Adding Pitching Wouldn’t Be Bad For Guards Either

The Cleveland Guardians have made a reputation over the past 10 years or so as a pitching factory. They’ve pretty much always have had solid pitching.

Since 2007, Cleveland has had five Cy Young Award winners: C.C. Sabathia (’07), Cliff Lee (’08), Corey Kluber (’14 and ’17), and Shane Bieber (’20). This list doesn’t include some guys who had excellent seasons, like Carlos Carrasco, Roberto Hernandez (Fausto Carmona), and Trevor Bauer.

For most of the 2025 season, the pitching was floundering. Tanner Bibee was inconsistent for much of the first five months of the season. Ben Lively had to have Tommy John surgery in May. Luis Ortiz was suspended.

Slade Cecconi was a pleasant surprise, making 23 starts but still had a 4.30 ERA.

Only Gavin Williams, who finished the season 12-5 with a 3.06 ERA, could be counted on to provide solid starts, and he too, had some problems, leading the American League in walks, which led to game where he could only go five innings.

In September, everything gelled. The Guardians went to a six-man rotation with Joey Cantillo, who started the season in relief joining the rotation along with rookie Parker Messick, who compiled a 2.72 ERA in seven starts.

And Bibee started to pitch like we’ve seen him in the past.

So, what about 2025. We know the Guardians’ optimists will think everything is fine, but we (like a lot of baseball people) look at track records. We feel comfortable with Williams and Bibee right now, but we think the front office should still be in the market for pitching this winter.

Cantillo was a solid prospect for a long time, but he’s made just 21 big league starts and he also has issues with the strike zone. When he throws strikes consistently, he’s tough to beat, but he doesn’t do it enough.

We had some snide comments about Cecconi when he was traded to the Guardians (after all he was the return for a guy who hit 30 HRs the year before) and when he was activated, because of a 6.66 ERA in 77 innings for the Diamondbacks in 2024, but he’s kind of an old school pitcher. He induces weak contact and doesn’t have a high K rate.

He pitched a game in Sacramento where he went seven innings of two-hit ball and people on social media were incensed because he only had two strikeouts.

As we said Messick has seven big league starts. Lively likely won’t be back until middle of the year. And although we like Cecconi, he looks like a solid middle to back of the rotation guy.

Among the top prospects, Khal Stephen, the return for Shane Bieber, pitched in AA, and Doug Nikhazy, who made a couple of token appearances with the big club, and had a 5.02 ERA in AAA, are the closest to being ready.

We would like to see the front office add another proven veteran to the mix heading into 2026.

It doesn’t need to be a front of the rotation guy, more like a veteran who can provide innings to keep the bullpen fresh early in the season. That would serve Steven Vogt very well.

And it wouldn’t hurt to have Carl Willis work with him.

Offense Has Replaced Rotation As Guardians’ Chief Issue

All season long, we have worried about the starting pitching of the Cleveland Guardians. Is the rotation good enough? Is it providing enough innings to protect the bullpen? Will they be able to overcome the injury to Shane Bieber and the ineffectiveness of Logan Allen and Triston McKenzie?

At this point, the rotation is what it is, a group of pitchers who hopefully can give the team an effective six innings of work and turn it over to a dominant bullpen.

Since the All-Star break, the Guardians have turned into team streak, winning five in a row, losing seven straight, followed by another five-game winning streak, and now a three-game losing skein.

Unless Matthew Boyd and Alex Cobb start pitching like Sam McDowell and Corey Kluber, this is how the Guardians’ starting pitching will be going forward. And now, Cobb is going to miss time with a broken fingernail.

However, the offense is sputtering. In April, the Guardians were a surprise with the bats, averaging 5.24 runs per game. They were still going strong in May, scoring 5.04 runs. In June, that figure dropped to 4.56 and in July, it dipped further to 3.36.

This month, that figure has improved slightly to 4.23 runs per contest, but overall, since the All-Star break, they have scored 3.76 runs/game. The team batting average is .222 (compared to .243 prior) the on base percentage is .279 (.316 before), and the slugging percentage has dropped from .405 to .368.

The hitting has become too reliant on the home run, mostly because the batting average is subpar, and no one seems to be drawing walks either. Pitchers seemed to have learned the best way to attack the Cleveland lineup is to throw a lot of changeups, and there hasn’t seemed to be adjustments.

It seems you can count the number of hits going to the opposite field on one hand over the last week. For us, it seems like it is just at bat after at bat trying to pull pitches on the outside half on the plate, resulting in weak grounders to second base and/or shortstop.

Individually, the numbers are equally ugly. The only two players who have OPS over 750 are Jose Ramirez and Jhonkensy Noel, and the latter is still striking out in roughly one-third of his at bats.

Only Josh Naylor has an OPS above 700 at 746. Every other single Guardians’ player is below 700, and the league average is 704.

Coincidentally, that trio are also the only Cleveland players with on base percentages over .300. Cleveland ranks in the bottom five in batting average, walks, and OPS since the break, and is 22nd out of 30 teams in runs scored.

They’ve been shut out four times in that span.

Simply put, you have to score runs in the regular season, and the Guardians have scored two or fewer runs in 11 of the 29 games played since the All-Star Game. Amazingly, they’ve won three of those contests.

They put up three runs in an additional five games, meaning in over half the games played after the break, they have put up three runs or less. And again, that’s a tough way to win baseball games.

Earlier, when they were scoring more runs, the team seemed to work counts and draw more walks. This is reflected in the monthly OBP as a team, which are as follows in chronological order: .321, .312, .322, .285, .286.

Perhaps playing guys who will take a walk would help. We’ve already advocated to bring back Angel Martinez, whose .306 OBP (12 walks) would rank 5th on the team if he were called back up.

This is not a team that can sit back and wait for the home run. They have to get guys on base and move them. That’s been lacking for the past six weeks or so, and if they can’t start scoring runs, it will be tough to hold off Minnesota and Kansas City.

Remembering When Starting Pitching Brought Confidence To Guardians’ Fans

As recently as 2018, fans of the Cleveland baseball team were spoiled by their starting pitching. The rotation consisted of Corey Kluber (who won 20 games that year), Carlos Carrasco, Mike Clevinger, Trevor Bauer, and a rookie fifth starter named Shane Bieber.

At the time, we thought going into every game, the Indians had a legitimate chance to win because they had the edge between the two starting pitchers.

Even into the pandemic season of 2020, Terry Francona’s starters were at the top of the sport. Bieber emerged as a Cy Young winner that season, and he was backed up by Carrasco, Clevinger (before he was traded), Aaron Civale, and rookie Triston McKenzie.

Baseball people started to refer to the “Cleveland Pitching Factory”, with the organization seemingly able to crank out starter after starter. Heck, it happened last season when McKenzie went down in spring training, Zach Plesac proved ineffective, and Cal Quantrill was hurt, the Guardians simply went to the farm and called up Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen, and Gavin Williams.

Apparently, this season the factory has been shut down for repairs or something, because the organization is scrambling to put an effective starting pitcher on the mound each and every night.

It was certainly curious when the organization released Quantrill after the season rather than pay him through arbitration, where he figured to make about $6 million, not a lot of money for a guy who can give you innings.

The right-hander has pitched to a 3.58 ERA in Colorado this season logging a staff high 73 innings. By the way, those innings would also lead the Guardians’ staff.

The only pitcher signed over the winter was Reds’ castoff Ben Lively, who has been a savior for this year’s staff.

Bieber was lost to elbow surgery after two starts, leaving a huge void in the rotation, which coming into the season consisted of him, the three rookies, and McKenzie, who missed most of last year with an elbow issue.

