A pair of Indians links for you Tribe followers who are still up, courtesy of the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Paul Hoynes and MLB.com's Jordan Bastian:
- Hoynes examines how the Indians have backed off their philosophy of extending young players in recent years and wonders if the pitfalls of the Travis Hafner and Jake Westbrook contracts have made them wary.
- Hoynes quotes one agent who thinks that at this point, the Indians think it'd be too expensive to offer Asdrubal Cabrera a multiyear extension.
- GM Chris Antonetti says there are no black and white rules in the organization for signing pre-arbitration players to extensions; each case is handled on an individual basis.
- In his piece, Bastian writes that Antonetti told reporters on Tuesday at the Winter Meetings that he was discussing a trade "that would be very surprising if it came to fruition."
- The Indians are looking to improve their offense, and teams have come calling about Chris Perez. The Tribe isn't actively shopping their closer, but Bastian says they're willing to listen because of the depth they have in their bullpen, though the number of available arms doesn't give them much leverage in any potential deal. Plus, with an eye on contending in 2012, depleting their bullpen depth may not be the best strategy.