Cleveland Indians All-Time 25-Man Roster
We continue our offseason project with a look at the Cleveland Indians all-time 25-man roster.
Professional baseball has been played in Cleveland for more than 140 years, but the franchise currently located in Cleveland came into existence in 1901. That was the year Ban Johnson elevated the Western League to the American League, claiming major league status in a bid to compete with the National League. Cleveland is one of four Charter AL clubs, along with Chicago, Boston, and Detroit. Cleveland, in fact, played the first game in AL history against Chicago on April 24, 1901.
According to Cleveland’s history overview at MLB.com, the team was known as the Blues in 1901 and the Broncos in 1902. In 1903, the team became known as the Naps, named after their star second baseman, Napoleon Lajoie, who was one of the league’s best players in those early years. When Lajoie left the team after the 1914 season, they had another name change.
The legend goes that the team that came to be known as the Indians was named in honor of a former player named Chief Sockalexis, who was an American Indian. As with many baseball legends, like Abner Doubleday inventing baseball at Cooperstown, there is much doubt that the Indians were named in honor of Sockalexis. Joe Posnasnki has written many times about the “Indians” nickname and, as he writes of its origin, “The truth is not exactly in the middle either; it sort of floats from side to side like a balloon dancing in the wind.”
Nap Lajoie was the dominant position player on those early Cleveland teams. The team’s best pitcher during this time was Addie Joss. Despite some talent, the team didn’t make the post-season until 1920. They won the World Series that year over the Brooklyn Robins.
After that first post-season appearance and World Series victory, it would be another 28 years until the Cleveland faithful could root for their team in the post-season again. During this stretch from 1921 to 1947, the team finished within 10 games of first place just three times.
After a generation of anguish, the 1948 World Series team was the prize at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box. They won 97 games, with the final game being the first-ever one-game playoff in the American League. Player-manager Lou Boudreau hit two home runs in the contest and Gene Bearden won his 20th game of the season. Adding the cherry on top of the sundae, Cleveland went on to win the World Series in six games over the Boston Braves.
After winning the second (and last, so far) World Series in team history, Cleveland didn’t have to wait long to get back to the Fall Classic. They won an incredible 111 games in 1954, beating out the 103-win New York Yankees. This was the only time in a 10-year stretch that a team other than the Yankees represented the American League in the World Series. Unfortunately, Cleveland was swept in the World Series by the New York Giants.
The 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s were bleak years for Cleveland baseball. From 1960 to 1993, they finished as high as third place just one time in 34 years. They were near the bottom of the standings most years and the team and city became the butt of numerous jokes, especially after the Cuyahoga River caught on fire in 1969. They also held a Ten Cent Beer Night in 1974 that turned to total chaos when inebriated fans stormed the field armed with anything that wasn’t bolted down and the team had to forfeit.
Near the end of this ugly stretch, the 1986 Cleveland team surprised many when they won 84 games. It was just their fourth winning season since 1968. Sports Illustrated was so excited by the team’s 24-game improvement that they put the Chief Wahoo logo on the cover, along with Joe Carter and Cory Snyder, and proclaimed, “Believe it! Cleveland is the Best Team in the American League”. Then the season started and, yeah, they most definitely were not the best team in the American League. The 1987 team went 61-101 and finished in dead last, 37 games out.
The rest of the 80s were similarly bleak. The brightest spot in Cleveland baseball during this stretch was when the movie “Major League” came out. It was the most entertaining baseball seen in Cleveland in years.
After decades without much success, the baseball diehards in Cleveland were rewarded for their patience in the mid-90s. With sluggers Jim Thome, Albert Belle, a young Manny Ramirez, and speedy Kenny Lofton, the team made the playoffs six times in seven years from 1995 to 2001. Twice they made it the World Series, only to lose, but the overall stretch was the most successful period in the history of Cleveland baseball.
Over the last 10 years, Cleveland has made the post-season three times. They made it all the way to the American League Championship Series in 2007, only to lose to the Boston Red Sox in seven games. They also lost the one-game Wild Card playoff in 2013.
Last year, though, it all came together once again. Cleveland won the AL Central by eight games, then swept the Red Sox in the ALDS. They took down the Toronto Blue Jays in five games in the ALCS and got off to a three games to one lead in the World Series against the Chicago Cubs. Of course, they couldn’t hold the lead. They lost Games 5 and 6, then were dealt a heartbreaking defeat in a 10-inning Game 7, despite the best efforts of Rajai Davis, who hit a game-tying home run in the bottom of the eighth. They were oh so close, only to be denied. It was a very Cleveland moment.
Here is the Cleveland Indians all-time 25-man roster.
Catcher—Victor Martinez
(with Cleveland from 2002-2009)
19.4 fWAR (FanGraphs WAR), 19.2 bWAR (Baseball-Reference WAR)
.297/.369/.463, 821 G, 3449 PA, 120 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
The Cleveland franchise does not have a history of great catchers. They have some catchers who were very good for a short period of time at the position and they have some guys who played more seasons but weren’t particularly good. The top five Cleveland catchers by FanGraphs WAR are Carlos Santana, Victor Martinez, Steve O’Neill, Johnny Romano, and Sandy Alomar, Jr.
Santana had one season with exactly 100 games at catcher and a few seasons with partial time at the spot. For me, he doesn’t have enough games at catcher to be the team’s all-time guy at the spot. Of these five players, Steve O’Neill, who played from 1911 to 1928, had the most games at catcher, but wasn’t as valuable per season as Victor Martinez or Carlos Santana. John Romano had some good years for the team in the 1960s, but just two seasons with 100 or more games at the position. Alomar, Jr. played many years at the position, but wasn’t as valuable as my pick for the starting spot, which is Victor Martinez.
Martinez is a little light at playing time behind the dish. He had four seasons with 120 or more games at catcher and three others with between 40 and 85 games. His best stretch of play was from 2004 to 2007. V-Mart was worth 4.0 WAR per year, while hitting .302/.376/.484 and averaging 21 homers and 99 RBI. The only catcher more valuable than Martinez during this period was Jorge Posada.
After not making the playoffs in any of the first five seasons of Martinez’ career, Cleveland made the playoffs in the 2007 season. The beat the Yankees in the ALDS and advanced all the way to Game 7 of the ALCS, which they lost to the Boston Red Sox. For his part, Martinez was very good, hitting a combined .318/.388/.500 in 11 post-season games.
After being so good for that four-year stretch, Martinez struggled with injuries during an ugly 2008 season. He only played in 73 games and lost his power stroke, hitting just two home runs in 294 plate appearances. He came back from his injury-marred year to be just as good as ever in 2009. Through his first 99 games, he was hitting .284/.368/.464.
At this point, the team was in fourth place and double-digit games behind the division leader. They had traded CC Sabathia the previous July and made the rebuilding decision to trade Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez in July of 2009. V-Mart was sent to the Boston Red Sox for pitchers Justin Masterson, Bryan Price, and Nick Hagadone. He’s since gone on to have some very good seasons with the Red Sox and Tigers and has been particularly good against Cleveland, with a career batting line of .314/.384/.510 in 98 games when facing the Tribe.
First Baseman—Jim Thome
(with Cleveland from 1991-2002, 2011)
46.4 fWAR, 47.9 bWAR
.287/.414/.566, 1399 G, 5805 PA, 152 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
The power-hitting Jim Thome that Cleveland fans grew to love did not start out that way. He was considered undersized coming out of high school. In fact, he was a 175-pound shortstop, not yet the guy who is listed as 6’4” and 250 pounds by Baseball-Reference.com. Thome went undrafted after his senior year of high school, so he spent a year playing baseball and basketball at Illinois Central College. Cleveland drafted him in the 13th round of the 1989 June draft.
The guy who would hit 612 career home runs in the big leagues got off to a rough start. Cleveland started Thome in Rookie ball in 1989 and he struggled mightily, hitting .237/.314/.296. Just eight of his 44 hits went for extra bases and he didn’t hit a single home run.
That off-season, Thome worked with hitting instructor Charlie Manuel, with an emphasis on hip rotation. It paid off well. He hit 16 home runs in 67 games, while also showing the batting eye that would enable him to post a career on base percentage of .402. Manuel would later become Thome’s manager in the big leagues.
It took a couple years of bouncing between the majors and minors before Thome established himself in the big leagues and even then he didn’t become a regular until the strike-shortened 1994 season. That was a disappointing season for baseball fans everywhere, but particularly rough for Cleveland fans. After years of being non-contenders, the 1994 team was in second place and just one game out of first when the season ended in August. The good news was that this would be a sign of things to come.
Cleveland dominated the AL Central from 1995 to 2001. They won the division six times in seven years, while averaging 93 wins per season. They made it to the ALCS three times and the World Series twice, unfortunately losing both times. Thome was a big part of the hitting attack. From 1995 until his final year with the team in 2002, Thome averaged 102 runs, 38 homers, 104 RBI, and a .293/.426/.588 batting line. He also walked an average of 113 times per year, was a three time all-star and finished in the top 10 in AL MVP voting four times.
