While We Wait, Visions of a 3-Team Francisco Lindor Trade Dance In Our Heads

This week, the Reds reportedly saw their presence confirmed among teams who are running up Chris Antonetti’s phone bill as they inquire about Francisco Lindor. Hours later, it was then reported that the Indians are asking for everyone’s best, final offer for Lindor this weekend, all in a possible attempt to squeeze every ounce of a return package from the list of suitors and perhaps allow Cleveland to move on with the rest of their offseason, something that just can’t totally happen without reaching a resolution one way or another.

One thing is certain, the continued buzz surrounding Lindor doesn’t hurt the Tribe’s leverage, and in the end, they could always determine their best course of action is just to hold on to one of the game’s top talents. But even if Cleveland’s preference was to move him, what if one team isn’t able to completely satisfy the Indians’ demands? What if multiple teams contain pieces Cleveland likes, but no single club has all of them — or, perhaps, is willing to trade all of them — to warrant giving up the final two years of Lindor team control?

Game over, right? Back to the drawing board, mmm? Hold on to the star and surround him over the next two years to ensure you don’t waste him, eh? Sure, maybe that’s what a sane person who is less impacted by offseason boredom might do. But what fun is that?

What if, instead of simply returning the phone to the charger and preparing for a long winter’s nap, Antonetti sent a risky text?

OK … here it is. What if they added a third team to the mix?

Despite the fact that the three-way dance is extremely difficult to pull off in the real world … [clears throat] … there’s nothing quite as thrilling as making potentially horrific decisions that impact several years of a franchise for multiple teams. It’s even more fun when the person dreaming up the offer has nothing more on the line than the clicks generated from a bait article.

(Hi. That’s me. The click-baiter.)

The Dodgers and Reds likely present the two best cases for making an offer that Antonetti and Mike Chernoff can’t refuse, but others have speculated that additional clubs ranging from the Braves, Yankees, Mets and Padres are on Cleveland’s frequent incoming call archive.

To this point, the Dodgers have reportedly been unwilling to dangle the extremely talented Gavin Lux in their discussions. Others have speculated that infielder and outfielder Nick Senzel could be available in a Reds return package, but it’s questionable if they have the secondary pieces outside of reliever Amir Garrett that the Indians would want and fit their current timeline. The Dodgers have enough of those MLB-ready or established pieces to make an enticing offer, but without Lux as the centerpiece, Cleveland may be better off passing.

At the same time, the Reds need a shortstop, and the Dodgers also have Corey Seager, who was worth 3.3 fWAR last year and is projected to be a 4-win player in 2020. He, like Lindor, also has two years of arbitration control left — he’s projected to make about $7.1 million this year, according to MLBTR — so while his well above-average bat could make for a nice Lindor replacement in Cleveland, his team control timeline doesn’t exactly solve their situation.

Hmmmm … it sure feels like the three teams all have something each of the other organizations would want. So, why not combine them Captain Planet style to see if a deal between the trio could actually satisfy everyone involved?

Before you start screenshotting and laughing at the stupidity in your group text thread — hey, stop, I spent a lot of time on this! — let’s actually get to our proposal:

Indians get: INF/OF Nick Senzel, OF Alex Verdugo, SP Dustin May

Dodgers get: SS Francisco Lindor, RP Amir Garrett

Reds get: SS Corey Seager, C Austin Barnes, OF Delino DeShields

[Pause for effect and possible applause...]

[...Ducks]

Here’s the reasoning: the Indians get Senzel, 24, who is closer to what they’d likely want as a centerpiece for Lindor, but they also get back two pieces that immediately fill holes on the MLB roster in Verdugo, 23, and May, 22. Between Senzel (90 wRC+ in 2019) and Verdugo (114 wRC+ in 2019), they’ve upgraded the outfield, or they could certainly put Senzel back in the infield, where it helps fill one of their holes. Unfortunately, Senzel played just one game at shortstop in the minors back in 2018, so that’s probably not an option, so filling that hole will take some added maneuvering (what, you want us to solve everything?).

May adds a 22-year-old arm with 72nd percentile fastball velocity and elite fastball and curve spin to the Tribe's incredible pitching pipeline. He'd have the ability to immediately step into the hole left by the Corey Kluber trade if they so chose.

The Dodgers come away with Lindor without having to deal Lux — that’s the sell for giving up the player control and parting with Seager, at least — and they also add an intriguing arm that could potentially loom in the later innings for a few years. The Reds, meanwhile, give up Senzel and Garrett, but they’ve now upgraded their 2020 win total by adding a shortstop like Seager. They currently own the lowest projected WAR from shortstop next season, not to mention they are currently projected to have the seventh-lowest projected WAR from catchers.

They’d lose the longterm value of keeping Senzel and Garrett, but they appear to be putting most of their focus on the next two years, anyhow, right?

Hopefully the proposals leaves all three fanbases upset -- that's right, that means you -- which means it might be closer to fair than you’d expect. The Reds might still have the greatest incentive to say no, depending on their evaluation of Seager, and perhaps they’d need a sweetener of sorts to agree. But the basic framework makes at least a little sense (or maybe it’d provide for some good laughs).

Now, here comes the super serious part where it’s explained how losing Lindor doesn’t sting as much you’d think. And, well … nah, that’s not coming, actually. Even if the projected WAR from multiple players matched Lindor, there’s a difference in getting it all from one star as opposed to in the aggregate. There’s also risk in trading a known commodity for semi-unproven players.

It’s hard to see any scenario where the Indians trade Lindor and somehow don’t lose any additional ground to the Twins in the AL Central in 2020 unless a load of cash saved in the Kluber and Lindor deals is immediately re-invested back into the roster -- still a bit skeptical -- nor are we taking into account what sort of clubhouse fallout would come after dealing a superstar and team leader.

But if the Indians are really going to go down this road, they better come away with enough to help keep them competitive well into the next decade. Otherwise, you’re going to have a hard time selling anyone on giving up greater odds of a World Series pursuit over the next two years, even with the eventual Lindor departure looming in the distance.

Lucky for us, we already earned your click, so our part here is done.