Trade rumors: Cleveland Indians couldn’t get Clint Frazier for Clevinger
Clint Frazier back in a Cleveland Indians uniform wasn’t meant to be.
The dust has settled on the Cleveland Indians trade of Mike Clevinger to the Padres, while the deal is garnering its share of good reviews, there’s still some who feel the Indians didn’t get enough.
With the Yankees rumored to be interested in the right-hander, outfielder Clint Frazier seemed like a logical asking price. However, New York wasn’t going to move him.
Texas asked for Frazier in a potential deal for Lance Lynn, but the Rangers said “No.” It’s also been reported the Indians asked for two of the following three players from the Yanks: Frazier, Deivi Garcia and Clarke Schmidt, to which Yankees GM Brian Cashman reportedly rebuffed.
It turns out, the deal offers a macro-level view at how teams–even the mighty Yankees–view their futures from a financial standpoint.
The Indians clearly didn’t want to pay Clevinger the expected $8 million he”ll make in arbitration, and according to SNY TV’s Andy Martino, the Yankees weren’t looking to take it on, either.
All of this means that every baseball team values prospects, especially their top ones, more than ever. For clubs ravaged by the inability to draw fans in 2020, nothing beats having young, cheap, controllable talent.
From an Indians standpoint, it’s a killer to the way the Tribe’s done business. As one loyal reader pointed out, with clubs valuing their prospects more than ever, it’s getting harder to swing “franchise altering” trades.
The Padres trade drew comparisons to the trade that sent Bartolo Colon to the Expos back in the early 2000s. In reality, that deal had one similarity: Volume. Otherwise, Cleveland got Montreal’s best. Brandon Phillips was cream of the Expos farm crop, while Cliff Lee was no slouch, either. Grady Sizemore was the sleeper in the deal.
It’ll be interesting to see how the front office handles its young players moving forward. Will the Indians be limited to trying to win with good players who they can pay just through their first year of arbitration, or might they take a cue from the White Sox, and try to lock down can’t miss prospects before they even play a major-league game?
Next. 5 reasons the Indians crushed the Clevinger trade. dark
The prospects the Indians got from the Padres may hit, they may not. Either way, the deal is a reminder that the economics of baseball are changing and things are only going to get tougher for the fiscally conservative Tribe.