And Cuthbert is only 23...

Re: Making an offseason trade for SP, i think that's a possibility but believe Moore would prefer to trade from minor league inventory than move a young player with many years of control who has proven himself at the majors (as Cuthbert is starting to - still a long ways to go, and 300 more ABs or so to see him take).

Whether KC is able to extend a player or two who will be a free agent after 2017 could also be a big factor in making a trade. Not that I believe they'd trade a guy because they couldn't extend him, just that if they sign Lorenzo Cain to a 5-year, $65 million deal or something like that, they'll likely backload some of it to free up space in 2017.

Cain, Duffy, and Moustakas are the only guys I could see working out a long-term deal of the 2017 guys. Escobar will be allowed to leave, same with Davis.

Cain because he is older and hasn't made a ton of money yet, so the security may encourage him to take a slightly smaller deal than he could get on the open market (if things go well and he has another strong season).

Duffy because he loves KC and because his up-and-down performances will likely prevent him from getting a huge deal in FA. He'd have to bet on having a pretty huge 2017 to avoid looking at an extension with KC.

And Moustakas because we've seen him go around Boras' advice to sign with KC before (when he was drafted). I think he loves it here and would be interested in staying.

I'd love to put Hosmer in that group and won't dismiss out-of-hand the odds of keeping him. They're against KC, but I think that average yearly salary ends up looking a lot more like Freddie Freeman's deal (somewhere in the low 20s, opt-out after three years, 7 years, $150-165 million seems like a decent guess).

That's not completely out of KC's range, it's just a matter of whether they can sustain this payroll and they find a way to offset some of the cost with cheaper alternatives at other positions.

For example, a 2018 IF of Hosmer, Merrifield, Mondesi and Cuthbert would feature one pre-arb guy (Mondesi), and two guys in their final pre-arbitration years (Cuthbert and Merrifield). Grand total of salary for the entire infield would likely still be under $30 million.

Trading our future to win now is dumb. Ride it out.

I looked at Rookie hitters age 23 since the expansion era 1969-. Of the 363 qualifiers, Cuth is at the edge of the upper 1/3 in wRC+. But that's only half of it: the vast majority of them became regulars with decent if not excellent careers, because being a qualified hitter at 23 isn't very common.

I would trade Moose for a Wacha type in a heartbeat. Since hitting has been so tough to come by, we ought to be able to get good value for Moose.

I predict we will win the central. By 4 games or more.

By "Wacha-type," I hope you mean someone better than Michael Wacha.

Wacha is OK, but he's really a two-pitch guy and has an injury history/bad shoulder. I don't think he'd more of a difference maker for the 2017 Royals than Moustakas.

This.

It would help if some other teams could ever beat the Indians.

Good info Duncan. Thanks!

Good thing we play them alot.

I just don't see us signing Hosmer unless he pulls a "KC is where I wanna be" thing. If he does do that and we at least pay him decent I think that bodes well for keeping Moose and most likely Cain as well.

I think Esky will be replaced with Mondesi If we do lock up Moose I think Cutty gets dealt. Otherwise you let Moose walk which could play into Hos not wanting to hang for less $.

I personally don't see much value in trading Cutty. He seems like a perfect "reload not rebuild" piece. He gives us versatility in the signing period during FA (can likely play 1st or 3rd, wouldn't be surprised to see him in 2B or RF this winter either).

I think he's pretty valuable

I do too, but I think we would get more value by playing him rather than trading him.

That's what I meant, I left off "to us" at the end, no idea what happened. Lol