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

Goodbye Brohio (and the rest)

over the past 10 days, the Indians have done some dealing and today specifically, on August 7, a big deal went down. so i'm going to take a minute to say goodbye to the 5 men who started 2015 as Cleveland Indians and will now be finishing their years elsewhere. usually i reserve these types of blogs for the guys who've spent a long duration of time with the team, but i will recognize everybody here because i feel like that's the right thing to do.

i briefly acknowledged the David Murphy trade in my latest Brantley blog, but i didn't get into all the details. he was traded on July 28 to the Los Angeles Angels for Double A shortstop, Eric Stamets. Murph's only been with the Indians since 2014 and had the most impact this season, when he was platooning with Ryan Raburn and playing mainly against right-handed starters. he seemed like a nice guy, hell his nickname was "Good Guy." i never had any interaction with him. in all the games i went to in the past 2 years--17 to this point--he never once signed an autograph. never before a game or after in the players parking lot. that disappointed me. but i wish him, his wife Andrea, his daughters Faith and Madison, and son Cole all the best.

Murphy had this to say a few days after the trade: