Nationals Interested in Sizemore and Carmona?

Would the Indians consider trading Grady Sizemore or Fausto Carmona this offseason?

Logic says ‘no,’ for a variety of reasons, but Yahoo! Sport’s Scoup du Jour is publicizing a rumor that the Indians have had conversations with the Washington Nationals about trading both.

What I think is happening here is the Nationals made a check-in phone call about the players, and the Indians’ didn’t immediately say “no.” Therefore, it’s being reported like they’re busy hammering out a deal. This may very well happen, but until I see some names of players the Indians are interested in, I’m not buying it.

One problem is what exactly are Sizemore and Carmona worth? Sizemore would be selling low for the Tribe: he’s coming off two injury-riddled seasons and there are serious doubts about whether he can still be an elite player. He’s still valuable to the Indians for marketing and PR reasons and he’s signed through 2012. As for Carmona, he was a bad team’s all-star representative, had good but not-ace like numbers last year, but was a lost soul the previous two seasons. He’s about the only thing you can lean on in the Indians’ rotation, and his contract is pretty club-friendly.

If I’m the Indians, I ask for the moon in exchange for players like Sizemore and Carmona. They are simply worth more to the Indians than another team right now, so rather than trade them for lesser value, I’d hold firm, and if no one gave me what I wanted, well, the Indians didn’t need to trade them anyways.

But Tribe fans, don’t go dreaming about seeing Stephen Strasburg or Bryce Harper in an Indians uni. Even if the Indians were to trade Sizemore and Carmona to the Nats, Strasburg is injured and with a fat contract, and Harper isn’t eligible to be traded yet.  That is not happening, for sure.

I fully expect Sizemore and Carmona to be in Goodyear for spring training with the Tribe. I just can’t see why the Indians would want to strip this team to the bone like that.