Cleveland Indians: 3 potential trades before the deadline
By Andrew Zubin
Trade 3: The Most Likely, One Stop Shop Trade
Indians Get: LHP Amir Garrett, RHP Jared Hughes and OF Scott Schebler
Reds Get: RHP Adam Plutko, C Eric Haase, RHP Elijah Morgan
This trade can take many different forms depending on how much the Indians want to give up so I won’t go into great detail about individual players.
The Reds bullpen looks like manna from heaven compared to the Indians pen this year. They have six relievers with ERAs under 3.00. Raisel Iglesias would be an awesome addition to the back end of the bullpen. He’s 18-21 on save opportunities and can’t be a free agent until 2022.
Jared Hughes possesses an ERA under 2.00 over 41 appearances and the earliest he could become a free agent is 2020 and he won’t make over $3 million for the rest of his contract.
Amir Garrett has found his stride in the Reds bullpen. He’s left-handed and has shown an ability to get hitters from both sides of the plate out. Lefties this season are batting only .227 against him. Garrett is another young, controllable pitcher. He won’t reach arbitration until 2021 and free agency until 2024.
The Reds could even offer any combination of David Hernandez, Dylan Floro and Michael Lorenzen and the Indians aren’t going to hang up the phone. As far as outfield help goes, Scott Schebler isn’t the sexiest move, but he sure wouldn’t hurt the team.
I think the Indians could offer some major league ready and future pitching to the Reds to make this trade happen. The Reds haven’t been able to find or develop starting pitching. Homer Bailey has been a disaster since signing his big contract. Matt Harvey has been a bit of a find, but I don’t think he can be fully trusted yet.
After the Indians torched Tyler Mahle the Reds only have one pitcher with an ERA under 4.00, Matt Harvey. This trade with the Reds could be duplicated to a few other teams with this same idea, bullpen and outfield help. The Texas Rangers and San Diego Padres fit the bill in both of those areas. In the bullpen, Texas has closer Keone Kela, Jose Leclerc or Jake Diekman as viable options. The outfield help could come in the form of old friend Shin-Soo Choo.
Next: Previewing the series against the Yankees
The San Diego Padres bullpen is ripe for the picking as well. Brad Hand, Adam Cimber, Kirby Yates and Matt Strahm all have pitched well this season. As far as the outfield goes, Travis Jankowski would be the player to look at for the Tribe.