The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
What if the Browns get an offer for Keenum?
If a team offered the Browns a second- or third-round pick for backup quarterback Case Keenum, should they take the deal? Jeff Schudel analyzes that scenario, and that of Jose Ramirez and the Indians.
Sports Editor Mark Podolski and I got into a debate a few days ago about what the Browns should do if a team needing a quarterback offers them a third-round draft pick for Case
Keenum.
Podolski believes the Browns should make the trade, especially if the Falcons, Washington Football Team or the Colts, for example, offer a secondround pick.
I say the Browns should hold onto Keenum.
The Browns are built to contend for the Super Bowl now. They need an experienced quarterback behind Baker Mayfield who can win games if Mayfield is injured more than they need another draft pick in 2022 or 2023.
As it is now, the Browns’ third quarterback is Kyle Lauletta. Lauletta, a fourth-round draft pick by the Giants in 2018, appeared in two games as a rookie. He threw five passes. One was intercepted and the other four were incomplete. He did not play in the NFL in 2019 or 2020.
The Browns would have to scramble to find another quarterback if they trade Keenum and then Mayfield is injured.
Mayfield is past the point of needing a mentor. The whole mentor thing conjures up the image of a veteran holding a young quarterback’s hand as he guides him through a season.
Mayfield doesn’t need his hand held. But it is helpful that Keenum, 33 years old, in 2017 while with the Vikings played in the offensive system the Browns are using now. Keenum had his best NFL season that year, which was also Kevin Stefanski’s first season as the Vikings quarterbacks coach. Keenum was 11-3 as a starter with 22 touchdown passes. He threw seven interceptions.
Keenum is 25-37 as an NFL starter — not a great record, for sure, but he is experienced enough to keep the Browns afloat if an injury sidelines Mayfield for a couple of games. Plus, with running backs Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, and with what should be an improved defense, Keenum wouldn’t have to win games by himself, just as Mayfield doesn’t have to win games on his own.
Mayfield has been durable. He has not missed a start since replacing Tyrod Taylor in the third game of 2018. Mayfield has started 45 straight games and plays behind one of the best offensive lines in the NFL.
Still, Keenum is the kind of insurance policy the Browns should not trade. The Browns across
the board are better than they have been in a very long time and so is the depth of the roster. Keenum is an important part of that depth.
• On the subject of depth, KhaDarel Hodge can get overlooked as part of the depth of the receiving corps. He isn’t as flashy as Jarvis Landry. He isn’t as fast as Odell Beckham Jr. and he doesn’t make one-handed catches like OBJ. He doesn’t make dazzling leaping catches like Donovan PeoplesJones.
Hodge caught 11 passes last season and did not score a touchdown. He is reliable, runs his routes well and has sure hands. He and Rashard Higgins are battling to be the fourth receiver.
Higgins caught 37 passes and scored four touchdowns last season. Mayfield and Higgins have a strong connection going back to the 2018 training camp when Mayfield was a rookie playing on the second team. Don’t be surprised if some of the plays that went to Higgins go to Hodge this season.
On Ramirez’s future
Jose Ramirez is having a typical Jose Ramirez season for the Indians — 25 home runs, 68 RBI and 73 runs scored in 105 games played through mid-August. He can be counted on for a typical Jose Ramirez next season, too.
The question is, will Ramirez be playing for the Guardians or another team in 2022?
There are few bargains in baseball better than Ramirez. He is making $9 million this season. The Indians hold club options on him for 2022 and 2023 at $12 million and $14 million.
Just to compare, Bryce Harper in 95 games with the Phillies this season has 21 home runs, 46 RBI and 67 runs scored. He is making $26 million in the third year of the 13-year, $330 million contract he signed in 2019.
Ramirez turns 29 next month. If Indians President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti doesn’t think he can sign him to an extension, as painful as it would be for Antonetti and as furious as fans would be, the prudent move would be to trade Ramirez in the coming offseason while the team on the receiving end would control his contract for two more years.
Antonetti could have traded Francisco Lindor prior to the 2020 season, but he held onto the four-time All-Star expecting the Indians to take one more run at a World Series championship.
The Indians finished 3525 in the season that was shortened to 60 games because of the novel coronavirus. They made the playoffs as a wild-card team and were swept by the Yankees in a best-of-three series.
Antonetti traded Lindor and pitcher Carlos Carrasco to the Mets in January for infielders Amed Rosario and Andres Gimenez plus prospects
Josh Wolf, a right-handed pitcher, and outfielder Isaiah Greene.
It will take more than one season to learn how the Indians fared in the Lindor trade. Rosario has been steady at shortstop. He has six home runs and 35 RBI in 106 games. Wolf, ranked No. 10 among Indians prospects by MLB.com, is 1-3 with Low-A Lynchburg. He is 20 years old. Greene, ranked 19th among the Tribe prospects, is batting .300 in the Arizona Rookie League. He turns 20 on Aug. 29.
Obviously, playoff hopes this year were decimated by Shane Bieber being sidelined two months and counting with a shoulder injury and Aaron Civale still out almost as long with a sprained right middle finger. But the Indians can’t let themselves be deluded into believing the starting rotation of Bieber, Civale. Zach Plesac, Cal Quantrill and Triston McKenzie staying healthy all of 2022 will make them a playoff team next summer without more run production.
The Indians (56-58) are 22-40 against teams over .500. They are 30-19 vs. the AL Central Division but 7-7 vs. the divisionleading White Sox.
Trading Ramirez would be taking a giant step backward, but Antonetti might have to part with his best player in order to take two steps forward.
I didn’t know that
… until I read my Snapple bottle cap
An electric eel can release a charge powerful enough to start 50 cars. … Maine is the only U.S. state with one syllable. … A rainbow can be seen only in the morning or late afternoon. … Dragonflies have six legs but cannot walk. … When the moon is directly overhead, you weigh slightly less. … The tongue is the fastest healing part of the human body.