Indians: Mike Clevinger’s name joins the trade rumor mill

Cleveland Indians starter Mike Clevinger’s name has popped up in trade rumors, though him being moved would be a surprise.

Corey Kluber has been traded by the Cleveland Indians. Teams are sending offers for Francisco Lindor. Could Mike Clevinger be next?

Clev’s name has popped up in trade rumors recently, once again ruining Christmas for the city of Cleveland.

The Los Angeles Dodgers just can’t leave us alone!

The asking price being “crazy high” makes sense and hopefully the Indians are only listening to offers and not actively making calls to move Clevinger. It would be dumb not to listen if teams are going to make insane offers.

Clevinger is under team control through the 2022 season. That means there is absolutely zero reason to trade him now unless an offer is made that is totally lopsided with top prospects and major league talent.

This topic is something that can be revisited two years from now. Clevinger has only pitched one full season and his value is already high. Two more full seasons could have him as one of the hottest names in baseball. Though every success drives his price up even higher and we know what that means.

I’ll stay positive for now because I see no scenario in which Clevinger is traded. Plenty of players pop up in trade rumors every offseason and sometimes leaks are made to drive up asking prices or just to mess with teams.

Trading Clevinger is just not smart. Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale looked good in 2019, but they are not proven yet. The Indians need the trio of Clevinger, Shane Bieber, and Carlos Carrasco together in order to compete for a World Series in 2020.

As long as that remains the plan, no need to blow it all up. Yeah, please don’t do that.