Lindor trade headliners - let's take a look

Let's start off by saying this:

Any team that trades for Francisco Lindor can:

a. hold on to him and get two years of one of the best players in the game AND a draft choice when he walks as he will be the easiest qualifying offer decision in the history of baseball.

or

b. flip him at some point between now and July 31st of 2021 to get value back for him that will probably be worth more than that draft choice.

So, with that backdrop, let's look at some of the rumored headliners in the rumored deals to get Lindor.  These are all rumors but they all make sense at some level:

Reds - Nick Senzel - His numbers, albeit tempered by injury, last year were not great.   He has almost one year of service time and is 24 years old.   Given his production and the fact that he is not a stellar or even average defender as an infielder, there would have to be more coming back, at least another top 10 prospect,  The Reds have two pitching prospects in Tony Santillan and Vladimir Gutierrez, both of whom sucked this year.    In my opinion it would take one or both of them and Senzel to get this deal done as Senzel, himself, doesn't look like enough.    Hey, I know Reds' fans will laugh at this but when you have your #4 prospect being a pitcher with an ERA of over 6 in AAA, it is not a strong farm system.   To get Santillan and Gutierrez to reach their potential it will take a big gamble and a lot of work by the Indians.   But that is what a prospect trade is, right?  The team trading the veteran is trading for the future and, to get good return, has to generally take some risk.   Taking Senzel, Santillan and Gutierrez is taking risk, the latter two being significant risk, IMHO.

Mets - I don't put much stock in Mets rumors but the guy the Indians apparently want to headline the deal is Jeff McNeil, who played LF, RF, 2B and 3B last year in his first full season with the Mets and made the NL all-star team.   McNeil is a nice player but c'mon.  He was a 12th round pick out of Long Beach St..   In 2018 he had his best minor league season, playing at AA as a 26 year old.   He will begin 2020 as a 28 year old.    He set career highs last year in runs, doubles and HRs while playing his first full season in the majors.   Yes, that is career highs counting his college and minor league teams.  So, all-star team aside, there is a decent chance that his power numbers are an aberration.  Without that, looking at his poor walk rate, and he is no better than a combination of Luplow and whatever LH outfielder you want to plug in.  Yeah, I ask for McNeil in any trade for Lindor but he is not the headliner.  Maybe a co-headliner with the other guy being Andres Gimenez (AA SS) if we get Stephen Villines (RP AAA), too.

Dodgers - Gavin Lux - This is the first headliner who is a true headliner.   Look, the Dodgers are trying to get to the WS and win it.   Two years of Lindor gets that done.    The Indians get Lux, Joc Pederson and  relief prospect Josh Sborz and throw the recently acquired DeShields back to the Dodgers.  While I would love Lux and May, I don't think that is ever going to happen.   So we need Lux and whoever else is going to help this team.   I think Pederson and Sborz have that chance.

Yankees - Miguel Andujar - While I like this guy my trade is a straight up one-4-one with the Indians trading Lindor and getting back Gleyber Torres.   Sorry, Yankees, we got to get a SS back who can play.   Torres is very good but Lindor is Lindor.   You guys have deep pockets.   Take Lindor and sign him to a long term contract.    Torres ain't taking you to the promised land by himself.   Lindor can.