3 Cleveland Indians who should be ready to pack their bags

With the departures of Lindor and Carrasco, Ramirez now stands as the highest-paid player on the Indians this year ($9 million). He is coming off a nice 2020 campaign, as he hit .292/.386/.607 with 17 home runs, 46 RBI, 16 doubles and 45 runs scored. He also finished runner-up in AL MVP voting, and took home a Silver Slugger. All in all a nice rebound from a down 2019 (.255, .806 OPS, 23 home runs, 83 RBI), as he carried a second half surge into the shortened season.

Ramirez has two years left on his contract after 2021, albeit in the form of club options ($12 million for 2022, $14 million for 2023) that each have a $2 million buyout. That flexibility is ideal to enhance trade utility, though as Spotrac notes another top-five MVP finish this year would bump up the value of those options by $500,000.

The Indians lone top-100 prospect right now, according to MLB.com at midseason last year, is third baseman Nolan Jones. He might be a lock for the Opening Day roster this year if there’d been a 2020 minor league season, and a typical big league season may have brought his debut before it was over. As a nod to his major league debut looming, the Indians put Jones on their 40-man roster in November.

Based on money and what his talent would command on the trade market, Ramirez is easy to tab as the next Indians’ player who will be dealt. His situation, with two years of contractual control left, is different than Lindor’s. In Ramirez’s case, the Indians also have a replacement who is ready (or will be soon).