Cleveland Indians: 3 possible Francisco Lindor trades to Toronto Blue Jays

With rumors continuing to swirl around a Francisco Lindor trade, the Cleveland Indians have been recently linked to the Toronto Blue Jays as a possibility.

The Winter Meetings will take place from Dec. 7-10 and leading up to the meetings the Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays have been rumored to be trade partners for Francisco Lindor. Could we see a deal for Lindor in the coming days?

The Indians and Blue Jays are far from strangers. The President of the Toronto Blue Jays, Mark Shapiro, worked his way up through the Indians’ organization from 1991 until 2015 before heading Toronto. In fact, he was in many ways to the mentor to current Cleveland Indians President, Chris Antonetti.

Antonetti followed Shapiro’s path through the organization and essentially took over for Shapiro anytime he moved up. Now with Lindor on the market, it seems that the two former colleagues could once again cross paths, this time via trade.

For this deal to happen there are a few pieces that would need to fall into place. For starters, the Blue Jays need to have enough to offer the Indians. In recent rumors, the main piece that Cleveland would be wanting in return is Lourdes Gurriel, a rising star in the league that still has four years of club control left, set to be a free agent in 2025.

Gurriel has been able to hit north of .275 in each of his three major league seasons while also crushing at least 11 home runs in each season. The knock against him is his experience, playing a career-high 84 games in 2019 for a grand total of 206 over his three years.

The other side of the coin is that the Blue Jays have to have a visible need for Lindor. With Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio and Vladimir Guerrero, there’s little room in the infield. Unless one of them is traded or can change positions, there isn’t exactly a spot for Lindor in Toronto.

Of those three, Biggio has the most flexibility, being able to play in the outfield or third base, which could allow Guerrero to move to the designated hitter role. The Blue Jays could then put Bichette at second and Lindor at short.

Regardless, those are issues to address much later and will be left up to Toronto after the deal is made. However, should a deal be made, what would it look like? Here’s three more possibilities, in addition to the one in the AL East article, that the two sides might agree on.