Cleveland Indians not budging from one-year deal for Mike Napoli

According the Cleveland Indians beat writer Jordan Bastian, the Tribe are holding steadfast on a one-year offer for slugger Mike Napoli, despite his desire for a multi-year deal.

It’s not surprising that the Indians want Napoli back on a one-year deal. At 35 years old and coming off of a career-high 34 home runs, it’s not hard to imagine getting one more year of an above-average hitter with power out of Napoli. But past that, he is showing signs of a steep decline on the horizon.

In particular, he struck out in 30.1 percent of his at-bats last season, and his production dropped off of a cliff late in the season and into the postseason. Not to mention his defense at first base eroding to even worse than that of Carlos Santana, according to advanced metrics.

Also not surprising, Napoli himself would love to return to Cleveland, a city that embraced him with open arms with a coach that he is very familiar with.

Napoli indicates, through Bastian, that he’s optimistic he could get a multi-year deal somewhere else. No way to know if that’s true, of course, but I would be okay with the Indians passing on three more years of parties.