Of the trio of first year arms called up last year and thought to provide the backbone of the rotation going forward, only Bibee has been close to his ’23 form, with a 3.73 ERA in 70 innings with 76 strikeouts and 19 walks.

Williams has missed all year with an elbow issue, but hopefully can return soon. Allen has made his 13 starts but has a 5.57 ERA.

McKenzie has not pitched like the guy who put up a 2.96 ERA in 2022. He has allowed a league leading 14 dingers (tied with his teammate Logan Allen) and also leads the league in walks with 36 in 62.2 innings of work.

Right now, the rotation has more holes than an old guy’s socks. And there were no solutions at hand.

Xzavion Curry has made three spot starts, one very good, the other two being “meh”. The ERA of the pitching staff at Columbus is 5.46 and the best starter down there is journeyman Connor Gillispie, who has a 5.02 ERA, although he has 60 strikeouts in 57.1 innings. He’s 26 years old.

The bullpen has taken on a heavy burden for the big club to get off to this 42-22 start. How long can they sustain the success pitching all of these innings? Could they do it all year? Sure, but based on the past, eventually it is going to catch up with them unless the starters start carrying their weight.

As we said, Lively has been a savior and Bibee has been solid. Carlos Carrasco has been a nice story in his return to the franchise, but he can’t be trusted to get through a lineup a third time.

McKenzie needs to throw strikes and he and Allen need to keep the ball in the yard.

More likely is the front office is going to have to overpay to bring in an arm. With the Cleveland bullpen, they may be able to get a guy who can soak up innings and keep the team in the game.

The rest of the team is doing too well for the rotation to be a burden.

Thank You, Terry Francona

Terry Francona managed his last home game as the Guardians/Indians’ skipper last night and what a fun 11 years it has been. Six post-season berths, one American League pennant, and currently sitting at 920 regular season victories.

He is respected by pretty much everyone he comes in contact with, and unfortunately this 2023 Guardians didn’t have a better finish to the season.

We remember being very surprised that he would take the Cleveland position after winning two World Series in Boston, but thrilled we were getting a winner.

We are sure there are some who is glad he is leaving, and even Francona himself has said maybe the next guy will be better. As former Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove once said, two things everybody thinks they can do better than everyone else are cooking a steak and managing a baseball team.

We have said Francona is not infallible, he made mistakes, just like every other manager. He gave some players too much of the benefit of the doubt, and sometimes that patience lapsed into stubbornness. But many times, the skipper was right, and the player he waited on started producing.

He’s what they call a “baseball lifer”, he spent his whole life in the sport, and we’ve all seen the picture in the dugout at the Father/Son Day in Cleveland in the early 60’s. He grew up in the game. And with his dad playing here and him managing here for 11 years, he’s a Cleveland guy.

That alone should be cause for celebration.

And for all the talk that he loves veterans, let’s not forget during his tenure here, he broke in Jose Ramirez, Francisco Lindor, Steven Kwan, and really Josh Naylor too. And his first pitching staff here featured Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jimenez, Danny Salazar, and a very young Corey Kluber.

He had Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Danny Salazar, and Trevor Bauer on the World Series team of 2016, and brought along Shane Bieber to be the latest ace, with perhaps Tanner Bibee getting ready to take his place.

He’s done a pretty good job with young players too, and always has if you look at his time in Philadelphia (Scott Rolen and Bobby Abreu) and Boston (Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis).

Let’s also remember how masterful Francona was in the 2016 post-season, when he guided the Indians to the ultimate game despite losing Carrasco and Salazar for pretty much the entire playoffs.

He and Joe Torre changed how bullpens were used in the postseason, and now all managers use that strategy come October.

And think about the relationships with his players. When the Pirates were in town earlier this season, Carlos Santana ran over to the Guardians’ dugout after the top of the first inning to give Francona a hug.

We are sure there are a few players who don’t like Francona, but they are few and far between.

We are sad about his departure because it marks the end of an era in Cleveland baseball. It has been noted that the only two teams with better records since Francona has been at the helm are the Yankees and Dodgers. Let that sink in a bit.

