Cleveland Indians: Jason Kipnis is the odd man out in 2018

The cost of the Cleveland Indians keeping Jason Kipnis.

Jason Kipnis has been a productive player over the years, but the injury bug caught up with him in 2017. This option is in hopes he has a rebound 2018.

According to Spotrac, Kipnis is set to get paid $13.66 million in 2018 making him on paper the second highest paid player on the club. The rest of his contract looks like this: he is under contract for $14.66 million in 2019 and a team option for 2020 for $16.66 million or a $2.5 million buyout.

As of now, the payroll sits at $92.1 million in 2018, well below the approximately $139 million they spent in 2017, however, there are still five arbitration-eligible player contracts to add in, plus the rest of the roster on the minimum salary. With that, they should be close.

The reason that salary is significant is if the Cleveland Indians have to try to have him fill in a role in 2018, wherever that may be, he is a costly one for the small market club. Especially, for just a super-utility role.

Next season, my Predator Baseball Stats have him bouncing back considerably, but that does not mean he will.

2018 Projection: 5.12 PRI, 0.77 PWAA, .780 OPS, 14.7 HR, 56.3 RBI, and 73.3 Runs.

Ultimately, I think that is a little considerate to say he would be worth 0.77 wins above average, which in monetary value would be 7.22 million dollars.

The big question is where do you play him, and if you are going to keep him, you better play him because he costs big-time money.