It certainly seems like the off-season starts a lot later in the year when your team is in it through the final rounds of the post-season. This means the Indians have just five days following the end of the World Series where they have exclusive negotiating rights with any outgoing free agents and will have to work more quickly than usual in making other decisions around the club.
There has already been a rumor that the Indians could be working on an extension with Mike Napoli, so it’s obvious they are also aware of the short timetable. To make sure you’re aware of the situation, the current contractual state of each player who finished the regular season with the Indians is broken down below.
Impending Free Agents
The Indians most immediate attention needs to be on these two players and the two in the next category, although one decision will be easier than the rest. Mike Napoli was huge for the Tribe this year, bringing back the idea of a right handed power bat as he lead the team with 34 home runs and 101 RBI. While the emotional fan may say this is an easy decision, give him whatever he needs to stay, there are multiple issues complicating the situation. First, the qualifying offer was set at $17.2M, significantly more than the Indians paid Napoli this year (about $10M after his bonuses kicked in) and at least a few million more than they were likely to offer him.
While they could offer him a multiple year extension, they run into a few problems, mostly that he is 35 years old and was terrible from August 17th on, batting .157/.292/.279 and things didn’t get better in the play-offs. We’ll go into this decision further in another article, but it certainly isn’t cut and dry. Rajai Davis is the Indians other true free agent as they have already cut ties with the rest (Marlon Byrd retired, Juan Uribe was released, Ross Detwiler sold, etc) and the Indians are much less likely to consider bringing him back, although anything could happen.
Free Agents with Options
Starting with another player who is essentially a free agent. Coco Crisp has a $13M option for next year that the Indians and Athletics worked hard towards the end of the season to make sure it wouldn’t vest. There is no way they use this option and instead will pay the $750K buyout. There is almost no chance he will be re-signed either.
The Indians have activated Carlos Santana‘s $12M, 2017 option. This will take him through his final season of his current contract. The Indians will likely try to work out an extension with the first baseman during the off-season as there are no good options at the position available in the upper minors.
Final Year of Arbitration
The furthest along of all the Indians arbitration candidates, Bryan Shaw is heading into his final year of team control after signing to deals of $1.55M and $2.75M in his first two arbitration eligible seasons. Given his workload and value to the team, he is due a big raise this year and the Indians need to decide whether they want to extend him, trade him or ride out his last year of control by using him as much as possible while he’s still in Cleveland.
2-3 Years of Team Control Left
Most of the Indians arbitration eligible players are in the middle of their team control years and have at least two seasons left. Super 2 qualifying players Lonnie Chisenhall and Chris Gimenez are heading into year three of four arbitration seasons and are eligible to become free agents after 2018. Cody Allen, Brandon Guyer and Zach McAllister are all heading into their second of three years of arbitration while Jeff Manship has three years left, although his super two status puts him in his second of four years already. These players are all possible extension candidates, but chances are the Indians will wait another season on most as this list includes quite a few high risk players.
First Year Arbitration Eligible
The list of players hitting arbitration for the first time includes three players the Indians will almost certainly go through the process with, Trevor Bauer, Danny Salazar and Dan Otero and two they wont, Michael Martinez and Adam Moore. Bauer, Martinez and Salazar are all Super 2 players so they will have four years of arbitration, making them eligible for free agency after the 2020 season while the others will hit free agency after 2019 unless they are signed to a long term deal.
Pre-Arbs
We can break down the prearbitration players into two categories, those who will start arbitration in 2018 and those who will begin the process later than that. Roberto Perez, Jose Ramirez, Austin Adams, Abraham Almonte and Kyle Crockett should all begin arbitration in 2018 while Franciso Lindor, Cody Anderson, Tyler Naquin, Jesus Aguilar, Erik Gonzalez, Adam Plutko, Mike Clevinger, Shawn Armstrong, Ryan Merritt, Perci Garner, Joseph Colon are all too young to know for sure. The earliest any of these players could become free agents is after the 2020 season for those in the first group.
Here for the Long Haul (already signed)
Any of the players listed above as being under team control could be signed to extensions and there are a few good candidates, but the Indians are ahead of the game with a few extremely important players. The earliest potential free agents in this group are Josh Tomlin and Michael Brantley, who have team options of $11M and $3M respectively for the 2018 season. Andrew Miller will be around at least that long as well as he is signed for $9M per season through 2018.
The rest of the Indians long term deals will keep some core players around through at least 2019 and possibly longer. Carlos Carrasco is only guaranteed through 2018, but has options of $14.67M and $16.5M that will certainly be used as long as he is healthy when they come around. Jason Kipnis is signed through 2019 with a $16.5M 2020 option that also looks favorable right now. Corey Kluber and Yan Gomes are each guaranteed through 2019 and have options for the 2020 and 2021 seasons with Kluber’s being particularly team friendly at a maximum of just $14M in 2021. As much as the trade to acquire Miller and signing of Napoli have been lauded as front office successes, the extension of Kluber (who was paid $4.7M for a Cy Young caliber season this year) may have been the best of them all. He will be 36 years old when he finally is eligible for free agency in 2022.
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