Kind of unlikely that Santana would say, rather than the above quote:

"This will be easy for me after the season, but I’m going to have to make an easy decision about my career,” said Santana. “I hate it here. I want to go anywhere. Everybody knows. My teammates know. The front office knows. But that’s not something I can control.”

or for Bruce instead of the above to say:

"I couldn't have asked for a worse situation to be brought into," said Bruce. "This is the kind of situation where I've become very uncomfortable, very quickly. My first nine years of my career were spent in a very similar place (Cincinnati), so this has been a very, very bad situation.
"This is not the type of place where I feel I'd enjoy playing. ... My biggest thing in my next contract is to be somewhere that we have a chance to win. Obviously, the contract has to be fair. But I would definitely say that being in a place where we have a chance to win and my family is comfortable is very high on the list. Those are two things you cannot check off here."

They both seem like decent guys, but they'll make business decisions. They don't owe Cleveland any favors. And even if they wanted to, the players union dissuades players from giving sweetheart deals and limiting the marketplace for everyone else.

Thanks JR, good one.

I do think that article has flaws. For example, certainly they wouldn't want to give a Bruce or Santana more than 3 year at the very most so to me that makes age far less a factor.

Bottom line, if either Santana's or Bruce's agents comes a calling and demands this or that then all bets are off, they are gone.

We don't know that so we will see. But I do think if that does NOT happen, Bruce makes more sense because of his position. As a disclaimer, there could be either a nice 1B or OF in the free agent market cheaper, so right there that would affect the equation.

According to Heyman and Bastian, Indians are giving Santana qualifying offer. If he goes elsewhere we get a draft pick.

Jon Heyman‏ @JonHeyman 23 minutes ago
carlos santana is getting a qualifying offer from indians of $17.4M

Don't listen to anything that comes out of these guys' mouth about how much they love the town or how much they love the team.

We all know that money talks and bullshit walks.

Pick one and sign him.

Me personally, I don't think I would resign Santana or Bruce.

Bruce did a great job for us down the stretch, but we have Brantley and three 1st round picks already in OF, Zimmer, Chiz, and Naquin. And all three hit left handed like Bruce.

Try to find another Rajai or Jackson type guy to platoon out there, but wouldn't do anything more for now. If Young'ans don't do the job try for another Bruce type deadline deal.

At 1st base we have options too. Could always put Chiz or Brantley there. Could always move Yandy there. I haven't heard it talked about but I suppose Kip could even move there. I dunno, just spitballin'. (could always try to sign Hosmer!)

I think I would concentrate more on finding a great reliever to replace Shaw. Could maybe even acquire a great closer and move Allen to set up? I know there has been rumors of Indians trying to acquire a great closer like Britton all this year so wouldn't shock me.

(Or sign Hosmer!)

Everybody expects the Tribe to be in the 2018 playoffs. How do they structure the team to avoid another heartbreaking choke?

We had a wonderful ride through the regular season only to choke for the second straight season trying to win 1 game out of 3.

Tito should be spending the off season analyzing the reasons he couldn't get his team to finish.

Build the team with guys that don't lose their focus when the playoffs start.

A large part of the crash and burn against the Skankeess was Kluber. I still haven't heard a good answer to the question of whether he was hurt, but he sure pitched like he was. That doesn't explain why the bats went silent, though. Ramirez and Lindor were consistently clutch all season, then disappeared in the playoffs.

civ ollilavad wrote:Kind of unlikely that Santana would say, rather than the above quote:

"This will be easy for me after the season, but I’m going to have to make an easy decision about my career,” said Santana. “I hate it here. I want to go anywhere. Everybody knows. My teammates know. The front office knows. But that’s not something I can control.”

or for Bruce instead of the above to say:

"I couldn't have asked for a worse situation to be brought into," said Bruce. "This is the kind of situation where I've become very uncomfortable, very quickly. My first nine years of my career were spent in a very similar place (Cincinnati), so this has been a very, very bad situation.
"This is not the type of place where I feel I'd enjoy playing. ... My biggest thing in my next contract is to be somewhere that we have a chance to win. Obviously, the contract has to be fair. But I would definitely say that being in a place where we have a chance to win and my family is comfortable is very high on the list. Those are two things you cannot check off here."

They both seem like decent guys, but they'll make business decisions. They don't owe Cleveland any favors. And even if they wanted to, the players union dissuades players from giving sweetheart deals and limiting the marketplace for everyone else.

I don't like the "that’s not something I can control” claim, though. Of course he can control it!

I hope Brantley can recover and return to form, but I'm not confident about it.

Don't see why not. Brantley was hitting over 300 with 9 homers at all star break, made all star team. Looked good. On pace to pass the 15 homers he hit his last healthy season. Totally back from shoulder injury. This ankle thing was totally unrelated and should be able to return to form from it no problem too.

Absolutely agree with HB!

This guy has unbelievable hitting mechanics (son of a former MLB hitting instructor) and batting eye and approach.

Hell, after all the shoulder problems, he still rapidly recovered his stroke and made that all star team. That was freakish in itself!

Now he is one more year removed from the shoulder stuff, and the ankle was freakish. On a one year deal - great move.

How to avoid another choke?

Agree that it was mostly the mysterious demise of Kluber. He's a sure thing for Cy Young. If he had pitched like that we'd have easily moved on another round. The cold spell for Ramirez and LIndor was really just one of those "small sample" things. The World Series MVP was terrible in the NLCS, and than on fire in the Series. Third piece was what I will continue to argue were some surprisingly poor choices by Francona and Callaway in the playoff rotation: Why put Clevinger in the bullpen? Why start Bauer on short rest?

I guess I have visions of Sizemore dancing in my head when I worry about Brantley. I hope the ankle will heal completely, and that his shoulder is completely healed, and that he will stay healthy.

I, likewise, doubt it.

Paul Hoynes
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Retweeted Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick):

MLB teams that have inquired on FA outfielder Jay Bruce say he’s seeking a deal for 5 years in the $80-90 million range.