After the Cleveland Indians dealt Edwin Encarnacion and Yonder Alonso in separate deals last week, there were many who felt the Tribe no longer needed to deal a starting pitcher.
We don’t feel that way.
We still believe a starter, either Corey Kluber or Trevor Bauer, will be moved before spring training (probably before the end of the calendar year) to clear out more money and to bring some young, controllable bats to the Cleveland lineup.
As it stands right now, the Indians lineup isn’t that strong. Here is a projected batting order for Opening Day–
Carlos Santana DH
Francisco Lindor SS
Jose Ramirez 3B
Jake Bauers 1B
Jason Kipnis 2B
Jordan Luplow RF
Tyler Naquin LF
Roberto Perez C
Leonys Martin CF
Is that lineup good enough to win 85 games, let alone 90? That’s up for debate to be sure.
And while the Cleveland rotation would be the best in the game, in the regular season, you need to score runs to win. The only team that reached to post-season in 2018 that didn’t finish in the top five of their respective league in runs scored was the Milwaukee Brewers, who were 7th.
In the post-season, pitching can and usually does dominate. But you have to score runs to get there, and right now, we aren’t convinced the Tribe has enough firepower.
It seems like much of the talk recently is about Kluber, and we are sure the “jokes” about trading a two time Cy Young Award winner will be plentiful.
However, if you can move the right-hander and his $17 million salary for 2019, and get a bat or two, or perhaps a bat and a reliable bullpen arm in return, doesn’t that lengthen the lineup?
And that’s exactly want the Indians need.
Let’s say Kluber is moved to Cincinnati for a package centering around top ten prospect, Nick Senzel, who would play third for Cleveland and is major league ready, OF Scott Schebler (who we don’t really like, but…) and reliever Amir Garrett.
With the money saved by dealing Kluber, the Cleveland front office signs Nick Markakis as a free agent on a one year deal. Suddenly, the Tribe lineup looks like this–
Santana DH
Senzel 3B
Ramirez 2B
Lindor SS
Markakis RF
Luplow LF
Bauers 1B
Perez C
Martin CF
And you would have Kipnis as a platoon player in left field and Greg Allen to play center against left handed pitching. If Senzel is the player everyone thinks he is, you now have a lineup that has more length, and should score more runs.
We don’t think something like this is possible without moving a starting pitcher. Perhaps the front office can be super creative and pull off a miracle, and we would love to see that.
Besides, your starting rotation would still be Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco, Mike Clevinger, Shane Bieber, and a mix of Adam Plutko, Cody Anderson, or perhaps Danny Salazar.
That’s good enough to get the Indians into the post-season, and once you get there, you only use four starters anyway.
It doesn’t have to be the Reds, certainly the Dodgers are a possibility and other teams as well. But, people who think the Indians only need one bat are delusional in our opinion, they need at least two.
The other way we see to make that happen in to deal from strength, and that means a starting pitcher.
We think the Tribe front office thinks the same way.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 