Indians: Looking at all 3 players the team declined options on

Carlos Santana

For a personal reason, this one hurts. Carlos Santana is a Cleveland legend and holds many top spots for the club. He’s nearing a few records and if he’s brought back on a reduced contract could see him up his profile historically with the club. He’s currently fifth in home runs for the franchise, and second in walks (and in strikeouts – yikes).

Sure, he’s not Jim Thome or Omar Vizquel as far as Hall of Fame talent, but if Santana agrees to return on a reduced deal, he may be just below them in the echelon of legends. That all said, the club declining his $17.5 option was the right call. Santana did not earn that in 2020 and he’s damn sure, not worth that in 2021.

He hit .199 for the season, had eight home runs and only 30 RBI’s, but did have 47 base-on-balls. So he can still see the ball, but he found himself chasing and forcing at the plate more than before. In 2019 he struck out 18% of the times of his at-bats but in 2020, he struck out nearly 21% of them.

Santana has value on a cheap deal, and could even still start for the team, but if he does want to come back it’s probably going to be on a one-year deal, worth around $1 million or so.