What the Colorado Rockies can learn from the Cleveland Indians-New York Mets Francisco Lindor trade

The Cleveland Indians traded their franchise star, shortstop Francisco Lindor, to the New York Mets on Thursday and the trade has a significant impact on the Colorado Rockies and the trade talks surrounding shortstop Trevor Story.

The Cleveland Indians did what they have become known to do: trade away their veterans for younger prospects as they traded both their franchise stalwart Francisco Lindor and starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco to the New York Mets in exchange for infielder Andres Gimenez, infielder Amed Rosario, and two prospects (pitcher Josh Wolf and outfielder Isaiah Greene).

The trade has a huge impact on the Colorado Rockies and what they can expect to get in return for their shortstop Trevor Story in a possible trade this offseason. To see why that is, let’s compare Story and Lindor.

Story and Lindor are very comparable. They both will be free agents at the end of the 2021 season and they are arguably the best and second-best shortstops in baseball and you could flip a coin on who’s better. Last offseason, MLB Network’s Top Ten Right Now, ranked Story at number one and Lindor at number two entering the 2020 season. Lindor has played 170 more games than Story in the majors so he has accrued more in most categories but here are here’s comparing their WARs and Defensive Runs Saved in their career.

• Story: 1.0 rWAR per 28.71 games, 1.0 fWAR per 33.69 games, 114 OPS+, 114 wRC+, 1 fDRS per 114 games.
• Lindor: 1.0 rWAR per 27.07 games, 1.0 fWAR per 26.89 games, 117 OPS+, 118 wRC+, 1 fDRS per 145.6 games.

In other words, Lindor has the slight edge offensively but Story is better defensively but they are essentially, even. As a result, they likely would get the same return in a trade. So here’s what the Rockies can learn from the trade.