Say what you will, but that’s a pretty good run.

We would like to say thank you for 11 great seasons of baseball. In an interview given last week, Francona sounds like he still would like to be part of the organization going forward, and that sound right.

Since he was a little kid, he seems like he’s been one of ours.

Just Five Years Ago, Cleveland Baseball Was Riding High

In 2017 the Cleveland Indians completed a season in which they won a club record 102 games, but lost in disappointing fashion to the Yankees in the AL Division Series in five games. That after taking a 2-0 lead in the series.

They had two of the best players in the game in Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez, and that duo was just 23 and 24 years old, respectively. The pitching staff was led by two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, and another future Cy Young Award winner in Trevor Bauer.

The payroll for that season ranked 18th in all of baseball at $114 million (according to BaseballReference.com), and the Tribe drew slightly over 2 million fans, an increase from ’16. They were 3rd in the AL in runs scored.

Following a World Series appearance the year before, it certainly seemed like the franchise was headed for a long tenure at the top.

After that season, Carlos Santana, Jay Bruce (a late season pick up in ’17) and Bryan Shaw left via free agency, with Yonder Alonso signed to replace Santana. The payroll increased to $143 million, ranking 13th in baseball, and attendance dropped slightly to 1.9 million.

They remained 3rd in the AL in runs scored.

They did trade for former AL MVP Josh Donaldson to bolster the roster in September.

The team’s record fell to 91-71, understandable since they set a club record the year before. And they were swept in the ALDS by Houston.

After that season, many of the players well known to fans began to leave. Michael Brantley, Cody Allen, Andrew Miller, Josh Tomlin, and Brandon Guyer all were free agents.

Yan Gomes was traded for Daniel Johnson and Jefry Rodriguez. Edwin Encarnacion and Yandy Diaz were moved in a three way deal that brought back Santana and Jake Bauers.

The Gomes move hasn’t paid dividends, mostly because Johnson doesn’t seem to be in good favor with the front office. And while Diaz is a regular with Tampa, now a perennial contender, Bauers was a bust and was let go.

Santana did have a very good 2019, but then departed as a free agent after 2020.

In 2019, the team finished second in the AL Central with a 93-69 record, but missed the playoffs. The payroll ranked 11th at $151 million, but attendance dropped to 1.7 million. And they fell to 7th in scoring runs.

During the year, the front office moved Trevor Bauer in a three team deal which netted the Indians, Franmil Reyes and Yasiel Puig.

Reyes is a fixture in the shaky lineup today, providing power, but still isn’t a polished hitter, striking out a lot, but doesn’t get on base enough.

Kluber was moved after the season, but no one can complain about this one. Emmanuel Clase is the closer and last season had a tremendous year. Kluber is now on his fourth team since leaving Cleveland.

The 2020 season was shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Tribe did make the expanded playoffs, losing in a three game series to New York, 2-0, but the once potent offense dropped to 13th in the American League in scoring.

During that season, the front office dealt another mainstay in Mike Clevinger, and they hope that move sets the foundation of future success. They received starter Cal Quantrill, starting catcher Austin Hedges, and 1B/OF Josh Naylor, who is a regular, as well as prospects Gabriel Arias, Owen Miller, and LHP Joey Cantillo.

Even with the trades of Kluber, Bauer, and Clevinger, the starting pitching has still been solid. Shane Bieber won a Cy Young, and Quantrill and Triston McKenzie, a farm system product, show signs of being special.

And of course, Lindor was moved prior to last season (with another starting pitching mainstay, Carlos Carrasco) for four players, two of them deep in the minors, but also INF Amed Rosario and Andres Gimenez, who really don’t appear to be standouts for now.

It was only five years ago when the Cleveland baseball team had everything going for it. Right now, it seems like 50 years ago. If the Clevinger deal doesn’t work out like the front office thought, it could be awhile before the offense is good enough to contend.

