Cleveland Indians: Two decisions to be made Monday

The Cleveland Indians front office has two decisions to make on Monday, with one focusing on Carlos Santana and the other on Boone Logan.

The Cleveland Indians made some headlines this week by picking up the options of both Michael Brantley and Josh Tomlin for 2018.

More decisions lie ahead for the team as Monday is the deadline to extend qualifying offers, while it is also the last day to pick up or decline Boone Logan‘s $7 million option.

Let’s start with the qualifying offer, as everyone is waiting to see whether the Indians extend the $17.4 million offer to Carlos Santana. Doing so seems to be a no-brainer, as Spotrac places his market value at $17 million. That value is $17 million every year for four years, but getting him back on a one-year deal allows a new deal to be worked out in 2018.

Or perhaps the Indians win the World Series next year and begin to cut costs as the ultimate goal will have been achieved.

A likely scenario could be the offer being extended and Santana turning it down, choosing to focus on a long-term deal. He has made it clear he wants to remain in Cleveland, and turning down the offer doesn’t mean he is leaving. It just means he wants to guarantee himself some more money. There is nothing wrong with that approach.

Extending the offer in the first place is some insurance in case Santana does leave, as a draft pick would come back in return.

No one wants to see Santana leave, and ownership has made it clear that spending a bit extra to pursue a championship is in the plans. So picking up Brantley and Tomlin shouldn’t have too much of an impact on the pursuit of Santana.

One way to save a bit of money and spend efficiently could be to decline Logan’s $7 million option for 2018.

Judging Logan’s season is difficult because while he finished with a 4.71 ERA, he only appeared in 38 games before hitting the disabled list. He also allowed five of his 11 runs on the season in one outing, so his numbers were inflated with the small sample size.

However, the emergence of Tyler Olson as the other left-handed reliever alongside Andrew Miller makes the decision to decline Logan’s option an easy one. Olson didn’t allow a single run in 20 innings of work, and broke out as a star with Logan out and Miller dealing with injuries during the second half of the season.

Next: Indians have easy QO decisions ahead

Logan could help this team in 2018, but he may not be worth $7 million when there are two great left-handed relievers already in the bullpen.