Indians Reportedly Asked Angels for Much More Than Rangers in Corey Kluber Trade Talks

The Corey Kluber trade sweepstakes came to an abrupt end on Sunday as the Indians struck a deal with the Rangers.

We expected Cleveland would receive at least a light haul of prospects in return for the two-time AL Cy Young winner. Instead, the Tribe managed to only get outfielder Delino DeShields and reliever Emmanuel Clase from Texas.

What makes the return package all the more stunning is the fact that the Tribe reportedly asked the Angels for two top-10 prospects, including touted outfielder Brandon Marsh.

Heard the Indians wanted two top 10 prospects from the #Angels, including Brandon Marsh. That would suggest they have a much higher opinion of Clase than most of baseball. We will see.
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) December 16, 2019

For those wondering, Clase was ranked as the No. 30 prospect in the Rangers organization before making his MLB debut in 2019. DeShields, on the other hand, never broke into the team's top-10 prospect lists and actually has very much been a below average outfielder.

Either Cleveland rates Clase much higher than his consensus rankings, or their return package varied from team to team. For the sake of Indians fans, we hope it's the former.

Rangers agree to deal with Indians for starter Corey Kluber, report says https://t.co/S3yjYzKJdB
— SportsDay Rangers (@dmn_rangers) December 15, 2019

The math just doesn't add up. Why not ask the same of each team and work from there? Welcome to world of negotiating.

We're not writing off Clase and DeShields as busts, but Cleveland natives have every right to be infuriated with their front office that they didn't get more in return for one of the AL's most imposing arms.