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2017-18 Cleveland Indians Offseason

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3 Ball...GOT IT

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UFAs:
Jay Bruce
Bryan Shaw
Carlos Santana
Joe Smith
Austin Jackson
Craig Breslow

Club Options:
Michael Brantley - $12 Million
Boone Logan - $7 Million
Josh Tomlin - $3 Million

Arbitration (2017 Salary in parentheses):
Cody Allen ($7,350,000) - Free Agent After 2018
Lonnie Chisenhall ($4,300,000) - Free Agent After 2018
Trevor Bauer ($3,550,000) - Free Agent After 2020
Danny Salazar ($3,400,000) - Free Agent After 2020
Zach McAllister ($1,825,000) - Free Agent After 2018
Dan Otero ($1,050,000) - Free Agency After 2019
Abraham Almonte ($544,200) - Free Agent After 2020


Dead Salary:
Chris Johnson $1 Million


For a full breakdown of the Indians' contracts year to year:
http://www.spotrac.com/mlb/cleveland-indians/yearly/payroll/
 
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Priority #1 for me is getting rid of Kipnis.

Priority #2 is Carlos.

Then find a corner bat thats legit and maybe a 3rd baseman if you can.
 
2017 Qualifying Offer is set at $17.4 million.

There are new rules this year for qualifying offers under the new CBA:
  • If the team that lost said free agent paid the luxury tax in the preceding season, its compensation pick would fall in the after the completion of the draft’s fourth round.
  • Conversely, if the team that lost said free agent received revenue sharing in the preceding season and saw the free agent sign a contract worth a guaranteed $50MM or more, the compensation pick would be moved to the end of the first round.
This above of course is meaningless if Santana signs the qualifying offer.

Also, Jay Bruce is not eligible for a QO because he was traded.
 
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I think there are 4 givens right now.

Brantley option is picked up.
Logan option is declined.
Tomlin option is picked up.
Santana extended a QO.

From there, I think they let Bruce, Jackson, Shaw, and Breslow walk.

High chance they re-sign Joe Smith, with his moms situation, his wife, and him wanting to come back, and he slides into Shaw's role to setup Miller and Allen.

After that, they have a ton of ways they can go. Added revenue this year, lots of prospects, almost 9 million in dead money coming off the books. Wouldn't be surprised to see them try to make another splash like Edwin again, with this group around for 1 more year.
 
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2018 Arbitration Estimates (Service Time)
Lonnie Chisenhall (5.158) – $5.8M
Zach McAllister (5.077) – $2.4M
Cody Allen (5.076) – $10.8M
Dan Otero (4.124) – $1.4M
Danny Salazar (3.162) – $5.2M
Trevor Bauer (3.158) – $7.7M
Abraham Almonte (3.052) – $1.1M

Would be about a $12.4M increase in salaries from '17 to '18....

Ed's info on the other page is important to note for this offseason since I am quoting it here for everyone to read again.

Also we do have a fair amount of money coming off the books, so it will cover the current player salary increase. That being said I think they will add not subtract from their payroll. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 15-20 mil increase.
 
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I think there are 4 givens right now.

Brantley option is picked up.
Logan option is declined.
Tomlin option is picked up.
Santana extended a QO.

From there, I think they let Bruce, Jackson, Shaw, and Breslow walk.

High chance they re-sign Joe Smith, with his moms situation, his wife, and him wanting to come back, and he slides into Shaw's role to setup Miller and Allen.

After that, they have a ton of ways they can go. Added revenue this year, lots of prospects, almost 9 million in dead money coming off the books. Wouldn't be surprised to see them try to make another splash like Edwin again, with this group around for 1 more year.

No money to give Santana a QO. That would put the committed salary (after arbitration) around 114M. Not happening as this year we went above 100M and that is likely to decrease. 100M in this market is not a sustainable payroll
 
No money to give Santana a QO. That would put the committed salary (after arbitration) around 114M. Not happening as this year we went above 100M and that is likely to decrease. 100M in this market is not a sustainable payroll

It is not sustainable unless we are winning a lot of games, and next season on paper we are likely the best team once again and will win the AL so spending money on Santana is actually not unreasonable, especially since in 19, we have a fair portion of that payroll will come off the books or be traded off the books. With the way they acted this offseason and during the year, they are going to go for it in 18 once again so Santana getting and accepting the QO actually is not far-fetched, but he won't be on the team in 19 since we got to keep a bunch of the other guys.
 
It is not sustainable unless we are winning a lot of games, and next season on paper we are likely the best team once again and will win the AL so spending money on Santana is actually not unreasonable, especially since in 19, we have a fair portion of that payroll will come off the books or be traded off the books. With the way they acted this offseason and during the year, they are going to go for it in 18 once again so Santana getting and accepting the QO actually is not far-fetched, but he won't be on the team in 19 since we got to keep a bunch of the other guys.

It actually isn't sustainable without a deep run in the playoffs. We don't have the fan support (ticket sales) to support that type of payroll
 
It actually isn't sustainable without a deep run in the playoffs. We don't have the fan support (ticket sales) to support that type of payroll

I actually feel in 18 they are going all in like they did this year. There is 30+ mil coming off the books in 19, plus they will make a trade or two to replace all the guys they lost so 19 will be a so-so year for us. We may see Gomes/Perez, EE, Kipnis, Kluber/Carrasco all could get traded that season to restock arms since that year we will only have Olson, Otero and Goody under contract for our bullpen. Guys like Merritt, Morimando, Merryweather all will get shots of being in our bullpen and so well some of our other young arms. No 18 they will pay more money and keep this going, 19 is the year to shed some money since it will be a down year with all the players leaving. I agree with Bimbo with the fact we may spend more money/actually increase our payroll for 18 rather than make cuts.

