Cleveland Indians: What the Darvish signing means for the Tribe

Yu Darvish signed a six year, $126 million contract with the Chicago Cubs on Saturday. This could have a big domino effect on the rest of the market and for the Cleveland Indians.

Well it’s about time. Darvish, one of the top free agents on the market has signed a huge deal that should give this slow moving offseason a swift kick in the rear. The top of the pitching market has busted loose, and teams that lost out on Darvish can move on to other options.

The teams that lost out on Darvish: Milwaukee, Minnesota, and Los Angeles, are all looking for rotation upgrades. The other three big free agent starters could certainly fill the needs for those teams, and signings could happen in the next few days. But trades still seem to be the preferred options for GMs this offseason.

How does this affect the Cleveland Indians?

It’s been no secret that other teams have been calling the Indians about their starting pitchers, especially Danny Salazar. Most of those teams that were calling about these pitchers were also in on Darvish. Now that their Plan A in Darvish is gone, they could be circling back to Cleveland.

There could certainly be various Plan B’s for these teams. Some could focus on Alex Cobb, some could focus on Jake Odorizzi, but some could try to get Danny Salazar as Plan B. None of us truly know who these front offices are prioritizing right now after watching Darvish go to Chicago. But there is a strong possibility that Salazar is one of those options right now.

Darvish didn’t sign for as much money as anticipated, and the $21 million average annual value was much lower than the other starters were hoping for. With this deal in place, Jake Arrieta will be hard-pressed to get at least $20 million per year. The free agent starters may not be as expensive as previously thought.

Still, all of those free agents are on the wrong side of 30. That’s what makes a trade much more valuable to teams in search of starting pitching.

The Brewers continue to make sense as trade partners. They lost Darvish to their division rival Chicago Cubs. They are going to be motivated to make an addition to their rotation if they want to win the division this year. They’re known to be having ongoing discussions with the Cleveland Indians on several players and the Tribe could be one of several Plan B’s that Milwaukee is contemplating.

Could something happen soon?

In a backed up pitching market that is finally showing signs of movement, dominoes could fall fast. The deal that presents itself first could be the one that gets done. It should be a busy few days as teams try to set their rosters before Spring Training starts on Wednesday.

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Most free agents want to get into Spring Training as soon as possible. That means we could see a huge number of signings in the next few days, The Cleveland Indians are one of those teams that could be making moves in those final few days.