The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
COVID clouds Lindor’s future with Indians
Service time in 2020 — even a partial season — keeps clock clicking to shortstop’s free agency
Team owner Paul Dolan had a message for Indians fans when he accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Team owner Paul Dolan had a message for Indians fans on Jan. 22 when he accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cleveland
Sports Awards dinner.
“We have a good crop of young players,”
Dolan said. “We saw them start to develop last year. And of course we have some old stars, one of whom happens to play shortstop — who I know I’m going to enjoy.
“I’m not sure I can tell you people to enjoy him, but he is certainly fun to watch and I’m looking forward to October baseball.”
Dolan’s reference to Francisco Lindor was made three weeks before the start of spring training and seven weeks before the novel coronavirus put the sports world on pause March 12. While the clock is stopped in the NHL and NBA, and while it has yet to start in Major League Baseball because the owners and players union cannot agree how to salvage part of the season, that clock on Lindor’s pending free agency is ticking louder every day. It has been ticking since he made his major-league debut on June 14, 2015.
The owners agreed in March that players would accrue a year of service time for 2020 regardless how many games are played. That means Lindor will be a free agent after the 2021 season even if 2020 is completely lost.
Indians president Chris Antonetti could have traded Lindor in November or December, but the offers he received from the Dodgers and other teams, in his view, were not enough for the four-time All-Star. Antonetti did not want to sell low just because teams know Dolan’s pockets aren’t deep enough to sign Lindor to a long-term contract worth $30 million or more a year.
Fans are unlikely to be in the stands even if the knuckleheads in both sides of baseball’s staredown reach an agreement on how to start the season. That would make Lindor and other pending free agents useless as drawing cards.
In a normal season, conventional wisdom had the Indians shipping Lindor at the July 31 trade deadline this summer if they were not in the playoff race. At the latest, he would be traded next winter while the Indians could still get something for him before he walks in free agency.
Major-league teams will be uncertain how to proceed next winter no matter how 2020 unfolds. Players arbitration eligible, including Lindor, will have to get creative arguing they deserve a huge raise.
Teams could be more hesitant to trade for Lindor on a one-year, 2021 rental if lost revenue from this season makes them unable to sign him longterm
for the kind of money he wants. Lindor won’t announce his figure, but a conservative starting point would be the 10-year, $300 million deal the San Diego Padres gave Manny Machado in 2018.
There is one way this messy situation could be beneficial to the Indians. Baseball could need two seasons to stabilize from the financial hit COVID-19 is causing.
If Lindor’s agents conclude the free-agent contract Lindor seeks won’t be there after the 2021 season, maybe he could sign a one-year extension to play with the Indians in 2022 and then strike it rich in free agency when the baseball economy stabilizes.
Lindor’s 2020 contract was for $17.5 million. Even in economically stressed times, a one-year contract for Lindor in 2022 would probably cost the Indians at least $22 million. Expecting the Indians to pay one player that much money for one year might be wishful thinking, just as excepting this season to meet the target to play on July 4 is starting to look like wishful thinking.