Cleveland Indians: Indians Keeping Their Talent, Avoiding Arbitration

The Cleveland Indians have a great reputation avoiding arbitration, and are continuing to retain their players in the 2017 offseason.

The Cleveland Indians are looking to return to the World Series in 2017, and in order to do so the team must retain the players who nearly took them to the ultimate plateau in 2016.

Eight players were arbitration-eligible this offseason, and the Indians have already signed seven of them, with only Brandon Guyer still awaiting a deal.

The Indians have signed Danny Salazar, Bryan Shaw, Cody Allen, Zach McAllister, Lonnie Chisenhall, Trevor Bauer, and Dan Otero, keeping the “middle class” of the roster consistent for next season.

Cody Allen has the largest deal, at $7.25 million, while Shaw is next with $4.6 million. Along with Andrew Miller‘s $9 million figure next season, the Indians have committed a lot of money and faith in what was easily the best bullpen trio in all of baseball during the second half of last season. Otero is also a key part of the group, being retained for a sum of $1.055 million.

The Indians are known for avoiding awkward arbitration hearings, and it was key that the trend continued this year. With core players like Francisco Lindor, Jason Kipnis, Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco under contract, the rest of the roster needed to be retained to avoid any questions heading into Spring Training.

The last player yet to sign is Guyer, but it would not be a surprise if a deal was completed soon. There is no reason why the Indians wouldn’t offer him his fair value, given how the team has handed out deals to the other seven players.

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Getting these deals done helps shift the focus toward the season itself. And with Edwin Encarnacion already in town, the return of the arbitration-eligible players should set up the team to be a contender once again.