And the San DIego Padres jump in! Could Mejia be coming back?

This is exactly the way it's supposed to be.   Get a bunch of people interested in a 'property' and drive up the price to get the best return on your investment.

But this isn't real estate and Corey Kluber isn't a piece of land with a building on it.

That being said, if the Indians are truly pitting division rivals against each other I would suggest they open a dialogue with St. Louis.   Having San Diego and the Dodgers pitted against each other is great but adding the Cardinals to the Reds would make this even more interesting.   Engaging the Braves might be another way to drive up the price.

But back to the Padres.

It is rumored the Indians would have to be blown away to get a deal done.   It has also been stated that the Padres would not include either of their top two prospects (Fernando Tatis Jr. or McKenzie Gore) in the trade.   With those parameters here is my deal:

Kluber and Haase for OF Hunter Renfro, C/OF Francisco Mejia and RHRP Andres Munoz

Yes, I still think that Mejia can catch and I like keeping his bat in the lineup when he isn't catching.   Having him as the DH with Santana playing 1B and Bauers in LF will do that.   At the same time if we do this it kinda makes the Luplow trade look worthless (assuming you didn't think it was a worthless trade already!) as Renfro goes to RF in that situation.  But whatever.

So there it is.  

This deal meets all the criteria above and, in its own way, it is kinda cool.

However, the problem is that there are MANY PR reasons this doesn't work for the Padres.

1. They traded Kluber away in the first place.   It is hard to justify paying a high price for a guy you traded away for a low return (Ludwick, based on his production in San Diego).

2. Getting Hand and Cimber for Mejia looked good for both teams at the time but I imagine that the Padres fans may feel cheated on that deal now that they have had time to think and read about the reasons why the Indians were willing to deal Mejia. I think those fans need Mejia to contribute heavily FOR the Padres at this point to feel good about that trade...not use him as trade bait for a bigger trade.

3. When the Padres fans think about it they would have, in a 6-month period, traded Hand, Cimber, Renfro and Munoz for Kluber and Haase.  I don't know if that would fly with those fans as being even exchange even though I think that it is CLEARLY even exchange with the Padres getting the better of the deal if Kluber stays healthy and Munoz isn't a good contributor in the next year or so, given what we can expect from Cimber, Hand and Renfro.