What Encarnacion’s deal means for everybody else

So the Indians and Edwin Encarnacion agree to a three-year deal, and it’s as simple as this — rematch in the World Series, Tribe-Cubs, Part II … maybe eight games this time.

Yeah, right.

Baseball doesn’t work off scripts, at least not the obvious ones.

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Like life, it’s full of unknowns. No one is going to concede anything to the Indians because they’ve added Encarnacion in the Mike Napoli role. But the deal does come with implications for a lot of other teams and players.

Among the biggest impacts:

Impact for Napoli We’re pretty sure the party is still going to be at Napoli’s, but where will that be, exactly? Best guess now is Texas. The Rangers monitored the Encarnacion market but never felt they had the payroll flexibility to land him.

Joey Gallo, a left-handed hitter, is penciled in at first base now and the top three free-agent options are all right-handed hitters. Napoli’s a known quantity in Arlington, having hit 30 home runs for the team that lost to the Cardinals in the 2011 World Series, and if he can’t stay in Cleveland it makes sense if he comes back to Texas.

Impact for the Blue Jays The Blue Jays probably wish Encarnacion had taken their $80 million offer last summer, especially considering Jose Bautista has also remained unsigned. But the upside to having signed Kendrys Morales and Steve Pearce to deals worth $45.5 million over five years is that Toronto still has money to spend.

Maybe the Blue Jays will bring back Bautista, but something feels off in that marriage. They’re well situated to land Curtis …

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