Cleveland Indians: What to do with Carlos Santana off the market
Cleveland Indians 2017 first baseman Carlos Santana signs a reported three year deal with the Phillies. They had no chance with their offer.
The Cleveland Indians had mentioned during the beginning of the off-season that resigning Carlos Santana would be a top priority.
However, with the reported offer the Phillies gave him, there was no way the Indians could compete with their offer.
Source confirms: Carlos Santana in agreement with #Phillies, three years, $60M. First reported: @JonHeyman.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 15, 2017
Are you kidding me?! Three years for $60 million for Carlos Santana?! Watching the Indians play the past couple seasons we know he is a great player, but in no way is he worth $20 million per season.
My “Predator Player Projections” for 2018 has his Predator Player Value (PPV) at about $11.5 million, ranked as the 46th best hitter out of 716 hitters that had over 10 plate appearances in 2017.
He is a great player, not many players are projected 25 home runs and 83 runs batted in for 2018, but still $20 million a season? I find that hard to believe he is worth that.
This next statement is entirely speculative, but I would think the Indians did not offer anywhere close to that and at max offered $12-15 million per season over 3-5 years.
Spotrac had Carlos Santana’s market value at $18.2 million per season and thought the market would most likely give him closer to 5 years, not 3.
I think this could be a smart move to let him go for the Indians especially for that value. For a smaller market team that the Indians are, not signing him leaves the door wide open for other players.
Ultimately, I wrote about Jason Kipnis options for 2018; I think this virtually seals the deal that they are for sure not trading him and also possibly him or Michael Bradley the opportunity to play first a bit next season.
What are some other free agent options on the table for the Indians to consider?
A few names to look at:
*Note that PRI is a player’s Runs Created Value above an average player, and PWAA is a player’s wins value above average. A team of average players = 81-81 record.
Option #1:
Yonder Alonso (30 years old)
Predator Player Projection 2018:
HR: 13.3
RBI: 51.3
OPS: .764
PRI: 2.13
PWAA: 0.32
PPV: $3.0 million
Spotrac Market Value: $7.0 million
Option #2:
Lucas Duda (31 years old)
Predator Player Projection 2018:
HR: 21.3
RBI: 53.3
OPS: .790
PRI: 4.94
PWAA: 0.74
PPV: $6.97 million
Spotrac Market Value: $9.01 million
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Option #3:
Mitch Moreland (32 years old)
Predator Player Projection 2018:
HR: 22.3
RBI: 74.7
OPS: .767
PRI: 2.52
PWAA: 0.38
PPV: $3.55 million
Option #4:
Matt Adams (29 years old)
Predator Player Projection 2018:
HR: 13.7
RBI: 47.7
OPS: .759
PRI: 1.90
PWAA: 0.29
PPV: $2.68 million
Next: Cardinals make a big splash trading for Marcell Ozuna
The market still has a lot of first basemen that I think would fit for the Cleveland Indians, but it sure is disappointing that the team did not re-sign Carlos Santana. However, with his contract he received from the Phillies they had no chance to sign him, nor should they sign him for that much.