Three players the Cleveland Indians may have to trade as the ripple effect of COVID-19 impacts the economics of baseball.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cleveland Indians were already one of the most fiscally conservative teams in Major League Baseball.
Now, with the novel coronavirus shuttering the economy, no area of commerce is safe, and that includes professional sports.
The way things are going, if baseball does play a season in 2020, there won’t be any fans in the stands, and while MLB has a healthy television rights contract, owners, especially the Dolans, count on yearly sales of season tickets and what happens at the gate.
Remember the Tribe’s run to the 2016 World Series. Ownership profited so heavily from all of the extra games at Progressive Field that the Indians became a rare player in free agency, landing slugger Edwin Encarcancion.
The bottom line is that if there aren’t going to be fans in the stands, the Tribe is going to be one of the most economically impacted clubs in the game. Economic doom will surely be spun as a way to explain moves and transactions fans don’t like or approve of.
It’s not exactly something fans who are out of work, as unemployment rivals numbers unseen since the Great Depression, will want to hear, either.
However, as the Indians and MLB set the parameters to play a 2020 season, here’s three players who may be traded as ramifications from a once in a hundred-years pandemic.
1. Francisco Lindor
When I told a friend baseball was eyeing a comeback on July 1, he jokingly said, “July 2, the Indians trade Francisco Lindor.”
It’s funny, sad, and probably true.
With the Indians losing all their revenue streams from hosting fans at Progressive Field this season, it’s entirely possible that the team may not want to pay Francisco Lindor his $17.5 million salary.
Fans were preparing for Lindor to be traded anyway, but at the least, we’d thought we’d get to see him for the first half of this season.
Lindor should still be able to give the Indians a decent prospect haul, which will be critical in helping the Tribe stay competitive in the 2020s. Perhaps I’m just being too grim, but I forecast a lot more cust-cutting measures form ownership since fans won’t be in attendance this season.
The pressure will be on the Indians to hit on their prospects as signing any kind of free agent in the future will be a luxury that the Tribe will probably claim it can’t afford.
If the Tribe doesn’t trade him this season, his his trade value will be considerably less, as he’ll be under team control for just one more season, and speaking right now, the Tribe probably doesn’t want to pay him the $20 million+ salary he’ll earn if he goes back to arbitration for 2021.
Note, that if the Tribe does move Lindor, they better do a heck-of-a-lot better than they did for Corey Kluber.
In Emmanuel Clase, the Indians received a player who’s already been injured and is now suspended for PED use. Wouldn’t you just rather have the two-time Cy Young Award winner in the rotation? So would I, but there were $17.5 million reasons for the Indians to ship him off.
2. Carlos Santana
Like Lindor, this was probably going to be Carlos Santana‘s final season in an Indians’ uniform. The Tribe carries a $17.5 million option for him in 2021, but they just shipped off a guy (Kluber) who was in the same situation.
Before the pandemic, we assumed Santana would ride out his contract here. However, perhaps the Tribe will cut its losses, and move the first baseman. The Chronicle’s Jim Ingram wrote about packaging him the switch-hitting first baseman with Lindor.
If there’s a team who truly wants to “go for it” in what will be a season unlike any other, Santana would be a huge addition.
He’s durable, having averaged 154 games played over the past nine seasons, he bats from both sides of the plate and his career is peaking, evidenced by his first trip to the All-Star Game last July.
At 34 years old, Santana doesn’t seem like a candidate teams will be lining up to acquire. He’s 34 and he’ll also make $17.5 million this season. That said, his option for 2021 rests with the team, so he comes of the books.
Santana will go down as one of the all-time steals for the Indians, who acquired him in 2008 from the Dodgers in a trade for Casey Blake.
3. Brad Hand
Closer Brad Hand was the talk of trade rumors last season, and while he still anchors the back of the Tribe’s bullpen, you’ve got to wonder for how much longer.
Hand made the All-Star team a year ago, but he trended the wrong direction in the second half.
Before COVID, Hand was a steal, making $7 million as an elite closer. He carries a team option for 2021, which would pay him $10 million.
Before the season was shut down, it looked as if the Tribe was working to re-vamp the back of the pend for Hand’s departure. James Karinchak is an intriguing player who could be the closer of the future.
Emmanuel Clase has been a huge disappointment so joining the Tribe (suspension, injuries), but he could still potentially be a factor beyond 2020.
Trading Hand now coincides with what was written previously. The Indians are going to be strapped financially, more than ever, and they’ve got to build up the prospect pool to stay competitive throughout the decade.