sportscoach
RD's Guardians PR Man!
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imo, losing John Sherman killed any hope of signing Lindor - tho I'm not sure there was (is?) any realistic hope of keeping him
I have a hunch with Sherman there, the ownership was going to figure out how to bite the bullet and resign Lindor.
Reason why it actually was possible was actually because of the retool/short rebuild we are doing behind the scenes. If you cut Clev, Hand and Santana off the books, you are down to 70-80 mil range if that with Lindors bloated contract. Indians ownership can afford that especially with Sherman there. Majority of the roster is essentially on rookie/arb 1 years so its quite possible to be able to pay Lindor a fair amount of money since they were under cap.
Then around 23, when some guys needed to be paid, there would be a new bargaining agreement plus a new TV deal, which with Cleveland being one of the higher rated teams on TV, there is a very good probability of a payroll increase. Now this is just projection and theory, but i have a hunch the ownership was supposed to switch to Sherman then as well with Dolans being the minority. So you would have a couple ownership groups plus a new TV. In theory the possibility of keeping Lindor, Bieber etc, actually was possible if all the cards got played right and the bargaining agreement plus TV deal feel into their favor.
With Royals going up for Sale and Covid, screwed all the plans. I cannot see them getting this plan done now unless you have essentially an extremely deep pocket book like Dan Gilbert becoming minority and willing to spend to keep Lindor.