5 impacts Mike Clevinger trade will have on Cleveland Indians
5. Follow the money
If you read Cleveland.com’s Terry Pluto or The Athletic’s Jason Lloyd over the weekend, you were delivered the grim, fiscal reality that is the future of the Cleveland Indians.
Basically, if you thought the Dolans were cheap before the pandemic, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Recently, we got to see how the Braves, which are owned by a publicly traded company, are doing financially, with no fans in the seats. As you’d expect, Atlanta is taking a hit, which gives you an idea of how much the Tribe is hurting. Atlanta made $11 from April through June, when it made just over $100 million during that same time a season ago.
Writers such as Terry Pluto were speculating Clevinger could be in line for $8 million next season, via arbitration. That seems cheap by today’s baseball standards, but it’s too much for the Indians.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Dolans manage the next few years. I say that because they’re already the longest tenured owner in franchise history. Will the impact of the financial burden caused by the pandemic finally force them to sell the team?
No one feels too bad for them, because if they were to sell, they’d likely get over $1 billion for the organization. Not bad, considering they paid $323 for the organization around the turn of the century.
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The Dolans take a lot of flak, and a lot of it’s deserved, but at the very least, the Dolans are trusted public stewards of the Tribe. They’re a Cleveland based family, and with them in charge, there’s no fears about the Indians skipping town. With a new owner, you just never know.