Cleveland Indians: The projected arbitration salaries in 2019

The Cleveland Indians have some big raises to pay out this offseason. This is reflected in the projected arbitration salaries.

The Cleveland Indians have had the benefit of paying Francisco Lindor next to nothing during his time in town.

That will begin to change this year as Lindor will begin the arbitration process. No more $600,000 salaries for the young star.

An article on MLB Trade Rumors posted earlier this month went through each team and projected salaries for all the arbitration-eligible players.

The article projects Lindor to earn $10.2 million in 2019. That is the second-most among those in arbitration, as Trevor Bauer is projected to earn $11.6 million. So between those two, that is a combined increase of about $14.5 million from 2018 to 2019.

Another intriguing player on the list is Danny Salazar, who is projected to earn $5 million. His role remains one that is tough to define. When he is healthy he is a fixture in the rotation. But I don’t see the Indians bumping Mike Clevinger or Shane Bieber from the rotation at this point.

That means Salazar would likely be sent to the bullpen, or offered up in a trade for a team willing to take a chance on him. He has the talent, we have seen that, but his health is just too much of a concern to invest too much money or hope in him.

Leonys Martin is projected to earn $2.8 million, while Neil Ramirez is looking at about $1.3 million. So as you can see, Bauer and Lindor take up a lot of the money when it comes to raises via arbitration.

Cody Anderson is also set to earn $900,000, in case you forgot about him.

All these raises will force the front office to get creative this offseason. Let’s just hope that the team doesn’t take a step in the wrong direction heading into next season.