Cleveland Indians trade rumors: Yankees not buyers for Francisco Lindor?

Cleveland Indians trade rumors centering around Francisco Lindor speculate the Yankees might not be buyers this winter.

The New York Yankees are no strangers to Cleveland Indians trade rumors involving shortstop Francisco Lindor.

There’s only a handful of clubs capable of paying Lindor the salary he’ll seek when he hits free agency, so the Yankees are a logical destination. The Dodgers traded for Mookie Betts, who had one year left on his contract, and then gave him a mega extension to keep him in LA.

However, if Lindor wears pinstripes, it might not be via trade.

The New York Post’s Joel Sherman analyzed the current state of at the Yankees after the Evil Empire bowed out of the postseason at the hands of the Rays. The scribe doesn’t see owner Hal Steinbrenner going all in for 2021.

The reason? These Yankees haven’t risen to the top of the baseball world. Sherman concedes the argument could be made New York was ousted by cheaters in 2017 (Astros) and 2018 (Red Sox), but he still believes the Yankees were not the better team.

Don’t be mistaken by his words about Steinbrenner pumping the breaks a little. The Yankees are still going to have a payroll that almost triples the Indians, but the writer sees their payroll shrinking, by Yankee standards.

Had the season been played in a normal, 162-game schedule, the Yankees would’ve have a payroll of $241.85 million.

"“I am going to speculate that Hal Steinbrenner will order a payroll that drops beneath the $210 million luxury tax threshold for next season. So you can scratch off signing J.T. Realmuto and Trevor Bauer in free agency and trading for Francisco Lindor…”"

Sherman’s only speculating, so it’ll be interesting to see how things shake out. It would be a kick in the gut to trade Lindor to the Yankees, but the truth is New York has the prospects the Tribe needs in a potential deal.

For what it’s worth, even after his speculation, Sherman wrote he could see the Yankees getting in on Lindor when he hits the open market in 2021. it’s a time when many of the game’s top shortstop will be free agents, including Javier Baez, Trevor Story and Carlos Correa.

Last week, it was reported Lindor didn’t have the New York teams as optimal trade destinations, but ultimately ,he doesn’t have a say.

There’s still a long way to go until Opening Day 2021, but considering how the Tribe talked about their financial situation, Lindor will unfortunately be the first domino to fall from a transaction standpoint.