Cleveland Indians working on long-term deal with Francisco Lindor, confirms small child

The Cleveland Indians may be working on a seven-year extension for star shortstop Francisco Lindor, a small child confirmed on the team’s live broadcast yesterday.

Ok, that intro sentence sounds a bit off, let me explain. No, I’m not insulting Jordan Bastian by calling him a small — the son of Indians general manager Mike Chernoff joined Tom Hamilton in the booth yesterday and he, uh, well, might have broke some news.

After a few minutes of typical adolescent shyness, young Brody Chernoff was prodded (jokingly) by Hamilton for some kind of news he could tell us about his dad, Mike, making any late night calls to attract a free agent. Given how closed off Brody had been for most of the fun little segment, it made sense that he would probably shake his head no and Tom could laugh it off as “well at least I tried to get a scoop.”

Instead, he got a scoop around the 3:55 mark:

While it’s difficult to take the word of a boy who has yet to turn eight as fact, he was pretty specific in saying that his dad wanted Lindor to play in Cleveland “for seven more years.”

Now, to be fair, if I was general manager of the Indians and knew my son loved Francisco Lindor, I’d be telling him every night that I’m doing whatever I can to make that happen, even if I’m not. I’m not about to admit to my child that I’m going to let his favorite player walk as soon as he is able to.

So of course, don’t take this as any real concrete news.

WITH THAT SAID, HOWEVER, it would make sense for the Indians to be pursuing a long-term deal for Lindor. They have a history of doing for young star players such as Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco; and just last week completed a similar deal for third baseman Jose Ramirez.

Around 10 hours before this wonderful live moment happened, Joel Sherman reported that there were no talks between the Indians and Lindor.

Joel is great and all, but the optimist in me wants to #BelieveInBrody.