Tribe Should Have Heeded Tito’s Adage

Terry Francona has always said when you think you have enough pitching, you go out and get some more. It’s too bad his bosses didn’t heed his advise.

We know the Indians have traded away a lot of pitching over the last two and a half years, moving former Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber, and then Trevor Bauer and Mike Clevinger in deadline deals in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

The organization has done a tremendous job developing young pitchers. The current (if healthy) top of the rotation features three pitchers drafted in 2016: Shane Bieber, Zach Plesac, and Aaron Civale. Going into spring training, the fourth and fifth spots appeared to belong to Cal Quantrill and Triston McKenzie.

We wrote at the time that outside of Bieber, none of those guys had more than 300 big league innings under their belt, and it would be wise to trade for or sign at least one experience arm.

Pitchers like Tijuan Walker (6-3, 2.38 ERA with the Mets), Jake Odorizzi (2-3, 4.08 ERA with Houston), and Tyler Anderson (3-8, 4.75 ERA with Pittsburgh) among others all were available shortly before spring training started. And none of them signed for huge amounts of money, always a consideration for the frugal Cleveland franchise.

Perhaps the organization got too caught up in the success of Bieber, Plesac, and Civale, all of whom seemed to have very little growing pains coming up to the bigs. Or more realistically, the ownership would not allow for the signing of a veteran hurler to add another proven arm.

Quantrill had command issues in spring training (he’s still going through them), so he went back to the bullpen, because of that and the fact that Logan Allen pitched extremely well in Arizona.

When the regular season started, Allen couldn’t keep the ball in the yard, and McKenzie, who opened as the 5th starter, couldn’t throw strikes.

They tried 24-year-old Sam Hentges, 24-year-old JC Mejia, and 25-year-old Eli Morgan, none of whom had any major league experience, and none were experiencing any great success in the minors.

When Bieber got the call in 2018, he was 6-1 with a 1.47 ERA in 13 starts at AAA and AA. Plesac came up in 2019 out of necessity due to injuries, but he was 4-2 with a 1.70 ERA in 10 starts in the high minors. Civale was 7-1, 2.43 in 13 starts in ’19 when he got the call.

By contrast, Hentges didn’t even pitch in the minors this year, nor last season due to the pandemic. His last minor league season was spent in Akron in ’19, where he went 2-11 with a 5.13 ERA.

Mejia had made two career starts above Class A in his life, both this year, before getting called up. He was 3-1 with an ERA just over four in Hi-A ball, in 2019, pitching just 33 innings.

Morgan made four starts this year at Columbus (4.67 ERA) and made 19 starts in AAA two years ago, with a 3.79 ERA.

We understand the organization didn’t think the latter trio was ready for the big league rotation now, but they left themselves no room for error.

And when Plesac went down on May23rd, the Tribe could’ve signed a free agent not currently in anyone’s organization and they would be ready now to help the team over this hurdle.

Rick Porcello, Cole Hamels, and Anibal Sanchez are just three pitchers still unattached, and another Homer Bailey, just signed with Oakland. Could any of those guys have helped? There is no way of knowing, but at the very least, they could have bought time for the youngsters.

They could’ve made a trade as well, although we would like to think Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff tried. It is well documented the organization has a ton of middle infielders regarded as good prospects. Move one of them for a starter who can soak up innings without taking the team out of a game early.

Perhaps the Indians can whether the current storm and stay in the race for the playoffs, and if they do and come up just short, they could point to these games pitched by men who weren’t ready to handle the job.

The point is the front office (including ownership) should have listened to their skipper. Heading into spring training, the pitching staff was very inexperienced. They pretended it wasn’t an issue.

No Surprise, Tribe Ain’t Spending The Cash They Saved

Imagine being a regular customer at a department store, say Macy’s, and you go into the store and find they are no longer offering clothing from Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, or Nike.

