expected for the first two months of the season. Home runs and good pitching got the Twinkies a record of 53-31 entering July 3, third best in all of baseball.

If the season ended today, the Indians would clinch the second Wild Card spot.

Let’s try to forget what happened to the last one they were in back in 2013, when the Tribe’s lineup made Alex Cobb look like Cy Young as our bats couldn’t plate one measly run.

As the dog days of August loom past the excitement of the mid-summer classic and the trade deadline, this team will realize just how much it misses Michael Brantley.

He was a quiet leader on and off the field, in addition to being a steadying influence for this team who had a knack for delivering a hit in the clutch.

If you were ownership and on a cost cutting binge, what would you do. Stay put or move more payroll?