Cleveland Indians: It is time to trade Lindor, start new chapter
By Ben Fadden
The Cleveland Indians have the decision of whether they will keep or trade Francisco Lindor, and it is time to turn the page.
The Cleveland Indians traded longtime ace Corey Kluber last weekend, and it signaled the start of a new chapter for a franchise that has a lot of success this decade. And Francisco Lindor should be the second one out.
According to Ken Rosenthal, the Indians “are telling clubs interested in Lindor that they want each team’s best and final offers so they can make an assessment over the weekend.”
Lindor is one of the best players in the game–just below Mike Trout— and although Chris Antonetti and Matt Forman have said publicly that they expect Lindor to be their Opening Day shortstop, he shouldn’t be.
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First off, Lindor has two years of control left and I think that his trade value is only going to depreciate as his contract gets closer to coming to an end. If the Indians don’t act now, then will they really be getting back what Lindor is worth in a trade either at the deadline or next season?
Another big reason why they should move on from Lindor is it feels like they are starting a new chapter in Cleveland. A majority of the players from their 2016 team–Jason Kipnis, Andrew Miller, Corey Kluber, Cody Allen, Mike Napoli, Trevor Bauer, and Michael Brantley— are all gone.
Mike Clevinger and Shane Bieber are the new young leaders of the rotation, and new outfielders like Oscar Mercado, Jake Bauers, and Delino DeShields in the outfield.
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It would just make sense for the Indians to accept they are entering a new era of Indians baseball, and there’s close to zero chance that Cleveland will bring back Lindor anyway, so they would be smart to get premier talent back in return for one of the top five players in all of baseball.