Receiver help

Free agency in baseball and football are different animals, we are about to be reminded again.

Most all the drama in NFL free agency is over after one or two days because most of the haggling is done before the signing period begins. The Browns, for example, officially acquired quarterback Tyrod Taylor, wide receiver Jarvis Landry, defensive back Damarious Randall, defensive end Chris Smith, cornerback Terrance Mitchell, tight end Darren Fells, cornerback T.J. Carrie and right tackle Chris Hubbard all within two days of the beginning of the league year on March 14 because general manager John Dorsey worked out deals beforehand.

Baseball free agency usually moves like a grumpy old tortoise with arthritis by comparison.

The 2019 baseball calendar begins the day after the current World Series ends. Teams have a five-day window to make a one-year $17.9 million qualifying offer to their own free agents.

A player given a qualifying offer has a week to sign it, something that rarely happens. Qualifying offers became part of free agency after the 2012 season. Only two of 53 qualifying offers in the five years they’ve been in place have been accepted.

If a team makes a qualifying offer to a player and he signs with another team before the June amateur draft, his former team is compensated with a draft pick at the end of the first round.

A team can make a qualifying offer only to a player who has been with that team since the start of the season. In other words, the Indians cannot make a qualifying offer to free agent to be Josh Donaldson because he was with Toronto to start the season.

Players without contracts can start signing with other teams after the five-day window for making qualifying offers closes.

The Indians, after winning the American League Central Division for the third straight year and getting bounced from the ALDS for the second straight year, will not be going on a wild shopping spree when the market opens. They will have to use their farm system and trades to fill vacancies that losing players through free agency will create.

Left fielder Michael Brantley is the Indians’ top free agent. Others include relief pitchers Andrew Miller, Cody Allen, Oliver Perez and (sometimes starter) Josh Tomlin; infielders Donaldson and Adam Rosales plus outfielders Brantley, Melky Cabrera, Lonnie Chisenhall and Rajai Davis.

Brantley is the only one of their 11 free agents the Michael Brantley swings against the Astros during Game 3 of the ALDS on Oct. 8 at Progressive Field.

Indians should even think about making a qualifying offer to, and that is unlikely because of other obligations they have.

“The one thing we do know is whatever payroll might be coming off the books with the free agents we may be losing, we’re going to need just as much if not more to retain the guys through arbitration raises and increases in guaranteed contracts,” team president Chris Antonetti said at a wrapup news conference earlier this month. “We had a franchise record payroll this year ($142,804,703) just to retain those guys that are under contract. It would mean a payroll even above where are right now even before we add anyone externally.”

The Indians have a club option on starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco. He made $8 million in 2018 and will make $9.75 million next season if the Indians pick up the option.

Outfielder Brandon Guyer has a $3 million club option for 2019, a raise of only $250,000.

Edwin Encarnacion will make $20 million in 2019 after making $17 million in 2018. Jason Kipnis is getting a $1 million raise to $14.5 million. Ace pitcher Corey Kluber is getting a $4.5 million bump to $15 million in 2019. All those contracts are guaranteed.

Pitcher Trevor Bauer ($6.25 million in 2018) and shortstop Francisco Lindor ($623,000 in 2018) are arbitration eligible. Both deserve staggering raises; Lindor might have been the most underpaid player in baseball the last two years. He made $579,300 in 2017.

Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones was linked to the Indians in trade deadline rumors. The Orioles are in a massive rebuild. Jones, 33, does not figure to be part of that process. He played in 145 games a year ago and homered 15 times while driving in 63 runs.

Jones could help stabilize a shaky outfield if Brantley leaves and be the clubhouse leader, ala Mike Napoli, that manager Terry Francona believes is vital to team success. Jones made $17 million with the Orioles in 2018.

The NFL trade deadline is 4 p.m. Oct. 30, and the Browns still need a wide receiver.

Head coach Hue Jackson won’t talk about specific needs but he is hoping general manager John Dorsey can pull off something before the deadline.

“John is always searching and looking, trying to improve the football team,” Jackson said. “Tuesday will show itself as we get closer. We’ll see what happens.”

The Browns are in this predicament because they traded Josh Gordon, and Rashard Higgins on Oct. 28 will miss his third straight game with a knee injury. Jarvis Landry is Baker Mayfield’s only reliable receiver, and that isn’t enough.

Talking about trading for a wide receiver is easier than acquiring one, but there are potential deals out there. The Chargers are not getting much from one-time Browns receiver Travis Benjamin. Benjamin, 28, has three catches for 16 yards and one punt return for minus-1 yard.

Miami could try to unload DeVante Parker, whose agent blasted Dolphins coach Adam Gase recently for listing Parker as inactive Oct. 21 against the Lions when Parker was healthy.

Parker was active – very active – Oct. 25, albeit in a 42-23 blowout loss to the Houston Texans, with six catches for 134 yards. Parker, 25, has eight catches for 174 yards on the season.

The Browns have three fifth-round picks. They could offer one of them for Benjamin. It might take a fourth-round pick to get Parker if his game against the Texans doesn’t take him off the trading block.

One-time Browns receiver Terrelle Pryor is a free agent. He was released by the Jets last week because of a groin injury, but the Jets are considering re-signing him. He has 14 catches for 235 yards and two touchdowns with the Jets.

Pryor caught 77 passes for 1,007 yards and four touchdowns with the Browns in 2016. He has totaled 34 catches for 475 yards and three touchdowns with the Redskins and Jets since then.

The Browns might have to move quickly to sign Pryor if the Jets are serious about re-signing him. Jackson seems able to get more out of him than other coaches do.

• The Browns need a wide receiver even if team doctors indicate Higgins will return to face the Chiefs Nov. 4, but Dorsey is wise not to overpay for one the way the Dallas Cowboys did. The Cowboys gave the Oakland Raiders a first-round draft pick for Amari Cooper. Dorsey can use his first pick to better advantage in the draft next year.

• The official who missed an obvious false start by Chargers left tackle Russell Okung in a game with the Browns Oct. 7, Hugo Cruz, was fired by the NFL on Oct. 25.

The Chargers scored on a 29-yard touchdown pass by Philip Rivers because the play was allowed to continue. The Browns lost, 38-14.

Browns defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is still steamed – not because of the blown call, but because his players quit on the play.

“I talk about it daily, I really do,” Williams said on Oct. 26 when Cruz being fired was mentioned. “I don’t want to hear their excuses. I don’t make the excuse. I don’t want them to make the excuse. Everybody’s going to make a mistake. We have to play. We have to do our part.

“That particular play that has been talked about along, I’m hot at how we handled the play, not how the referee handled the play. We have to finish the rush. We stopped rushing. We stopped finishing the coverage. You have to finish the coverage. We have had over 100 snaps like that.

“We had one of them in practice today. You guys (reporters) weren’t out there, but I snapped on them today. We had a false start by one of our offensive linemen and our guy stopped in the rush. You don’t stop in the rush. You keep going. You have to finish the play and let them call the play dead.”

Williams usually gets his message through loud and clear. There should be no slowing in Heinz Field until the whistle blows.

Reach Schudel at JSchudel@News-Herald. com. On Twitter: @jsproinsider