that was quite a price to pay! a 21 year old in Rookie ball is old and this guy has lousy stats. Obviously the Sox were clearing Leon off the 40 man roster and were happy to take anything at all in return.
This means Indians needed to clear a spot and today. James Hoyt, not surprisingly, was DFAd.

Today is nontender deadline; I've lost the list of guys affected in Cleveland. Now we have 4 catchers and Plawecki is one of the names I know was on the list. Perhaps Leon is a cheaper backup, in which case would hardly be surprised if Kevin is gone. One site suggested they might drop Naquin since he's going to miss part of the season after his latest injury. I'd be surprised, but not shocked

$2.8M for Leon in 2020.
$1.5M for Plawecki in 2020
I'd be surprised they'd want to commit $4.3M total for Perez's backups when they still have cheapo Eric Haase available too.

Boston under orders to dump some $$.

Transactions this evening:

+Signed C Sandy León to a 2020 contract, avoiding arbitration
+Signed UTL Andrew Velazquez for 2020
+Did not tender 2020 contracts to RHP James Hoyt and C Kevin Plawecki
+All remaining, unsigned 40-man members tendered 2020 contracts
+Roster is at 39

Only 2 million for Leon.

Site I looked at must have made "reasonable guess" at arbitration award he'd win.

I don't think they're allowed to add one of the Rule 5 eligible to the roster in the 40th spot that's now opened up. The draft is Dec 12.

Indians re-signed RHP James Hoyt to a one-year contract.
Hoyt was designated for assignment on Monday, but he's now back on the 40-man roster and will compete for a spot in the Indians' bullpen in the spring. The 33-year-old right-hander spent the majority of the 2019 season at Triple-A Columbus, where he posted a 3.43 ERA with 48 strikeouts across 42 innings.

SOURCE: Tribe Insider on Twitter
Dec 4, 2019, 10:48 AM ET

OK, if they don't think there's anyone better out there.

Need a spot?

Last in, first out.

I am sorry that they didn't protect another 1 or 2 of the semi=prospects who we might lose. But that's the way Rule 5 is supposed to work: teams in contention leave prospects available; rebuilding teams can afford to stash someone on the roster [especially now that they're at 26] who clearly isn't ready for the majors. The expanded roster should cause us to lose some among Fermin, Oscar Gonzalez or Oviedo.

Jon Heyman tweeting out that the Indians would prefer to wait till next year to trade Lindor, and that interest has to be “huge”.

and in his great expertise Heyman declares:
"With an aging core and Lindor's looming free agency, the Tribe's front office is attempting a balancing act, keeping an eye on the near future while still trying to contend in the present."

Aging core? Other than the fact that everyone on the team is older today than he was yesterday the starting lineup is aged 24, 25, 26, 26. 27, 31, 33; the 6 starting pitchers are 24, 24, 24, 27, 29, 32, 33 and the closer is 29.
Overall that's a team with lots of guys just in or approaching their peak years and a good balance of youth and experience.
I guess he had to come up with something to say.

The youthful Twins by comparison:
C 3 years younger
1b 3 years younger
2b we dont' have one to compare
SS same age
3b 1 year younger
LF 2 years older
cf 1 year older
RF 1 year older
DH there's is 39, I don't know who ours is but he's not that old

They have 2 starting pitchers, 25 and 29. Their closer is 28.
Overall quite similar, maybe a little younger.

The White Sox are youthful, I agree. The Tigers and the Royals don't really have big league teams to compare with.

Sticking with the Indians, president Chris Antonetti indicated Monday the team’s preference is for Jose Ramirez to remain at third base – not move to second – in 2020, Mandy Bell of MLB.com reports. If that proves true, the club could “maybe add at second,” Antonetti stated. The Indians don’t look primed to spend a lot this winter, but there are plenty of satisfactory free-agent second basemen whom they should be able to afford.

Second Basemen

Gordon Beckham (33)
Asdrubal Cabrera (34)
Starlin Castro (30)
Brian Dozier (33)
Wilmer Flores (28)
Logan Forsythe (33)
Scooter Gennett (30)
Phil Gosselin (31)
Adeiny Hechavarria (31)
Cesar Hernandez (30)
Marco Hernandez (27)
Brock Holt (32)
Jason Kipnis (33)
Brad Miller (30)
Eduardo Nunez (33)
Chris Owings (28)
Joe Panik (29)
Jose Peraza (26)
Hernan Perez (29)
Jace Peterson (30)
Addison Russell (26)
Yolmer Sanchez (28)
Jonathan Schoop (28)
Eric Sogard (34)
Yangervis Solarte (32)
Devon Travis (29)
Neil Walker (34)
Ben Zobrist (39)