Mike Moustakas needs to be the Cleveland Indians’ top free agent target

The Cleveland Indians don’t often make a splash in free agency, but they have been known to pick their spots. This winter presents one of those chances.

Few players have suffered more unjust fates through the last two offseasons than Mike Moustakas. Moustakas watched in the winter of 2017-18 as former teammates Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer signed deals that combined for more than 12 years in term and nearly $225 million in total value.

Despite the fact that Moustakas could hit more home runs out of a black hole than Hosmer could out of a Little League field, the then-Royals third baseman was forced to settle for a one-year, $6.5-million deal that did little else than allow him to remain employed as a baseball player.

The winter of 2018-19 brought much of the same, with Moustakas signing another one-year contract late in the offseason–this time with the team that traded for him at the 2018 deadline in Milwaukee.

After declining his end of a mutual option with the Brewers, Moustakas is a free agent for the third consecutive year. He has more than earned the right to a substantial payday with multiple years of job security, and the Cleveland Indians should be among the teams lined up to offer it to him.

Out of all the currently empty boxes that should be on Cleveland’s checklist this offseason, there aren’t many (if any) players who check more of them than Moustakas. The Indians need an infielder with the ability to play at least one of third or second base. Moustakas can play both.

The Indians need a left-handed hitter, ideally one with above-average power. Moustakas has clubbed at least 28 home runs (and as many as 38) in each of his last three seasons.

Cleveland can’t afford to remortgage Progressive Field to pay for a left-handed hitting infielder; Moustakas is pegged by MLB Trade Rumors as likely to receive a contract in the neighborhood of two years and $20 million. Even a notoriously frugal small-market franchise like the Indians can’t cry poverty in that financial range.

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Moustakas has appeared in at least 143 games in every season since the start of 2017. With the exception of an injury-shortened 2016, he has played in at least 136 games every year since the start of 2012. Heaven knows the Tribe could use some durability on the 25-man after losing so many man games to injury in 2019.

While there’s room for improvement in his on-base numbers due to a relative lack of walks throughout his career, Moustakas is coming off a career-high 9.1% walk rate in 2019, and has seen an increase in that category in each of his last two seasons. He also hasn’t struck out in more than 16.8% of plate appearances since his first full season in the big leagues, 2012.

Of course, signing Moustakas inevitably raises the question of what to do with Nolan Jones in the immediate future. As far as a team with a seven-decade championship drought is concerned, that needs to be a cross-that-bridge-when-we-get-there dilemma.

At worst, Jones slots into a corner outfield position for a year or two. There’s reason to believe he will someday transition away from third base anyway.

In any case, after the division rival Chicago White Sox dropped the first real bomb of this offseason by inking Yasmani Grandal to a four-year, $73-million contract, it is time for the Indians to respond. The White Sox were already a season-long migraine for the Tribe in 2019 before they landed arguably the league’s best all-around catcher.

It may serve Moustakas well to stand pat until Josh Donaldson and Anthony Rendon iron out their respective futures. He won’t be able to seek a comparable payday, but every little bit of negotiating power helps a third baseman who has been left out in the cold for most of the last two winters.

If his expected market value falls anywhere within a country mile of two years and $20 million, the Indians can’t afford to sit it out. He fits the Tribe’s roster needs so well that the argument could be made for offering him marginally more than that. Three years, $36 million. Who says no?