The Cleveland Indians front office needs to get to work after another terrible playoff exit.
The Cleveland Indians were up 3-1 in the 2016 World Series over the Chicago Cubs. The team lost the final three games of that series and since then fans have witnessed disappointment after disappointment.
The latest one came this week when the Indians lost two straight to the New York Yankees. All the great pitching seen during the regular season vanished and the offense just couldn’t do enough to win.
Now the team enters another important offseason and one that may feature a lot of change as well. A few moves in particular stand out as ones the Indians should make following this disastrous exit.
3 moves Indians should make during the offseason
1. Trade Francisco Lindor
This move is not one fans are necessarily hoping for, but it appears it will indeed happen. So if ownership doesn’t want to pay Lindor over $300 million, it is better to move on this offseason as opposed to during the 2021 season.
Such a scenario has popped up often in Indians history. A star is developed and does great things in Cleveland. Unfortunately, that has not resulted in a World Series title since 1948 so the front office does have the excuse of not wanting to hand out major deals to players who have more postseason failures than successes.
Keeping Lindor around in the short-term obviously helps the team’s chances of winning. The problem with MLB contracts is that he is likely seeing a deal for a minimum of 10 years. Lindor will turn 27 years old in November and the Indians will not want to commit future salaries over $30 million annually to a player who will finish such a deal at the age of 37.
Once again, it is hard to advocate for the Indians to give up on Lindor. But the reality of the situation is that there are no signs the team plans to keep him. Making a trade with a full year of team control left can land a similar haul as to what the Boston Red Sox got in the Mookie Betts trade.