The Cleveland Indians are working on keeping the 2014 American League Cy Young winner with the team for years to come.
According to FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal, the Indians and starter Corey Kluber are "still talking extension" and there's "some progress, but difficult to predict whether deal gets done by Opening Day."
The soon-to-be 29-year-old Kluber won the AL Cy Young Award last season after going 18-9 with a 2.44 ERA, 1.095 WHIP and 269 strikeouts in 34 starts (235 2/3 innings). It was his first season pitching in more than 26 games and his first making more than 24 starts. He earned just $514,000 last year and will earn $601,000 in 2015.
The right-hander becomes eligible for arbitration after this upcoming season and will remain under club control through 2018. The current negotiations are likely trying to arrive at a reasonable number that will cover those arbitration years, since he'll probably begin earning over $10 million per season once 2017 rolls around (if he keeps pitching at a high level).
"The problem is the Cleveland Indians would like to get at least two years of Kluber's free agency years, but to do that they would need to guarantee far too much money to a pitcher over the next six years, something the frugal Indians cannot afford to do," writes MyTribe of the Anger Management blog via Cleveland.com.
"I would suggest that 15 to 17 million dollars of guaranteed money now, before the start of the 2015 season, should allow Mr. Kluber and his agent to reciprocate with more affordable amounts as Mr. Kluber reaches his final arbitration year and then free agency."
At this point it's unknown what will happen because Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported a little over a week ago that the two sides were "not close to finding common ground on a long-term deal when Kluber's agent and team higher-ups met in Goodyear, Ariz."
If the Indians can get an extension done before Opening Day then they wouldn't have to worry much about their starting rotation, which would consist of Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, T.J. House and Zach McAllister for the foreseeable future.
