If The Indians Trade Away Jose Ramirez Then The Dolans Should Be Arrested For Franchise Abandonment
Have the Dolans not ruined this franchise enough already? I'm already not spending a dime on this team after trading Lindor for a bag of balls (got refunded for my tickets), but if they trade Jose, I won't even WATCH them anymore. Jose Ramirez is not only an incredible baseball player, he's also as inexpensive as they come. He HAS to be the best dollar for dollar baseball player in Major League Baseball. Can someone name one better? The Indians have a $12 million club option for Jose in 2022, and they have a $14 million club option for Jose in 2023. We already have a historically low payroll. Trading him now would be the most obvious wave the white flag move in the history of sports. I know we've got a billionaire owner pinching pennies and everything, but if you're not willing to pay Jose that money, then you need to be locked up for abandonment of franchise. Or abuse of fanbase.
And to everyone saying "Oh wow, they must be getting quite the haul if they trade Jose away now"......uhhh did you see what we got for Lindor? MLB execs were laughing at the Indians. And then we tossed in Carlos Carrasco just for fun! I have no faith that the Indians Front Office will get anything back that catches my eye. Do I like our GM? Yep, but he answers to the cheapest billionaire in fiscal history. The Dolan's priorities are as follows:
1.) Saving money
2.) Not losing money
3.) Angering the fans
4.) Trading away our best players
5.) Anything but winning
6.) Winning
If we could trade away Jose for ten bucks right now, I think the Dolans would push for it. Save the money on his contract and get a Chipotle burrito out of it? Dolans would call that a Win / Win. I would say that Major League Baseball clearly needs a salary cap, but you guys would say I'm whining and crying again. Can we all agree on a salary FLOOR then?
The Indians payroll is $23.5 million. Good enough for dead last in the league and $7 million behind 29th. On the other end of the spectrum, the Dodgers payroll is $185 million. Could you imagine the NBA or NFL if they allowed teams to have 8x another teams salary? You'd have shit like James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving all on the same team! But again, I like the idea of go big or go home in Major League Baseball. But I just wish we had an owner that could go big. I retract: WOULD go big. The dude is a billionaire. He has the money. Can Dan Gilbert purchase this team......?