Brantley made about $16M while mostly not playing for Houston last year. MLB Trade Rumors projected him to sign for 1 yr/$15M for ‘23; FanGraphs 1 yr/$10M. Big spread! But can you see Cleveland even spending $5M for a 4th OF/DH?
Maybe they can send a SS to the Twins?
Here’s the current 40 man roster:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CLE/2022-roster.shtml
Couple of names on there that are not too familiar, like Noel, Brito and Tena. Seriously, everyone knows Cleveland still has a 40 man crunch with too many infield prospects. If they’re patient other teams can probably get a couple of those guys when they’re DFA between now and June. To trade the IN prospects Cleveland will need to include a pitcher or Rosario in the deal. If they make a trade big enough to pry a pitching prospect away from Cleveland it would likely need to be for a back of the rotation starting pitcher.
I think they will sign another C or two, but to minors with invite deals, for depth. It would be a very rare Winter if they don’t find a couple dumpster dive pitcher projects that come in on minors with invite deals too.