We need to talk about Francisco Lindor. Remember, I’m the guy who took him ahead of Mookie Betts during our site’s 2019 franchise player draft. It’s horrendous that the club should trade a bonafide superstar whose smile shines like Archimedes’ Mirror. But since it appears as though they will, let’s examine how they’ll need to do it. It’s likely one of Lavastida or Diaz will break out and need to go on the 40-man. Palacios will have a season to prove he should, too. The entire 2017 international class (Bracho, Rocchio, Tena, Valera, Planez) plus Tyler Freeman needs to be added. And Cody Morris, Joey Cantillo, and both sidearm relievers do as well.

Not all of those players will pan out in the next 11 months, and someone who is currently on the big league roster will likely be non-tendered next year. But there are just too many viable prospects whose 40-man timelines start next year for Cleveland to avoid a crunch. Any package in return for Lindor either needs to a) involve quality over quantity or b) involve several really young players nowhere near the 40-man, or else they’ll need to package some of their current and future 40-man guys in other trades over the next few months. Based on how Cleveland has operated when trading established big leaguers lately (and given how other teams are behaving in similar circumstances), I expect they’ll choose the second option.