Think about going to a high class restaurant like Morton’s and finding out the best thing on the menu is now hamburger.

You’d be a little disappointed, correct? That’s how is was for supporters of the Cleveland Indians on Sunday morning reading the team is interested in free agents like Kevin Pillar and Jonathon Schoop.

Talk about generating excitement? Well, this falls about a mile short.

While these guys aren’t bad players, Pillar had a career best OPS in the shortened 2020 season, and Schoop has had solid seasons, but outside of 2019 with the Twins, hasn’t really been a regular on a good team in recent years.

Still, it’s a step down from having a roster that included Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, Carlos Santana, Edwin Encarnacion, Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco, and Mike Clevinger. Ramirez is still here and the team still has the current Cy Young Award winner in Shane Bieber, but most of the balance of the roster hasn’t proven much at the major league level.

Once again, we aren’t saying the Indians should have a $170 million payroll, although we do not believe for a minute that any major league baseball owner is suffering financially. On the other hand, we don’t get gutting the payroll to around $40 million, which would be one of the lowest figures in the sports.

Cleveland isn’t the Pittsburgh Pirates. After winning 98 games in 2015 and losing the Wild Card game, the Bucs win total has dropped since then, to 78, 75, 82, and then 69 in 2019. They finished with just 19 wins in 2020.

At that point, a total rebuild is understandable, and probably necessary. The Indians win totals over that same time period are 81 in 2015, to 94, 102, 91, 93, and then a 35-25 record last season. Wouldn’t you want to see how long you can keep the success going?

If fans are allowed into Progressive Field at some point in 2021, our guess is it won’t be long until we hear about attendance issues, and how people aren’t flocking to the ballpark.

This complaint is developing into a game of chicken with the ticket buyers, and it’s one the Dolan ownership will never win. They are insulting the customers, and tell us in what business does that work?

Yes, the number of fans going through the turnstiles has dropped since 2017 (FYI, the Indians don’t tell you they had the second largest increase in attendance from ’16 to ’17), but it hasn’t dropped like a proverbial rock.

The largest drops from ’17 to ’18 was in Toronto, followed by Miami, Kansas City, Detroit, and Baltimore. From ’18 to ’19, the most significant decreases were in Toronto, Seattle, San Francisco, Detroit, and Washington, who by the way, won the World Series that season.

The Tribe’s 2019 attendance (1.74 million people) ranks fourth since 2010 (behind 2011, 2017, and 2018). So, it’s not as bad as the ownership would like you to believe.

What happened in 2009 to cause attendance to fall off then? It was the last salary dump by the organization, trading Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez. Funny how that works.

Since the end of the 2018 season, the Indians have traded Kluber, Yan Gomes, Bauer, Clevinger, Lindor, and Carrasco, and let Michael Brantley and Santana walk away as free agents.

Eventually, that’s going to have an effect in the standings and among the fan base.

It’s a heck of a gamble by the ownership that their front office will be able to cobble together a contending team with that sort of talent drain.

They are also underestimating the intelligence of their fan base.

Another Heartbreak For Indians Fans

Just because something is expected to happen doesn’t mean it won’t upset you when it does. That’s how we felt when the Cleveland Indians traded all star SS Francisco Lindor and the longest tenured Indian, Carlos Carrasco to the Mets for infielders Andres Gimenez and Amed Rosario, RHP Josh Wolf, and OF Isaiah Greene.

There is so much that irritates us about this deal, beginning with our thought that nothing has changed since the 1960’s through the 1980’s when the Tribe developed several good players, guys like Graig Nettles, Chris Chambliss, Dennis Eckersley, Buddy Bell, and Julio Franco, only to see them move on to other teams, usually contenders.

Back then, the team played in cavernous Municipal Stadium, which was by that time was to put it nicely an armpit. That it had over 70,000 seats made it difficult to sell season tickets.

It might have been easier to be a fan then. There were no expectations. We grew up knowing the Indians were a middle of the pack team, if they were over .500, we were happy.

