Cleveland Indians: Five prospects to pursue in trades this offseason

The Cleveland Indians could be deep into the trade market this offseason. Here are five prospects they should pursue in trade talks.

It is already widely expected that the Cleveland Indians will be active in the trade market this offseason as they try to shed more payroll. One of the more obvious trade pieces is Francisco Lindor and in return the Indians will be hoping to receive multiple high caliber prospects, but who could be on the Tribe’s radar?

Should the Indians decide to trade Lindor this offseason, who are players and positions they should target? Cleveland will be looking deep into farm systems across baseball, but there has to be a starting point or main draw to even begin negotiations with a team. There’s no sense in wasting time talking to a team that doesn’t have what you’re looking for in return.

For the trade to be worth it for Cleveland, they shouldn’t be looking at each individual team’s top prospects, but rather the entire league as a whole. Going through the Top 100 prospects in baseball, we can start to get a grasp for what teams have the assets to acquire Lindor, or any players on the Indians roster for that matter.

While Lindor is by far the most talked about player that could be moved this offseason, not only in Cleveland but in all of baseball, there are other players that the Indians could part with via trade. Should the Indians go all in on trading away expensive contracts to build for the future, then Cleveland could soon be introduced to multiple players on this list from a couple different teams.

For the Cleveland Indians to trade away Lindor and other parts while still having a successful offseason, they need to acquire at least one of the following players in return. Otherwise, the front office would have settled and the offseason would be a disappointment, having essentially given away one of the best players to come through the Tribe’s farm system.