Indians Catcher Yan Gomes Appears To Be Close to Being Dealt; Where To is the Question

The Indians offseason firesale of players looks like it’s about to commence, as a number of parties are reporting that the Tribe is on the verge of dealing All-Star catcher Yan Gomes.

It was reported back right before Thanksgiving that Gomes was one the players that the team was willing to deal for the right price, and that he was drawing a lot of interest from a number of teams.

Today there was a couple tweets finally giving a clue as to where Gomes may end up.

The first report has him going to the New York Mets, where he would be reunited with former Indians pitching coach now manager Mickey Callaway.

The reports of the Mets getting Gomes comes from Jon Morosi, who states that the Mets, who are close to wrapping up a huge deal with the Seattle Mariners for a couple of big players.

The reported Mets-Mariners deal has New York getting second baseman Robinson Canó, all-star closer Edwin Díaz and possibly cash in exchange for outfielder (and one-time Indian) Jay Bruce, reliever Anthony Swarzak, and top prospects Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn.

As Morosi points out, even if the Mariners and Mets do wrap up the deal, New York feels they have both the prospect depth as well as payroll flexibility to get Gomes from the Indians.

There’s another team that was mentioned on Friday, that being the Washington Nationals, who last season used a couple of different catchers, with most of the playing time going to Kurt Suzuki, who hit .271 with 12 homers and 50 RBI.

The report of Washington making a deal for Gomes comes from Dan Federico, who claims he’s written for Bleacher Report. A Nationals site from Fansided called “District on Deck” also claims the Nats are about to get Gomes on their roster.

The return has not been thrown out as to what the Indians might get in return for the services of Gomes.

Sounds like the #Nats will indeed be acquiring Yan Gomes from the Indians in a trade. Still no details about the return, but it does seem to be legit.

— District on Deck (@DistrictOnDeck) November 30, 2018

If Gomes indeed is gone, the Indians will turn to Roberto Perez as their everyday catcher, with Eric Haase likely being the teams’ new backup catcher.

UPDATE 5:12pm – Ken Rosenthal is now reporting that the Nats are in deep discussion with the Indians for Gomes

#Nationals in serious discussions with #Indians about a trade for catcher Yan Gomes, sources tell The Athletic.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 30, 2018