Indians Trade Edwin Encarnacion to Mariners to Bring Home Carlos Santana

Well, the word on the street was that the Indians are more concerned about shedding salary this off-season than improving their on-field product, and it appears that they have made their first move in that direction. Or did they? Yes, trading Edwin frees up $20 million this year, but bringing back Carlos Santana means an extra year on the books. And the dude is still making $17 million this year! I guess I’m just a little confused as to what the benefit of this trade was…

So are we saying that we think Santana is better than Edwin….? Then why didn’t we pay him last year! But that has to be the answer right? Because Tito just said that “We’re not going backwards” this off-season. Well we just dealt our 30 home run guy and another pretty good hitter without saving too much money, so I’m interested to hear what direction we’re going. Whatever. I’m going to roll with the guy we got. So let me be the first to say it: Welcome home, Mr. Santana!

After playing in Cleveland for his first 8 professional seasons, Santana signed with the Phillies last off-season, who traded him earlier this month to Seattle for Jean Segura. I hope you enjoyed your 10 days of being a Mariner, Carlos, but it’s time to come home. I will say, losing Edwins 30+ home runs does hurt, but he definitely didn’t get on base as much as Santana did and will. So would we rather have 10 more homeruns or a 1st basemen that gets on base from the middle of the order? I don’t know. Probably the home run guy if I’m being honest. Edwin’s OBP was .336 last year and Carlos’s was .352. Not a huge deal. But Edwin has 7 straight years of 30+ home runs, while Carlos has 1 year in his entire career above the 30 mark. The whole trade just seems like a big game of musical chairs to me. Not sure we “won” this deal. We definitely didn’t on paper, but there are a couple big names moving which has me thinking more is coming. The Indians can frame this however they want, but if any of our starting pitchers are dealt, then we’re officially sellers before the season even starts. Bauer and Kluber are still Indians, for now, so we’re still contenders.

Oh yeah, and we picked up this Jake Bauers guy too. They tell me he’s a good, young ballplayer, and he appears to have a sense of humor.

Welcome aboard, Jake. The plan is to win the AL Central then piss away our chance in the playoffs.