Cleveland Indians: A low initial offer for Carlos Santana

The Cleveland Indians reportedly made an initial offer to Carlos Santana, but they will likely need to offer more to retain the veteran.

The offseason should begin heating up now that the Winter Meetings are underway, meaning Cleveland Indians fans will be glued to Twitter searching for the latest news on the team’s free agents.

Carlos Santana is the main player Indians fans are focusing on, and there is some good news regarding his potential return.

Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com reported that the Indians did make Santana an offer, and that the team will have the chance to counter any deals made to him by other teams.

Being able to counter offers is good news, but it is clear the Indians may need to open up the checkbook a bit, based on a tweet from Jon Heyman:

An annual salary of $12 million over three years likely won’t be enough to retain Santana, unless the market drastically drops in the next few weeks. A team like the Boston Red Sox may panic after the New York Yankees got Giancarlo Stanton and make a huge offer to Santana, or even Eric Hosmer.

Hosmer going back to the Kansas City Royals on an affordable deal could help keep the market affordable, although that may cause the Red Sox to go all out on a deal for Santana.

Regardless of how the market shapes out, Santana has expressed a desire to remain in Cleveland. That doesn’t mean the team can keep him on a three-year, $36 million deal if another team offers double that, but perhaps the Indians could add in another year of guaranteed money for the 31-year-old.

Losing Santana wouldn’t derail the season, but it would result in a frantic search to find his replacement. The front office should have several contingency plans in mind, but the longer they wait on Santana allows other free agents to sign with other teams.

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It is still early in the offseason, and the fact Stanton and Shohei Ohtani are both off the market should mean things get rolling. The Winter Meetings always result in a lot of deals and some surprises. Let’s just hope there aren’t any surprises involving Santana that involve him playing elsewhere in 2018.