Let’s make this very clear, the Cleveland Indians have never asked us for advise on running the team.
However, that doesn’t stop us from making suggestions on what they should be thinking about this winter.
Here is what we would do starting the day after the World Series ends so the Indians can return to the American League playoffs in 2020 as Central Division champions.
We agree with the decisions they’ve said they will make already. That means we would pick up the option on Corey Kluber and decline the options on Jason Kipnis and Dan Otero.
Yes, we know Kluber struggled in his seven starts in 2019, but as we just said, it’s seven starts. And there will be less burden on the two time Cy Young Award winner, with the emergence of Mike Clevinger and Shane Bieber. If Kluber can provide 200 innings in ’20, he is well worth the $17.5 million the Tribe will pay him.
We would also decline to offer Danny Salazar and Cody Anderson arbitration and we would add one more name to that list in Kevin Plawecki. If we were Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff, we would look for an upgrade to back up Roberto Perez.
To replace Kipnis, we would look for a third baseman, either on the trade market or in free agency (most likely the former) and move Jose Ramirez to second base.
We think there will be some bargains available in free agency at one of those positions. A one year deal would be ideal because top prospect Nolan Jones is on the horizon, if he can cut down on his strikeouts.
We would also strongly suggest to Terry Francona to get Francisco Lindor out of the leadoff spot. Besides Jordan Luplow, Lindor had the highest slugging percentage on the team, clubbing 74 extra base hits, nine more than Carlos Santana.
Wouldn’t it be nice if some of those extra base knocks came with men on base? The shortstop bats at least once every game with no one on by leading off.
We know Francona likes Lindor to set a tone in that spot, but when the offense has fallen off like it did in ’19, it might be more efficient to put someone who gets on base consistently in the leadoff spot (Carlos Santana?) and move Lindor to the #2 or #3 spot.
Speaking of Lindor, the biggest thing the Indians front office should do is take care of his contract situation, and by that we mean open up the purse strings and sign him long term.
And as we have said before, we don’t buy for a minute the notion that the ownership can’t keep Lindor in a Cleveland uniform long term, nor do we think the Tribe can’t be competitive and pay the shortstop a boatload of money.
Somehow, they have to shore up leftfield, which was a sinkhole for much of 2019. We would recommend seeing if Jordan Luplow can man the spot. Luplow was lethal vs. southpaws (.439 OBP, .742 slugging), but in the minors, he handled right handers well.
He would get the first shot at the job, but we also would take a long look at Daniel Johnson in spring training.
The bullpen needs work too. In today’s game, you need more power arms, something the Indians lacked last season. James Karinchak is a start, but more are on the way, guys like Kyle Nelson and Cam Hill.
In terms of trade pieces, the rotation depth the Indians developed in ’19 could be key.
The projected starters right now would be Clevinger, Bieber, Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, and for the sake of argument, let’s say Aaron Civale.
That leaves Zach Plesac, Adam Plutko, Jeffry Rodriguez, Logan Allen, and don’t forget Triston McKenzie as possible pieces to get some bats.
If you trade one of them, you still have a lot of depth.
Hopefully, the front office feels it is imperative to get back to the top of the heap in the AL Central. They need to get better against good teams and good pitchers.
Let’s see what happens in the hot stove season.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 