Brantley News and Rumors from December 2018

hi there, Brantley fans. the wait is over and the rumor mill about Michael Brantley is now closed. if you haven't heard yet, earlier this evening, on December 17, Michael left the free agent market when he made the decision to continue his baseball career as a member of the Houston Astros.😮 he's agreed to a straight two-year, $32 million deal and once he takes his physical tomorrow, it will be official. Cleveland fans are weeping, none more than me.😭

but before Michael gave approval to this new contract with Houston, there was a lot of speculation and rumors floating around this month and i've got them all right here for you now.

and in case you missed the rumors and reports from November, or just want to re-visit where Michael was said to potentially go last month, please refer back to this blog: Brantley News and Rumors from November 2018.

December 1: in Paul Hoynes' Hey, Hoynsie on cleveland.com, David of St. Augustine, Florida, wanted to know how the Indians were going to solve the Yandy Diaz, Jose Ramirez, and Jason Kipnis problem. and he did not want to hear that Kipnis would play left field. sadly for David, Hoynsie told him what he didn't want to hear, with his solution being

Brantley News and Rumors from November 2018

hey, Brantley fans. the news and rumors about Michael sure added up this month. i didn't anticipate this blog being as long as it is because, thanks to a reporter's suggestion that Michael could sign a new contract before Thanksgiving, i thought a deal would be done by now. alas, Michael is still on the free agent market and on a lot of teams' radars.

between the change in agencies, not getting a qualifying offer from the Indians, and being a so-called best fit for several ballclubs, there was quite a bit going on in November. and of course i had many opinions about the rumors, too. so let's just jump right into it!


November 1: there is now a Michael Brantley Rumors page on mlb.com dedicated to all the latest predictions and such. it again noted that Sports Illustrated thinks Michael will go to the St. Louis Cardinals despite his "lengthy injury history." (well that's not exactly true.) that said, Michael would likely have to play right field with the Cards due to their other outfield spots already being occupied. Michael's never played one game in right in either the majors or minors, so i don't know if that's really a realistic projection.

Jon Heyman's article for fancredsports.com contained an expert's guess that

Brantley Does Not Receive One-Year, $17.9 Million Qualifying Offer from Indians

hi, Brantley and Indians fans. sorry, but i'm about to ruin your weekend. i regret to inform you that this afternoon, on November 2, the Cleveland Indians announced they decided not to extend a one-year, $17.9 million qualifying offer to Michael Brantley for 2019. to say i'm stunned is putting it mildly. none of the Tribe's free agents received a QO, but the news on Brant, one of the most likely candidates for the one-year offer, is particularly unsettling.😟

photo taken from mlb.com/indians article

according to Jordan Bastian's article on mlb.com/indians, Indians President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti explained in a conference call, "ultimately,

Brantley News from October 2018

hey, Brantley fans! thought i would put together a post containing some news that's accumulated about Michael since the end of the Tribe's short-lived playoff run. honestly, this is mostly just a lot of speculation regarding whether Michael will or won't be playing for Cleveland in 2019. and i have to say, the verdict isn't good. i tried to prepare you guys all season long because i don't think he's coming back. this club is going to have a lot more players earning double digit millions next year and they just won't have any extra resources to pay Michael what other teams will propose. the only glimmer of hope Tribe fans have right now is that the Indians should extend a one-year, $17.9 million qualifying offer to Michael, which they have until 5 pm ET on November 2 to do. and if Michael doesn't want to start over with a new team in a new city, where he'll have to make new friends and adapt to a new team culture and move his family to all new surroundings, then perhaps there's a small chance he would take the QO and stay with the Indians one more year. but that's really not likely. when money talks, people walk. and Michael will learn to be a leader in a new environment just fine because the man knows how to rise to a challenge and succeed.

looking at it from Michael's perspective, he just finished a full and healthy season and proved to the doubters that he can still play at a high level. so say he did accept the Tribe's QO for 2019, and then he suffers another freak injury. he won't have that safety net of a QO after 2019 to fall back on because