Indians: The Tribe can’t afford to mortgage their future with any trades

Years of trading away prospects have handcuffed the Indians in 2021.

The Indians have found themselves in a place they really don’t want to be; with their backs against the wall due to injuries and a need to find talent anywhere to help them out. The old reliable option is to make a trade. Despite what fans want to think about management, they’ve never skimped on trades. They’ve always gone after big names to try and work things out with the team.

Ubaldo Jimenez, Yasiel Puig, Andrew Miller, Kenny Lofton, Jim Thome, and so many others were guys the team traded for at some point in order to get them into the playoffs and beyond. While a trade for a guy like Lofton and Thome could work; someone older, near the end of their career, trading for a younger player in their prime is no longer an option.

The Indians have burned through their minor leagues and are now looking at a couple of years of unimpressive prospects to wade through. Sure, you have Nolan Jones, but you’d be insane to trade him.

This isn’t an indictment against the team, merely an acknowledgment that this is what happens when you sacrifice the future for the present.

There’s talent in the minors, they’re just a ways off.

Triple-A is pretty much tapped out on usable major-league players, who have any hype around them. Sure, there might be a guy or three who get called up and blow people away but the guys who are ready are on the roster already.

That means the Indians really don’t have any tradeable assets to entice other teams. Sure, they could try to swing Owen Miller, Bobby Bradley, or someone else who has already been called up (or sent back down in Miller’s case) but the Indians are going to need every guy they can get.

What they should do is look through the free agency wire and see if there aren’t some out-of-work vets who are in desperate need of a landing spot to prove they could still play in the big leagues.

Unless the Indians get funky and creative, it’s hard to see the Indians making any trades this year that don’t further hurt the minors or drastically improve the majors.