This is not at all surprising, but the Indians officially exercised the $9.75 million club option on starter Carlos Carrasco for 2019.
Carrasco remains one of the biggest bargains in baseball following another excellent season for the Tribe. He went 17-10 with a 3.38 ERA and 231/43 K/BB ratio in 192 innings. People will be paying as much as three times that per year for comparable starters on the free agent market.
Carrasco signed his current contract at the beginning of the 2015 season. It was a four-year, $22 million deal with this $9 million option for this year, along with a $750,000 bonus for finishing in the top-10 of the Cy Young voting in 2017. There’s another club option for 2020, currently at $9.5 million, but it too could go higher if he rates high enough in this year’s awards voting. Unless he’s hit by a bus in 2019, that one will likely be exercised too.
In other news, the Indians declined their option on outfielder Brandon Guyer. He just finished a two-year, $5 million contract and the forgone option would’ve paid him $3 million in 2019. In 2018 Guyer hit .206/.300/.371 with seven homers in 221 plate appearances. The Indians will likely be able to find someone who could do that or better on a minor league deal.