But in 1994, Jacobs Field was built and Cleveland had its own baseball palace, and started an eight season (1994-2001) period where they were among the best teams in the sport. The place was packed and the owner spent money. We actually signed big name free agents like Jack McDowell and Roberto Alomar.

However, 26 years later, we have returned to those dreary days of our youth.

In the past few seasons, the front office have seen these players depart: Michael Brantley, two time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, Carlos Santana, Mike Clevinger, and now Lindor and Carrasco.

Tell us what has changed?

Does anyone really believe the Indians are going to make an effort to keep Jose Ramirez in a Cleveland uniform when his club options run out following the 2023 season? Or do you think Shane Bieber, the latest Cy Young Award winner produced by the organization will be here when he can hit the open market?

Since Terry Francona took over as manager before the 2013 season, the Indians have made made five post-season appearances, and played in the seventh game of the World Series in 2016. Cleveland doesn’t have an aging roster and a bloated payroll.

Their best two players (Ramirez and Lindor) were in their late 20’s. Overall, the team is younger that the major league average, and their projected payroll with Lindor and Carrasco was $69 million, at this point, that’s the lowest in the AL Central. Yes, lower than Kansas City and Detroit.

At that level, they could have paid Lindor a market value deal and still kept the payroll at a level where it wasn’t among the top tier in the sport.

Instead, the organization served the fans another crap burger.

Think about it, in addition to losing the players already listed, fans have had to endure the loss of the team’s mascot, Chief Wahoo, and the name of the team will be changed sooner than later.

Now, we understand the reason for those changes, but that doesn’t make it any easier to take.

Could this trade be the key to a quick trip back to contention? Sure, anything is possible, but it’s not hard to envision this deal being the beginning of another trip to baseball oblivion. The one thing we can cling to is having a very talented front office, something those teams of our youth didn’t have.

Usually this time of year has us looking forward to spring training and Opening Day. It will be tough to do that in 2021.

Signs Were There For Tribe Fans The Past Two Years

It started when Michael Brantley departed via free agency after the 2018 season. We made a compelling argument that the Indians organization was simply reallocating funds to add younger pieces with more upside.

After all, Brantley was 31 years old and missed a good chunk of 2017 and almost all of 2016 with various injuries. It would be a smart move to take the $15 million or so (he got $16 million from Houston) he would demand on the open market, and find younger players who wouldn’t be in the decline phases of their careers.

Except the front office didn’t use the money saved by letting Brantley go, they just lowered the payroll for 2019.

The following winter, the Tribe dealt two time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber to Texas for an outfielder that couldn’t hit and a promising young bullpen arm in Emmanuel Clase. It was a salary dump, but again, we felt you couldn’t judge the trade until you could see what the organization would do with the money saved by moving Kluber.

Except, for the most part, they put it in their pockets.

Keep in mind, both of these moves occurred before COVID-19. At that point, there wasn’t a season played without fans, or with a 60 game slate, instead of the normal 162.

The ownership was hacking away at the payroll, in the midst of a run where they were on of the best teams in the American League. They had some age on the roster, but after Jason Kipnis left via free agency and the trade of Kluber, the oldest key players on the roster were Carlos Santana (33), and Carlos Carrasco (32).

What we mean is this is not the traditional aging team that management decides should be overhauled before they bottom out. The pieces are in place. You have a pair of great players in the midst of their prime in Jose Ramirez and Francisco Lindor.

You have a young, controllable starting rotation starting with Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber (26), Zach Plesac (26), Aaron Civale (26), Cal Quantrill (26), and Triston McKenzie (23) to go along with the veteran Carrasco.

It would seem having a pair of superstars with an excellent pitching staff would be a good foundation to build on, right?

Instead, the organization is going to deal one of the young stars before he enters his prime (age 27-29) because they are unwilling to pay him, and rumors are out there about Carrasco being on the block too.

