Indians: The surprising return in the Corey Kluber trade

Cleveland Indians fans were hoping for a big return in the Corey Kluber trade. That is not quite the reality of the situation.

Corey Kluber is now a member of the Texas Rangers. That sentence alone is enough to make Cleveland Indians fans wonder what 2020 will be like.

Ideally such a trade would help the team by bringing in players ready to contribute right now. That technically is the case, though the players coming to town don’t have the resume of Kluber.

Two players for the price of one. Emmanuel Clase and Delino DeShields Jr. come to Cleveland in exchange for Kluber.

At first I took the approach of waiting for more details to emerge. For more players to be included in the deal. That never became the case.

Clase is the key in this trade. The hard-throwing reliever made his debut in 2019 and threw smoke the entire time.

The high velocity is fun and Clase could end up being a nice piece in Cleveland. But he is still relatively unproven in the majors to be the cornerstone of a Kluber trade.

Then there is DeShields. He is not even an everyday outfielder and is set to hit free agency after the 2021 season. He is a career 5.4 WAR player since 2015 and once again, does not stand out as a top piece in such a trade. Yet here we are.

The Indians claimed to have received plenty of offers for Kluber. Is his value really that low?

Clase can end up being the dominant reliever in the Cleveland bullpen. But it is still fair for fans to question the deal at this point in time. Kluber won two Cy Young Awards and was the ace of the staff for over five seasons.

What this deal indicates is that teams, including the Indians, aren’t as high on Kluber as fans may be. Picking up his option may have only been done to try to drive up his value even more.

The main takeaway from this trade is that it can’t be the only major move the team is going to make this offseason. The Indians have an extra $17 million to spend and cannot sit on that money. Doing that would rightfully cause fans to be outraged. More than they already are.

My initial reaction to this trade is just that it is a bummer. One of the best pitchers in team history was traded on a football Sunday for two players who most Indians fans have never heard of before today. There was no farewell tour or a proper goodbye. Just a tweet and some cliche phrases in a press conference.