Cleveland Indians: Three perfectly timed trades by the front office

Corey Kluber to the Texas Rangers

Anytime a team trades away a two-time Cy Young winner there’s going to be some looking around. With that being said, most fans were still more than a little hurt to see Corey Kluber depart from the Tribe. A fan favorite, Kluber was fun to watch on the mound. Even so, this deal might have been done a year late.

Kluber struggled through an injury-riddled 2019 campaign that hurt his trade stock, but also helped introduce us to the next wave of Cleveland pitching with Shane Bieber, Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale. Despite the deal being done a year later than it maybe should have been, the Cleveland Indians still walked away with the better end of the trade by far.

It took us a year to see the full return with the suspension to Emmanuel Clase, but nevertheless it’s clear now that the Tribe won the deal. Kluber pitched all of one inning for Texas before his season ended due to injury and then left in the offseason for the Yankees. The Tribe saw a similar situation with Delino Deshields, but he at least played more than one inning in Cleveland. The real return was Clase.

After serving his suspension last season, Clase has walked into the closer role in Cleveland this season and has become a frequent flyer in the triple-digits on the speed gun. Barely 23-years old, Clase is set to be under team control or in arbitration through the 2025 season, giving Cleveland at least five seasons of a cheap, 100-mph closer.

Mike Clevinger to the San Diego Padres

The jury is still out on this one a bit, but in the short return it seems like the front office once again worked it’s magic to get this deal done. Greg Allen was in San Diego for a cup of coffee, playing in just one game, before joining the Yankees this offseason. As for Mike Clevinger, he’s pitched in just four games as a Padre due to missing time, including what is expected to be the entire 2021 season, with injuries.

As for the return to the Cleveland Indians, three of the players are already contributing in the majors and the other three are all on the Top 30 prospect list for the club. Austin Hedges has taken over the role as the backup catcher, Cal Quantrill is essentially the long reliever of the bullpen and Josh Naylor is still coming into his own with flashes of his potential, turning only 24-years old in June.

The writing was kind of on the wall for a Clevinger trade. The organization had young pitching rising through the minors, Clevinger had a bit of an injury history and his being sent down for his off-the-field issue might have been the last straw. Despite the injury history and bad publicity, the front office was still able to flip him for three current major league players with the possibility of getting six total big leaguers, including the potential shortstop of the future in Gabriel Arias. Like I said, the jury is still out but it’s hard to see a way this one sways toward San Diego.

Carlos Carrasco to the New York Mets

Let me start by saying that I don’t think the Cleveland Indians fleeced the New York Mets. I’m not even sure if the Tribe won this deal, and considering it happened only about four months ago it’s far to early to make that decision. But in terms of trading away a player at the perfect time, Cleveland did just that with at least Carlos Carrasco and maybe even Francisco Lindor.

I’ll just get my case for Lindor out of the way. First, he got a massive deal the Tribe were never going to pay. Now, he is off to a rather horrible start to the season slashing .204/.344/.286. Again, there’s a lot of time left, but maybe moving Lindor wasn’t the worst thing ever.

Back to Carrasco. Like Kluber, moving Carrasco went beyond the baseball field. He was a fan favorite for a variety of reasons and felt like a player who would never put on a different uniform. That coupled with the uncertainty of a fifth starter in his absence made the move questioned even more.

Fast forward and once again the front office is looking like they can project injuries now, too. Carrasco has yet to suit up for the Mets due to an injury, leaving New York with just Lindor to show from the deal. Carrasco does have two years remaining on his deal, so the Mets will likely get something from him eventually.

However, when you’re talking about timing of trades, this one fits the bill. The return was a bit lackluster than what you might expect, but had the Tribe waited until even now to do the deal, only a few months later, they would have received far less.