The Indians need to make this trade and sign this free agent

 Ok, it's the off-season  and I could begin this post with a know a guy who knows a guy who heard the Indians were talking to this team about a guy, but that would not be true.  

So, let's jump in with a question:

What would it cost the Indians to trade for Whit Merrifield and Salvador Perez?

Now, undestanding that these guys are starting on the downhill slide of their prime and Perez is a below average catcher with a low walk rate coming off a caree year, this is the kind of trade that the Indians' fans want.

So, how much would it cost the Tribe?

For me, the only guys who would be untouchable would be Jonkensy Noel, Triston McKenzie and, of course, Jose Ramirez, Franmil Reyes, Myles Straw, Amed Rosario, Emmanuel Clase and the rest of our starting rotation.   

Every other prospect in our farm system is in play. 

So what would it take to get those two guys from the Royals?

How about this package: Bobby Bradley, Bo Naylor, Nolan Jones, George Valera and Trevor Stephan

That is a steep price to pay here as Valera could be in the majors this year.   But I think it would be exactly what the Royals need as I don't know if they will be competitive yet when Merrifield hits free agency after 2023.   Salvador Perez will also be 34 by then so he might be on the backside of his career at that point.  We would also have to get Carlos Santana to play 1B but I don't think the Royals would object.

Then we sign Mark Canha

Cleveland fans want to win now and this would certainly enhance that as we are looking at lineup of:

Merrifield 2B

Straw CF

Ramirez 3B

Salvador Perez C

Reyes DH

Canha RF

Amed Rosario LF

Carlos Santana 1B

Andres Gimenez SS

Bench: Zimmer, Hedges, Chang, Miller

With our rotation, that would be a killer lineup.

Would I do this?   I don't think I would but I am a prospect-first guy.   Still, this addresses our lineup issues and helps clear space on the 40-man.  The way the farm system is set up right now our next wave of prospects coming up are position players.   About the time our pitchers are matriculating to free agency the next crop from the 2019-2021 drafts will be ready for the majors.   If we draft and trade appropriately, our next wave of position players will hit after that and so on.