Clevelinks: Cleveland Indians Could Acquire Ryan Braun; Cubs a Potential Trade Partner

Could the Cleveland Indians land Ryan Braun?

Following a season in which the Cleveland Indians ranked in the bottom half of baseball in most power outputs, the offense is sure to be a prime target in the off-season. There are many mid-tier bats to be had on the free-agent market, and several teams will sell off remaining sluggers to hasten their rebuilding process. With this in mind, Merritt Rohlfing writes that one particular player could fit the Indians’ criteria: Ryan Braun.

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Braun, 32 on Tuesday, has slugged over 25 homeruns in all but one of his eight full seasons. He has even smashed 30 bombs in five of those seasons. Even further, his isolated power, the difference between slugging percentage and batting average, has only dropped below .190 once. While this offensive powerhouse has fallen on rough times lately, he still can produce runs at a rate 20% better than the average batter.

Despite the promise, this deal may never materialize, and Merritt gave it the likeliness of 1.5 Wahoos. Among the biggest detractors were his declining defense, increasing age, and saturating salary. For a deal to occur, the Milwaukee Brewers would have to eat much of the $95 million owed to the right-hander.

In other news, Nick Blazek thinks that the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs are great trade partners. The Tribe have a myriad of young pitching, while the Cubs have a multitude of young batters. Perhaps the two teams could align their strengths to produce two better teams.

These and other stories you might have missed:

More from around the AL Central:

‘Cleveland Indians: The Cubs Potential as a Trade Partner‘ – Wahoo’s on First

‘Cleveland Indians Offseason Search of Offense: Volume One‘ – Wahoo’s on First

‘Top 25 Free Agents for 2016’ – MLB.com

‘Five key questions from the GM meetings‘ – ESPN

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