by You may not realize it now, but the Indians were right to trade Frankie Lindor to the New York Mets today. Sometimes reality can be cruel, but he openly admitted he wasn’t sticking around when his contract was up. Quite frankly, as good as he was in the regular season, he struggled greatly in the playoffs year after year. So why not at least get something in return?
I will say that they acted too late and should have traded him to the Yankees for Didi Gregorious when they had the chance, but I digress.
Fans are still furious about trading away Corey Kluber and Mike Clevinger, but what did either one of them do this year except get injured?
Three of the best hitters in Cleveland Indians History left in free agency and the club received nothing in return. Those hitters being Albert Belle in 1997, Manny Ramirez in 2000 and Jim Thome in 2002. As terrible as that was for the fans and the city in general, it taught us all a valuable lesson, Baseball is a business and you need to get what you can while you can.
The Indians in general have done a great job learning from the mistakes of the past, and getting what they could, while they could. Here are a just a few examples of when trading away a star, got them at least a “little something” in return.
The Indians will never sign any of their homegrown stars. Don’t get too attached to the name on the back of the uniform. The name on the front is more important. Enjoy them while you have them(eg. Jose Ramirez, Shane Bieber)
Also, being a contender is not good enough. I saw those examples below. Eventually you have to win the whole thing!