The FO knows they have 17 and 18 to win it all so they are going to go for it and get some money back in 19 to give them 20-21 to start winning it all again.
 
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I'm not gonna lie.... this is me trying to figure out how we could possibly afford Giancarlo Stanton's massive contract.
giphy.gif





Conclusion: We can't
 
I will do my take on this offseason since I am always good with takes and make a conversation happen @BimboColesHair correct me if I say something that isn't right since I know I can trust your information. Also don't be scared of the length of this!

Free Agents: Bruce, Jackson, Shaw, Santana, Smith, Breslow

Arbitration Eligible: Chisenhall, McAllister, Allen, Otero, Salazar, Bauer, Almonte

Out of options: Crockett, Gonzalez, Urshela, Almonte, Baker, Clev, Merritt, Armstrong

Option year: Brantley, Logan, Tomlin

Now onto My personal plans for the team

Take the options on Tomlin and Brantley since both are no brainers. I mean Tomlin in free agency is worth 7-8 mil and we are getting him for 3. He is a steal even if he isn't in the rotation next season.

Give Santana the QO/also a 2 year contract offer with a 3rd year option. I feel Santana will stay one more year if given the QO

Smith is also another guy who will likely stay, so give him a solid 1-2 year contract. He may be getting up in age, but still is a good guy to have around.

Bauer will get a contract extension while we will sign Salazar to arbitration.

I think Allen will only be here next season

McAllister and Otero will both get arbitration and Chisenhall may get an additional year like we did with Guyer and Tomlin

I will also cut and try to Outright Crockett, Almonte, Baker, Armstrong

With Anderson being added to the 40 man roster, it will be at 32 so I am looking at adding 6 guys to the 40 man roster from our minors/waivers.

Since I am not sure who will be in waivers I will add these 6 players: C Haase, SP Merryweather, SP Kaminsky, SP Shane Bieber, INF Ronny Rodriguez, and RP Josh Martin. Either way I feel we will add about 3-4 pitchers from the minors and 2-3 position players. I thought about guys like OF Papi and pitchers Head, Sulser, Hill and Aviles.

Additional moves, I feel one of Merritt, Salazar and McAllister will get traded. Gonzalez or Urshela will also be traded/let go. Salazar I actually personally want to move to the bullpen and see if his arm reacts the same way. I don't trust his ability to pitch more than 100 innings so I want to turn him into a setup/closer in 19. So we may see 1B/OF Papi added to the 40 man. We will hit the waivers as well to fill out the roster.

Bimbo I think is shaking his head right now if he is reading this, (probably so is Derek and b00bie) but I think Merryweather and Bieber could actually make this team in September as relievers. Martin is just a depth guy since Armstrong will be gone. So tell me which 6 you would choose if you had to choose 6 to dispute who i chose. Something about Bieber makes me think he will be apart of this roster in 19 and because he will be added early, we will have 4 option years for him.

That leaves one spot or two on the roster for a rule 5 player/waiver wire guy and one big free agent to sign, and as weird as it sounds my target is Cain from KC, my offer is a 4 year 15 mil contract with a 5 year team option and a buyout of 5 mil. So a guaranteed 65 mil on him. It is a bit of a gamble but he has been solid for the Royals. Do not get me wrong in the fact that I know Zimmer and Allen are very good defensive OFs, but both are still learning but we lack a RH bat since Jackson left. 18 is the year we need to win and getting a Cain for our lineup will look amazing in my opinion. In 19 our OF will be Allen, Cain and Zimmer. Go ahead and try to get a frickin hit since anything in the air will be caught.


My personal opening day 25 man roster
SP: Kluber, Carrasco, Bauer, Clev, Tomlin
RP: Allen, Miller, Smith, Olson, Otero, Goody, Merritt, Salazar

OF: Brantley, Cain, Chisenhall, Guyer
1B: Santana, EE
2B: Kipnis
SS: Lindor
3B: Ramirez
C: Gomes, Perez
Util: Gonzalez

Lineup: Lindor, Cain, Ramirez, EE, Santana, Brantley, Kipnis, Chisenhall/Guyer, Gomes/Perez
Rest of the 40 man roster:
Pitchers: Anderson (On 60 day DL), Bieber, Kaminsky, Martin, Merryweather, Morimando, Plutko,
Position players: C Haase, C Meija, 3B Diaz, 2B Ronny Rodriguez, OF Greg Allen, OF Zimmer.

Leaving us 3 spots on the roster which internally will be filled by like Papi, Chang, Sulser, Head, but i feel the last three spots will be from waiver wire deals like we did with Goody last season.

That is a lot to read and figure out, but tell me what you guys think. I would definitely like to hear from @Derek, @BimboColesHair, @AZ_ @ED MONIX @Real Deal @3 Ball...GOT IT @Urban @Amherstcavsfan @RG @Chris @Steve_424 @Mr. Orange @godfather @BooyaCS @B Mac @Kevalier and anyone else who thinks of my plans.
 
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I'm not gonna lie.... this is me trying to figure out how we could possibly afford Giancarlo Stanton's massive contract.
giphy.gif





Conclusion: We can't

JD Martinez is also out of the question sadly, but I am thinking our target could be Cain this offseason.
 

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