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Cleveland Indians 2018-2019 Offseason Outlook

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cavsfan1985 said:
Have we really saved 21M? I though the Lindor and Bauer raises were going to take a big chunk of that. Lindor just got close to a 10MM Raise.
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We’re at 117 million projected right now.

135 million was last years payroll.

They have about 20 million in space that they are open to using, just some of that they may want to use later in the season.
 
Andrew Scheid said:
They have saved $21 million in payroll for 2019, and have passed on all of these players:

Michael Brantley: $17 million in 2019
Nelson Cruz: $14.3 million
Jeurys Familia: $8 million
Yasmani Grandal: $18.2 million
Jed Lowrie: $10 million
Andrew McCutchen: $10 million
Adam Ottavino: $9 million
David Robertson: $10 million
Joakim Soria: $6.5 million
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Some of those numbers are accurate, but some are off.

Brantley - 2 years, $32 M
Cruz - 1 year, $14.3 M
Familia - 3 years, $30 M
Grandal - 1 year, $18.25 M
Lowrie - 2 years, $20 M
McCutchen - 3 years, $50 M
Ottavino - 3 years, $27 M
Robertson - 2 years, $23 M
Soria - 2 years, $15 M

It's also important to note that there are a ton of unsigned free agents still and as Spring Training comes closer, many of them will sign for under what they initially asked for - many of them on one year deals.

Relievers - Cody Allen, Jerry Blevins, Brad Boxberger, Brad Brach, Jake Diekman, Greg Holland, Daniel Hudson, Ryan Madson, Bud Norris, Oliver Perez, Drew Pomeranz, Sergio Romo, Tony Sipp, Adam Warren, Justin Wilson, etc

Outfielders - Melky Cabrera, Derek Dietrich, Marwin Gonzalez, Josh Harrison, Brandon Guyer, Adam Jones, Matt Joyce, Nick Markakis, Gerardo Perra, Hunter Pence, AJ Pollock, AJ Ramos, Denard Span, etc

Now, I wouldn't have interest in all of those guys, just pointing out that large quantity of major league-quality free agents who are unsigned as of today, 1/17/19.

Patience is needed - if the Indians roster looks the exact same in a month as it does now, I'll join you in your frustration...but the offseason isn't over yet. I expect a ton of signings whenever Harper and Machado finally choose their teams.
 
bboy said:
I don't really understand the Indians approach as of this moment. Are they going to spend huge dollars...of course not ...but it looks right now they're going to go for inferior players to fill out the lineup at the bargain basement cost. Unless they still intend to trade Kluber or Bauer for a proven player and prospects we are falling way behind our competition in the AL. Who knows if the White Sox get Machado and a few other moves they might be a problem in the division as well. I'm not getting on Dolan for being cheap etc...but now is the time to go all out while we still have Lindor...I feel our window is maybe 2 years at best.
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Trust me every single person who roots for the Indians, including the FO, wanted to add a big name guy this off season, but there was no way to get one since otherwise they would have continue to operate in another season of the break even/in the red in the business sense, hence why they moved some guys so they could free up space.

Also the market is actually really playing in our favor at the end of the day as well. You would thought guys like Marwin, Pollock etc would be off the board by now and there hasn't been any deal made for them yet which means no team is paying what they demanded and the prices are going lower meaning it will be possible to get an impact player at a reasonable price. I mean for the most part since the current FO and Francona have been here, they have signed the big impact players mostly late in the off season to help out this roster. EE was signed on Jan 7, signed Bourn in Feb (maybe didn't work but herald at the time a brilliant move) and with the fact the market is still saturated with players, it is actually more probable the Indians get a more style of "impact" bat then it was earlier in the off season. So it is likely a similar situation with Bourn is again possible and more and more likely to happen as we get close to the start of spring training and those guys are still on the board.

Remember we got Oliver Perez, Melky all late in the signing to a minor league deal. Since we have holes in our bullpen, I expect a few guys who are legit arms/guys who want to get back into the big league mix, will sign here in Cleveland since we are a pretty good destination since we are a playoff contender. I think we have less to worry about since guys haven't signed than we haven't signed anyone because this is in our favor not the other way around.
 
H
Stark said:
Fully expecting Allen to rebound with a 2.75 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 85 K and 35 SV season in Los Angeles.
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He's toast, when he gave up that mammoth blast to the Astros catcher was the be all, end all.

He was a good closer.
 
A little expected...know there was interest on both sides, but can't blame him for wanting to close. Curious to see the $.

Still only 30 and stuff is still there, just think all the IP finally caught up with him. Regains his breaking ball and he'll put up 2016/2017 numbers and be a bargain for LA.

For all the shit he gets, he was consistent as hell and that is incredibly valuable from a reliever. Especially when that consistency is to the tune of a 2.5 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 12 K/9 stretch over 5 seasons.
 
Indians probably could have matched that deal, but it sounds like he was looking for an opportunity to be a full-time closer, and given Brad Hand's presence on our staff combined with Allen's struggles last year, that simply wasn't going to happen.
 
BimboColesHair said:
It’s January 17th and 90%+ of the free agency class is still unsigned.

Calm down a little.

Can’t stress enough how much Machado and Harper are holding up.

Also, if Ottavino was your tipping point, dude was going to NY while he was still in a Rockies uniform...takes 2 parties to make a deal work.
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He’s from Brooklyn.
 
JMoneyYourHoney said:
Their anthem for this off-season.
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You just gonna drop in on the thread and not add anything or...



Once the Indians went out and got Hand, I think that the writing was on the wall for Allen. He had a good run here, he had more lows it seemed like last year then in the past but he was still an above average closer overall and played a big part in a couple of the season that he was here.
 
Anyone who's gonna bash the Indians for letting Cody walk would've came on here to bash the Indians if they shelled out 8.5-11 million for the guy who's "obviously done, garbage, etc"

Just ignore them. They aren't worth your time.
 
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