Indians: Looking at assets acquired in Francisco Lindor, Carlos Carrasco trade

The Cleveland Indians have agreed in principle to send Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco to the New York Mets for four players.

The deal is still fresh so details may still develop but as of right now the Cleveland Indians have agreed to trade shortstop Francisco Lindor and starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco to the New York Mets for at least two top-10 prospects in RHP Josh Wolf, 19-year-old OF Isaiah Greene, fourth-year shortstop Amed Rosario, and first-year shortstop Andrés Giménez.

The move saves the Indians $44 million off of their payroll for the 2021 season.

The deal gives the Indians great depth at shortstop for years to come and may allow the team the ability to move some of their other young shortstops like Tyler Freeman or Gabriel Arias to other positions to strengthen them.

Wolf is a 20-year old rookie, who has a fastball on average of 94 MPH, with a top velocity of 97. The scouting report notes his clean delivery and the hope of his big-league career is that he’ll turn into a front-line starter at some point.

Greene is just 19-years-old is a speedster center fielder, who has great baserunning abilities. MLB’s prospect evaluation of him speaks highly of his hand-eye coordination and believes him to be an “excellent candidate” to improve quickly.”

Rosario is a 24-year-old major-leaguer, with four years in the Majors. He has a career batting average of .268, with 32-career home runs and 148 RBI’s. He’s spent the last three years as the team’s primary shortstop but has played outfield for them as well, a position he’ll probably be in line to play in Cleveland.

Lastly, there’s Gimenez, a 22-year-old, first-year player who also plays shortstop. Gimenez played 49 games for the Mets in the shortened 2020 season and played at shortstop, third base, and second base, meaning that he may not start at shortstop in 2021 for the Indians, assuming he makes the major league roster out of camp.

While the Indians didn’t get back any of the top five prospects from the Mets, they did get four good players, two of which are versatile as heck. That said if it was just Lindor for these four prospects, we’d be over the moon. Yet, to give up Carrasco as well and only get four back? That seems a bit steep.

Then again, MLB is going to be hurting financially for years to come, so this might of been the absolute best the team was going to get back. The Indians do have a great track record of coming out of trades like this as the winners, however, so have faith.

Initial Grade: B