Chris Antonetti Says Indians “Preference” is to Bring Back Free Agent 1B Mike Napoli

With the Winter Meetings in the books, the Indians are still looking to add a player that can play first and likely hit right handed and add some power.

One player who is still in the mix is free agent Mike Napoli, who last season powered his way to over 30 homers for the Indians, but struggled in the last two months of the season and postseason.

The Indians took a long look at Edwin Encarnacion, Blue Jays free agent, but it seems like he’s going to want a huge amount to sign a deal this offseason.

Today Jim Duquette at MLB Radio in an interview with Chris Antonetti said that the Tribe President stated that the team is still very wiling to bring back Napoli.

Chris Antonetti – just told us "we continue our dialogue with Napoli… our preference is to work things out with him"

— Jim Duquette (@Jim_Duquette) December 11, 2016

There was a report last week that the Indians only want to give Napoli a one-year deal, but he would like a two-year pact with the Tribe. We shall see how it plays out, but with Encarnacion not inking at the meetings, it looks like Napoli is the option the Indians will turn to coming back to the roster in 2017.