Indians: Don’t be surprised if the team waits on a Jose Ramirez contract offer

The Indians may wait for a new CBA to offer Jose Ramirez a new contract.

The Cleveland Indians are very interested in retaining Jose Ramirez, maybe more so than past stars like Francisco Lindor and Corey Kluber. This makes sense to do, as Ramirez will likely be offered a pretty good deal by the club. Unlike Lindor and Kluber, neither player had their deal expire after a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) ended, making it very possible that Ramirez is retained.

With just one month before the CBA expires, the Indians are not in any rush to get Ramirez locked down to a new deal. He has two years left on his current deal and the league is hoping to get something in place after the new deal.

The new deal is calling for something to change in the way teams sign players. Either a limit on the number of years per contract, a salary floor, a salary cap, better revenue sharing (it’s the worst of the main sports), or something. The current model isn’t working for anyone but the players. Good teams are saddled with crippling contracts, while mid-level teams end up trading away players to continue their ability to win.

The current landscape is quickly becoming untenable. The spending in baseball is out of control, and it rarely, if ever, leads to championships. It’s a serious situation that needs to be addressed. So there’s no reason to offer Ramirez a new deal when there isn’t any word on what the guidelines for a new deal would even look like.

The Indians want to keep Jose Ramirez but not for $300 million.

The New York Mets gave Francisco Lindor $341 million over 10 years. That bit them in the rear hard after just one year. Lindor, who hasn’t been hitting like an elite player for several years, now has to show he’s worth the salary he was given as the contract goes on; something no one else has really ever been able to do.

Even Mike Trout hasn’t lived up to his contract and he’s the best hitter in baseball. So how does Lindor, a hot and cold hitter on his best days, hope to live up to that lofty of a contract? So it’s not surprising the Indians aren’t interested in throwing gobs of money at Ramirez. It won’t help them win a World Series, no matter how much fans want to cry about it.

Lowballing him won’t work either. His salary of $9 million in 2021 was a beautiful sight, but no one really expects him to take that another offer like that. It’d be great if he did, most of us would love to have a salary of $9 million for just one year. A fair price, in my opinion, would be around $25 million per year for four years. It’s still generational money and you don’t get locked down in a contract that’s paying him $30 million when he’s declining at 37.

Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com (via MLB Trade Rumors) reported the other day that the Indians want to keep Ramirez but no new deal has been worked on. That’s not subject to change until after the new CBA I would imagine. So don’t get your hopes up that anything gets worked on before December, or even before 2022.