Baseball can be a cruel sport.
Cruel is Carlos Santana signing with the Philadelphia Phillies as a free agent after a decade in the Indians’ organization. But no act of cruelty is complete without a twisting of the knife. Cruel is Santana returning to Cleveland in a trade, having a career year with the Tribe, and then following that up with the worst year of his career, giving the Indians’ front office all the more reason not to pick up his $17.5 million club option for 2021.
To be clear, the Indians were never going to pick up his club option for 2021, not with that price tag.