Time for some serrious discussion

First,

I applaud Cleveland's management and player development staffs.   They have done more with less and produced winning baseball in Cleveland for an extended period of time.   In the dark ages of Cleveland baseball that I remember clearly, the management and player development staffs had the same opportunity to produce winning teams and didn't.   Anyone who says that this is not true really doesn't remember those times.

While I have criticized the management teams for moves and non-moves in the past, the truth is that I nor any of the bloggers out there really understand the constraints that are placed on Cleveland's management team.    

With that acknowledgement here are the realities as I see them:

•  It now is certain to me that ownership is screwing management.  That shouldn't come as a surprise as the fans have screwed ownership by not showing up in great enough numbers and, as we all know, dung flows downhill.  So fans, you get what you failed to pay for every time a salary dump occurs.
•  The key to me on the future of this franchise is NOT whether they trade Francisco Lindor but WHAT they get back for him when he is traded.  If we are scratching our head about the return it likely means that we took the best offer even if it was substandard to what Lindor is worth.  This will be a bad signal for the future of winning baseball in Cleveland.   Not that trading your stars is wrong on a small market team but trading them for too little value means you are screwing your franchise both short- and long-term.  

You see, if you trade your star players you are in rebuilding mode and in rebuilding mode you have to get back young talent equal to or better than the ML talent you are trading away.

Those are the simple truths.   We failed to trade Kluber and Bauer last winter because we couldn't get enough for them.   That standard is set.   By those rules we should get a lot for Lindor and, if we don't, it means the rules have changed and saving money has become the main goal of the Cleveland Indians.   Not rebuilding, not rebuilding and trying to win at the same time nor trying to win now.  

Just saving money.   

A couple of final thoughts:

•  If you are trying to rebuild you shouldn't be trading international slot money or competitive balance draft picks, right?   The Indians did both of those things last winter. 
•  If you are rebuilding every trade should involve trading away veterans to get quality prospects back, right?  You shouldn't be taking salary dumps in return for your better players.  
•  If you are trying to win now you should take some of the Kluber savings and sign a decent secondbaseman or thirdbaseman AND you shouldn't trade Lindor unless you get a top prospect back.
•  Regarding a Lindor trade, the minimum I accept for Lindor is Gavin Lux, Joc Pederson and a low minors quality pitching prospect.  I would even throw in one of our 9 outfielders into the mix to get that done.   You have to get a young middle infielder back for Lindor as we don't really have any in the minors who will help anywhere in the future.  We are still taking the gamble that Lux will not be a defensive liability or a Kipnis-like player.   In a trade for Lindor we can't get a rookie Kipnis back.   So we are taking the gamble that Lux reaches his expectation.   Other teams are only taking the risk that Lindor might get hurt.

So stay tuned Cleveland fans.   What happens between now and spring training will determine whether ownership is taking us back to the dark ages of Cleveland baseball.   If they do, we only have ourselves to blame because we, as fans, greased the skids by not showing up to games.