The Indians have a decision to make in regards to Michael Brantley.
Another year, another blown two-game lead to lose in a winner take all. I couldn’t bring myself to write this article the day after or even the week following the game, I was still processing. 2016 hurt, but it was that kind of pain that is beautiful in some ways, the kind that you aren’t sorry to experience because on some level the good that came with the bad made it all worth it. The juice was worth the squeeze some might say. That run to the World Series was euphoric mostly because we didn’t see it coming. 2017 just pissed me off.
You win 102 regular season games, have the best starting staff and second best bullpen in the league, and an offense that produced runs and got unexpected hits from unexpected players all year. You show that in the first two games of the ALDS and then it all comes Cleveland-crashing-down. The last three games of the series the Indians played tight, they pressed, they did not look like the same team in the regular season who treated baseball as a game, and not a job with a deadline that had to be met. The bats went cold at the absolute worst possible time, including from arguably the team’s two best players: Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez who went a collective 4-38 in the ALDS.
And maybe, just maybe, the whole ‘Trust in Tito’ mantra finally got the best of us. For what it’s worth, anyone who is calling for his job needs to jump straight into a Lake Erie riptide. But I do think he out-thought himself with his choice of Game 4 starter. He Joe Maddon-ed it. Starting Trevor Bauer on short rest when in the second half of the regular season Mike Clevinger went 7-3 with a 3.21 ERA and Josh Tomlin went 5-0 with a 3.19 ERA was questionable at the time, and hindsight being 20/20 was a terrible call. If a loss came in Game 4 after starting Clev or The Cowboy, the Indians could have even thrown a combination of Bauer and Kluber both on full rest in Game 5 and maybe that would have been enough for a win.
So now what?
For the most part, the entire roster is back for 2018, but there are a handful of decisions the Indians have to make in the off-season, the most noteworthy are:
Michael Brantley (Team Option – $12 million)
What I think the Indians will do: Pick-up the option.
What I would do: He has not been fully healthy since the end of the 2015 season (playing 11 games in 2016 and 90 in 2017), and while we all know that a healthy Michael Brantley makes the Indians lineup even more deadly than it already is, that money is better spent elsewhere.
Carlos Santana (Free Agent)
What I think the Indians will do: Let him walk.
What I would do: Carlos is one of the key glue guys on this team and has said numerous times he wants to stay in Cleveland. If you can bring him back on a team-friendly deal ($3-4 million per year for another year or two) he is worth every penny. But if he demands much more than that, which he likely could get at least twice as much on the open market, again, that money is better spent elsewhere.
Jay Bruce (Free Agent)
What I think the Indians will do: Try to resign him but not spend what he wants/deserves.
What I would do: Use that money that would have been spent on Brantley and give Jay somewhere around a 2-year, $25 million deal to help this team finally reach the top of the mountain over the next couple years as key deals start to expire after 2018 and 2019.
Bryan Shaw (Free Agent)
What I think the Indians will do: Try to resign him and get him.
What I would do: ABSOLUTELY try and resign him for one more year. I will die on my Bryan Shaw shield, and I just might after Indians fans read this. He gets a lot of hate in Cleveland, and honestly, it’s ridiculously ignorant if you think he is not a solid reliever. Is he Mariano Rivera? Absolutely not. But he is an above-average set-up guy who has logged at least 70 appearances for the Indians in every season since 2013. This year he made 79 appearances with a 3.52 ERA. And maybe most importantly, he is one of Tito’s guys. Terry Francona was recently quoted as saying it would take two guys to do Shaw’s job.
Finally, as I sit here in my 2016 World Series sweatshirt still in shock at the way 2017 ended, I would just like to remind the baseball world once again that in Cleveland, there’s always next year. Roll Tribe.
