My turn for an unrealistic off season

What I would like to see in free agent off season.

What are my credentials? none.

So, looking at the MLB revenue VS payroll, CLE is currently 25th. Let's say this team wants to be serious and jump to #15. That would require 48% of revenue to go to payroll. That would require a ~30mil increase to payroll, so let's play with a 30mil and see where it gets us.

So, what are CLEs holes? Offense, obviously. #2 in the lineup and #5 in the lineup are always questions. On the field, that means, our RF, CF, 2nd, and SS. One last piece is the bullpen. With Clase gone, I want a new closer. Smith is a monster, but he doesn't pass the smell test for a true closer role, imo. Finally, SP because you always need more pitching.

I want to leave room for CDL, Valeria, Kayfus, Brito, Bazana, and Rocchio. I see all of them having real potential.

So I want 1 infielder and 1 outfielder.

Looking at free agents, and following this sites market value estimations, we have a few options

Cf/rf: Grisham 12mil, OHearn 11mil, yastrzemski 11mil, Duran 8mil

2nd/ss: Torres 15mil, Arraez 14mil, Lowe 15mil, kiner-falefa 5mil

RP: Iglesias 8mil, Williams 5mil, finnegan 9mil, junis 4mil.

SP: Gallen 18mil, Kelly 16mil, littell 13mil, means 6mil.

So, imo, the best option with 30 mil would be, Grisham, finnegan, junis, and Means.

You may notice that there's no one plugging the gap in middle infield here. I think we're priced out of getting an OF and MI.

Kiner-falefa is a utilityman who has seen more success than angel, schneeman, and Tina before them. There's a decent argument that it's not enough of an upgrade to warrant the pickup.

If we could bump it to 34mil, my ideal would be, Duran, Lowe, junis, means.

I think this is absolute best case scenario. This would put the payroll to revenue ratio right at 50%, more than enough imo. Regardless, Jose came out and said that he was unhappy with Dolans use of his VERY team friendly contract.

Something like this says you have power around you. Kwan, Duran, Jose, Lowe, Fry, Manz, x, y, z would really say, "were here to win." you can swap the players anyway you want. This was mostly a fun experiment for me. The point is, imo, CLE has 30-37 mil to play with, esp after offloading relatively heavy contracts like beiber, straw, gime, and sandlin (if memory serves).

There's one glaring issue with my write up. Kwan is up in 2028 and I don't think many of us are OK with letting him walk. They need to come up with a strat for Kwan.

My 2026 40 man would be

C (2)
Bo,
Fry

Inf (6)
Manz,
Kayfus (1b/rf),
Lowe,
Rocchio,
Jose,
Bazanna/brito

Of (5)
Duran,
Kwan,
Valeria,
CDL,
Martinez (utility)

Sp (6)
G Williams,
Bibee,
Cantillo,
Means,
Cecconi,
Allen/Messick (I really like the 6 man rotation)

Rp (7)
Smith,
Gaddis,
Junis,
Allard,
Herring,
Sabrowski,
Kent (or Nunez as 3rd catcher)

Thanks for reading. Light me up in the comments, I'm sure there's plenty that yall have opinions on (or facts I've just missed all together.)

Wish yall the best. (if you really want to commit, get Trevor story,Kyle Tucker, Dylan cease, and Kyle finnegan you cowards. You have the money.)

Edit: Updated to Include Duran instead of Grisham. I think Duran is just a more consistent guy and a great 2 hole hitter. Something I failed to actually address is a right handed batter. RH bats look like Bo Bichette (no way for that pickup) and the more likely but still difficult Harrison Bader. We could always try for Ramon Laureano again, lol.

https://twinstrivia.com/2025/04/05/mlb-teams-revenue-versus-payroll/
https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents