Manager
Terry Francona may have started out in the small town in South Dakota most famous for being the home of L.Frank Baum when he wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but he’s followed up a decade-long major league career where he hit .274 as a pinch-hitter off the bench by becoming one of the most well-regarded and highly-respected managers in the entire game.
His abilities as a managerial strategist were on full display in the World Series in 2016, and while it should come as no surprise as we all watched him deliver Boston their first World Series title in 86 years in 2004 before winning it again 3 years later.
Francona is not a fresh-faced 40 year-old, freshly retired from the game, but he’s also a few years from 60 as well, so he’s by no means old for the role either, and his players swear by him.
His career record speaks for itself – 16 years managing, a .533 winning percentage overall, two World Series titles, and an American League pennant. He’s now won 90+ games 8 of his past 12 seasons, and not one of those seasons did his team finish below .500.
Coaching Staff
While the excellent work of Ty Van Burkleo as the Indians hitting coach is known around the league, bench coach Brad Mills is one of the most respected guys in the game, and first base coach Sandy Alomar, Jr. has received a few overtures for manager positions, the guy on the coaching staff that everyone wants to talk about is pitching coach Mickey Callaway.
Callaway is in his fifth year with the Indians, and his staff has led the league in strikeouts each of the last three seasons. Before he got to the majors, Callaway was the minor league pitching coordinator in the organization and coached within the system at different levels within the Indians system.
Callaway is known for getting big swing and miss stuff from his pitchers, oftentimes guys who aren’t known for their ability to miss bats. His work with Corey Kluber has received plenty of attention as well, though Kluber certainly put in his own effort to improve as well.
Front Office
As the Indians watched another former member of their front office get hired away to another team into general manager roles, there had to be some level of pride there, though I’m sure they’d rather have not seen Derek Falvey working for a divisional rival!
The Indians were at the forefront of the analytics movement. In fact, key figure in Moneyball, Paul DePodesta, actually got his start working under John Hart when he was the GM of the Indians.
The man who sits in the lead decision-making chair in Cleveland at this point is President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti. He works alongside GM Mike Chernoff to put together one of the most highly-regarded analytical and scouting staffs in the game.
Next: Prediction