This was the essence of Jim Thome: Home runs, RBI, and walks. And he did it all with a downhome charm. He was a big guy with a big swing and an even bigger smile. He tied with Mike Sweeny as baseball’s second-friendliest player in a 2007 poll of MLB players (behind Sean Casey). Teammate Michael Cuddyer said of Thome, “He’s the nicest, gentlest, kindest guy you will ever meet . . . to everything except the baseball, he still hits that really hard.” An example of how hard Thome hit the baseball is this home run that was estimated at 511 feet against the Royals on July 3, 1999:
After their great run of success that, sadly, did not result in a World Series title, the team finished in third place in 2002. This would be Thome’s final season in his first tenure with the team and he made it a good one, hitting a career-high 52 homers and driving in 131 runs. The team was going into rebuilding mode, though, and Thome signed a free agent deal with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Thome spent the next eight season playing for the Phillies, White Sox, Dodgers, and Twins before making his way back home by way of a trade from Minnesota to Cleveland in August of 2011. The ballpark known as The Jake when he last played for Cleveland was now known as Progressive Field but the fan sentiment hadn’t changed. Thome was greeted warmly by the fans in his first at-bat back with the team and he tipped his cap to acknowledge them in a sentimental moment. Later that year, the team announced there would be a statue of Thome in Heritage Park and held a ceremony to honor him.
The Thome statue was unveiled in 2014 and he officially retired as an Indian. In 2015, Thome returned for the 20-year reunion of the 1995 team that went 100-44 and won the second-most games in a season in team history. Last January, he attended Tribe Fest and in July he was inducted into the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame. This year will be his first appearance on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.
Second Baseman—Nap Lajoie
(with Cleveland from 1902-1914)
74.9 fWAR, 80.0 bWAR
.339/.389/.452, 1614 G, 6695 PA, 155 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
Lajoie was the first superstar of the upstart American League in the early years of the 20th century. He had his most famous season the year before joining Cleveland when he led the brand new American League in almost every hitting category, including batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, runs, hits, doubles, homers, and RBI.
He played that season with the Philadelphia Athletics, the team he had jumped to from the crosstown Phillies after believing the Phillies had shorted him on his pay. Phillies owner John Rogers sued for the return of his “property” and the case he filed made its way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. It was ultimately decided in Rogers’ favor and the ruling prevented Lajoie from playing baseball in the state of Pennsylvania for any team other than the Phillies. With this restriction in place, Lajoie was sent to Cleveland in 1902.
The batting titles kept coming for Lajoie over the next three seasons. He also led the league in on-base percentage twice and slugging percentage three times. As good as he was personally, his team did not fair well, finishing fifth, third, and fourth in an eight team league. After the 2004 season, Lajoie added field manager to his resume.
The Cleveland roster looked good enough to be contenders, but could only manage one second place finish in the five years Lajoie managed them. His time at the helm of the team seemed to affect his hitting also. A career .338/.380/.466 hitter, Lajoi hit just .319/.368/.417 in this five-year stretch as a player-manager. The year after he was relieved of his duties, his batting average shot right back up to .384.
That .384 batting average in the 1910 season was the subject of much controversy at the time. This was the famous batting race between the aging 36-year-old Napoleon Lajoie, who had won four straight batting titles earlier in his career, and the 23-year-old Ty Cobb, who had won three straight titles leading up to this season. Batting average was king in those days and the batting race was prominent in sports section of newspapers across the country. This batting race had the added element of the winner being awarded a Chalmers Detroit Model 30 automobile. In a time when few people owned cars, getting a Chalmers Detroit Model 30 was a significant incentive.
Heading into the final day of the season, Cobb had a substantial lead, but Lajoie was playing a double-header, so he would get many chances to rack up hits. And he did. Unofficially, Lajoie was 8-for-8 that day but as the Washington Post wrote, “Never before in the history of baseball has the integrity of the game been questioned as it was by the 8,000 fans this afternoon.”
During the two games, Lajoie had one hit that dropped in centerfield that should have been caught. He also had six bunt singles because the opposing team’s third baseman was playing in short left field. It was a mockery and a sham. For his part, one could argue that Lajoie showed a lack of integrity by taking advantage of the free hits so he could win the batting title and the car.
When word got around the country about what had happened, there was an outrage. The president of the American League, Ban Johnson, axed three members of the St., Louis Browns, including their manager, Jack O’Connor. All three disappeared from baseball. Along with the firings, Johnson announced that Ty Cobb had won the batting title with a .3849 batting average to Lajoie’s .3840. To appease the two hitters, the Chalmers Motor Company handed out two cars. Everything seemed to be taken care of.
