Cleveland Indians: The state of the payroll now and in the future

2020 Payroll Situation

Guaranteed Contracts (2): Jose Ramirez, Roberto Perez

Total dollar value: $10,150,000

Contract Options (7): Edwin Encarnacion, Jason Kipnis, Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Yonder Alonso(vesting), Yan Gomes, Dan Otero

Total dollar value: $84,000,000

Arbitration: Trevor Bauer, Danny Salazar, Abraham Almonte, Francisco Lindor, Nick Goody, Mike Clevinger

Total Guaranteed Payroll: $12,600,000

Payroll Analysis

The Cleveland Indians will have a lot of decisions to make in the offseason heading into the 2020 campaign. A lot of their big name, big contract players have team options for this season. Encarnacion has a team option for $25 million and will be 37 years old that year. My guess is that option will not be picked up.

Kluber and Carrasco’s options are still very cheap for the type of production they bring to the top of the rotation and I would expect them to stick around. I don’t think Yan Gomes will stick around and get picked up for $9 million. If his offensive production still isn’t found by then, the Tribe will be forced to move on, no matter how good he is defensively. They have Francisco Mejia‘s bat ready and waiting to take over that starting spot.

Kipnis is a big question mark here. He will be entering his age 33 season in 2020 and his option is for $16.5 million. If he can continue to produce over these next two seasons, they could pick him up and keep him one more year. But they also have plenty of infield depth and Jose Ramirez is under a much cheaper and valuable contract.

Also, Bauer, Salazar, and Almonte will be in their final years of arbitration in 2020, should none of them be extended before then. Mike Clevinger will hit arbitration for the first time that winter, and should he stay in the rotation, he will be in line for a nice pay raise.

The only Cleveland Indians player slotted to become a free agent that winter is Brandon Guyer, and that’s only if the Tribe picks up his $3 million option for 2019.