You be the GM: Build a plan to deliver a championship for the Cleveland Indians

Baseball is gone in 2019. There is nothing left. I’ve check the woods behind my house, the basement, even under the couch cushions, but it’s just gone. We’ll have to wait until spring to get another shipment and I’m not sure I can handle the withdrawal. I need something to tide me over.

Are you tweaking bro?

NO. WHY WOULD YOU — excuse me. I simply come to you today to suggest that if you are in a similar situation — one in which you require a steady diet of baseball content in one form or another to make it successfully through life — then I have an interesting activity in which you might like to participate.

In years past, we here at Let’s Go Tribe have asked community members to put together their plan for the offseason. Essentially, “If you were GM, what would you do this offseason”

We encourage all of you to post your offseason plans as a FanPost as we will feature some of our favorite plans. Feel free to post literally any kind of plan. If you want to get weird please follow the best practices of Sci-Fi and have the “clocks strike thirteen” in the first sentence so we know what we’re dealing with.

Some of you have beaten us to the punch this season.

[Insert your username]’s Offseason Plan

Arbitration-eligible (with projected salaries from MLBTR). Indians have already moved on from players marked with asterisks, but you may elect to keep them if you like.

• Francisco Lindor – $16.7MM
• Kevin Plawecki – $1.5MM
• Nick Goody – $1.1MM
• Nick Wittgren – $1.3MM
• Mike Clevinger – $4.5MM
• Tyler Naquin – $1.8MM
• A.J. Cole – $800K*
• Cody Anderson – $800K*
• Danny Salazar – $4.5MM*

Feel free to explain if/why any of these guys were particularly tough decisions for you, or if you believe the Indians should have kept Anderson, Cole, or (gulp) Salazar

Contract options (pick up or buy out). Indians have already decided to extend Kluber while buying out Kipnis and Otero, but you may choose to do thing differently.

• Corey Kluber: $17.5MM club option with a $1MM buyout
• Jason Kipnis: $16.5MM club option with a $2.5MM buyout
• Dan Otero $1.5MM club option with a $100K buyout

Free agents:

Peruse the list of potential free agents (Here by position with WAR) and identify at least a couple players you would pursue, along with the maximum offer you would extend to each of them, and a brief explanation of what you like about the/what role you see them filling for the Tribe.

Trades:

Feel free to propose any potential trades that you think sound reasonable for both sides, and the rationale behind them. If you’ve got a realistic hypothetical that includes the Indians picking up Mike Trout, I’m all ears, but be sure to do your best to keep things plausible here.

The 25-man roster and a Summary:

Here’s is the Tribe’s current roster. Not all of those guys will be with the organization come 2020, much less on the active roster. Feel free to list your projected Opening Day 25-man roster, maybe even with a handy depth chart:

• SP1:
• SP2:
• SP3:
• SP4:
• SP5:
• Bullpen:
• C:
• 1B:
• 2B:
• 3B:
• SS:
• LF:
• CF:
• RF:
• DH:
• Bench:

Hey you, person about to post your plan in the comments. Stop that. Make it a FanPost instead.