Cleveland Indians rumors: No trade partner for Brad Hand

No team was interested in trading for Cleveland Indians closer Brad Hand.

The Cleveland Indians tried to trade closer Brand Hand before declining his $10 million option.

However, the Tribe could find any takes for Hand’s deal, according to Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes.

The business surrounding Hand’s contract serves as a harsh dose of reality for all teams in baseball.

Statistically, Hand was one of the best closers in baseball, recording 16 saves in the truncated 60-game season. Yet, not one team in need of bullpen help wanted to meet the Tribe’s probably low asking price for a quality relief arm.

Hand’s option being shot down doesn’t come as a surprise, as the Indians haven’t been strangers to making public just here hire their financial situation current is after a season in which they couldn’t host fans.

The Tribe also declined the $17.5 million option of Carlos Santana, but picked up the $5.5 million option on catcher Roberto Hernandez.

With Hand’s contract ending, the Indians seem prepared to give the ball to young veteran James Karinchak in the ninth. “Wild Thing’s” stuff is certainly electric, but more importantly, he’s cheap.

Karinchak made $575,000 last season, and will make something near that figure again, as he’s not even arbitration eligible. So there you have it. The Indians stand to save almost $9.5 million by changing closers. For a club that’s claimed to have lost “Tens of millions of dollars,” that’s a sizable savings.

Hearing Hand was rebuffed by every other team in the big leagues at $10 million also makes you wonder what kind of contract awaits Francisco Lindor after next season. It remains to be seen how many fans will be allowed to attend big league games in 2021, and then, if enough will attend.

The expectation was the the Yankees are Dodgers could just write a $300 million check. Bigger make teams will still be able to offer more, but I’d expect even those organizations to show a little restraint the short-term future.