Frankly, as much as we like and respect Carrasco, if you were moving him to free money to sign Lindor, it would make sense. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Instead, it appears the Indians are giving up on contending for awhile. The White Sox are on the rise, and being aggressive and the Twins are the two time defending Central Division champs. Instead of trying to beat them, compete with them, Cleveland has decided to regroup.

And the only motivation for doing this seems to be saving money. We get the revenues around the sport decreased in 2020 because of the unique season, but that’s true for every other major league team.

We have said many times that we understand the Indians cannot spend like the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, other teams in huge markets. But the Tribe might be around or below $50 million in 2021, about half of where they should be.

We can only think about the Indians’ teams of the 1950’s, contenders in most years, but only got to one World Series in 1954. However, that run of big success was ended by a general manager making terrible trades involving future young stars.

In both cases, it wasn’t age that ended the run, it was management. Unfortunately, no one can fire an owner. We just have to wait until some billionaire wants to buy the club and wants to win. It’s apparent the current owners do not.

An All Too Familiar Refrain From Indians

Even when you know bad news is coming, it still can make you sad when you hear it.

That’s how we felt when Cleveland Indians’ president Chris Antonetti spoke on Tuesday and talked about the “daunting” financial reality of the team.

He also spoke about the “reality” of the financial loss the Indians suffered during the shortened 60 game schedule, losing money from ticket revenue, concessions, and parking about other things.

So many things go through our heads on this.

First, we understand this was a difficult season for every major league baseball team. We are sure they didn’t make as much money as they usually make.

On the other hand, they didn’t have to pay any player his full salary either and the costs of travel were also greatly reduced because there were fewer trips as well as shorter ones.

The Cleveland Indians are definitely not the only team who can make these claims.

Secondly, since the off-season just started and the team has just introduced some new season ticket options, this seems like an odd way to solicit potential ticket buyers.

Your team president pretty much told everyone the payroll will be trimmed again, and one of the team’s best players will likely be traded. We are sure this news isn’t making anyone reach for their checkbooks.

We understand that the ownership is being honest, in fact, brutally so, and are trying to be transparent about the financial state of the franchise. However, there is a difference between being truthful and beating someone over the head with the truth.

It’s likely the supporters of the team know what the owners want to spend on players with the trades over the past few years of Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, and Mike Clevinger, as well as the loss of Michael Brantley to free agency.

In theory, many people thought those moves were made to free up money to spend on either younger impact players. That didn’t turn out to be the case.

We know and understand the Cleveland Indians cannot spend on players the same amount of money that the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Los Angeles Dodgers spend. But why can’t they spend what the Cincinnati Reds, Minnesota Twins, and Milwaukee Brewers can?

And although we don’t live in those cities, so we don’t know the message the ownership provides to the fans, we would doubt it isn’t the constant “woe is us” message Indians’ fans receive from the ownership here.

We would agree with declining the club option for Carlos Santana and although we would pick up Brad Hand’s option with the hope of trading him, he wouldn’t be terribly angry if they simply let the southpaw go when the World Series ends.

Unfortunately, it seems like the same modus operandi will be in place. The Indians will trim these salaries and not spend them on players to help the remaining players.

Remember, this isn’t a rebuilding situation for the Tribe. They made the playoffs from 2016-18, missed in 2019 even though they won 93 games, and made the post-season this season.

They have a cadre of young, controlled starting pitchers, led by 25-year-old Shane Bieber, the likely AL Cy Young Award winner. Their best two position players are 27 and 26, and both would rank in the top 25 players in the sport.

Why wouldn’t you want to make a push and try to bolster the roster around these players? Maybe the Indians will be better in 2021, but it puts a lot of pressure on everyone, including apparently many young, inexperienced players to perform at a very high level.

This is probably just the first in what should be many such talks from the Indians’ organization telling their customers not to get high expectations.

It’s a dreadful situation if you are a fan of the Tribe.