Except, Johnson’s decision was as illegitimate as Lajoie’s hits. In order to put Cobb ahead of Lajoie in the batting race, Johnson “found” a 2-for-3 game by Cobb. In actuality, one of Cobb’s games in which he was 2-for-3 was counted twice. Many decades later, researcher Pete Palmer fastidiously checked through the box scores for each player and found evidence of Cobb’s two extra hits. He told the commissioner at the time, Bowie Kuhn, about the discrepancy but Kuhn chose to do nothing about it.
The end result of all these shenanigans is that Ty Cobb actually had 4,189 hits and a career batting average of .366 and not 4,191 hits and a batting average of .367, which are still his “official” totals according to Major League Baseball. So when Pete Rose broke the all-time hits record at home in Cincinnati on September 11, 1985, the reality was that he had already broken the record three days before, at Wrigley Field.
After that batting title fiasco, Lajoie played four more seasons in Cleveland and continued to hit well for the first three of those seasons with batting averages of .365, .368, and .335. Then, after hitting .258 as a 39-year-old in 1914, Cleveland let him go. He signed with the Philadelphia Athletics and played two more seasons in the big leagues, hitting .280 and .246.
Shortstop—Lou Boudreau
(with Cleveland from 1938-1950)
63.1 fWAR, 61.7 bWAR
.296/.382/.416, 1560 G, 6708 PA, 122 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
Lou Boudreau was signed out of the University of Illinois, where he was not only good on the baseball diamond but also on the basketball court. He helped the Illini win the Big Ten conference title in basketball in his first season and was an All-American the next year. After signing with Cleveland in 1938, Boudreau spent most of the year in the Class B league but did make it up to the show for one game in September that year.
In 1939, Boudreau spent two-thirds of the season with Cleveland’s Double-A team in Buffalo, where he was moved from third base to shortstop. He made it to Cleveland for good in August and never looked back. From 1940 to 1948, Boudreau was a fixture in the Cleveland lineup. He was named to seven all-star teams and finished in the top 10 in AL MVP voting eight times.
Early in his career, when he was just 24 years old, Boudreau was named the player-manager of the team. He would keep the manager role for nine years and had a record of 728-649 (.529) as the head of the ballclub. He also became know for the Ted Williams Shift. After Williams went 4-for-5 with three home runs, all to right field, in the first game of a double-header, Boudreau had the Cleveland fielders shift to the right side of the field when Williams came to bat for the first time in the second game. Williams grounded to shortstop Boudreau, who was playing where the second baseman would normally be. This was 70 years ago. The shift is now used more often than at any time in baseball history.
Three months after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier as the first African-American to play in the modern major leagues, Larry Doby followed suit in the American League when he debuted with Cleveland on July 5. As manager, Lou Boudreau did his best to have the team’s players accept Doby by going around to each player and introducing Doby personally. Not all players were welcoming, of course, but having Boudreau on board helped Doby become a key member of the team in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Boudreau was at his best in the 1948 season, when Cleveland went 97-58 and beat the Boston Braves in the World Series. It was their first post-season appearance since 1920 and their second World Series championship. They’re still looking for their third title after coming so close last season.
That 1948 season was also one of the best a shortstop has ever had. Boudreau hit .355/.453/.534 with 116 runs scored, 18 homers, and 116 RBI. He was an all-star and the league MVP. According to FanGraphs WAR, only Honus Wagner’s 1908 season (11.8 fWAR) was worth more than Boudreau’s 1948 season (10.9 fWAR).
After being so good in 1948, Boudreau’s numbers dropped dramatically in 1949. He lost 71 points off his batting average, 72 points off his on-base percentage, and 170 points off his slugging percentage. After hitting a career-high 18 home runs in 1948, Boudreau hit just 4 in 1949. The next season was even worse, as Boudreau played in just 81 games and was released as a player and manager after the season, despite the team’s 92-62 (.597) record. He finished up his career with two seasons in Boston.
Upon Boudreau’s election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970, former teammate Bob Feller said of him, “Boudreau was one of the most talented players in baseball in his time, in addition to being one of the classiest human beings you’d ever want to meet.”
Third Baseman—Ken Keltner
(with Cleveland from 1937-1944, 1946-1949)
36.2 fWAR, 33.8 bWAR
.276/.337/.441, 1513 G, 6280 PA, 112 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
The third base position was the most difficult spot to choose a starter for Cleveland. The franchise has four third basemen who have between 33.9 and 36.3 combined WAR (an average of Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs): Al Rosen, Bill Bradley, Ken Keltner, and Terry Turner. Of the four, Rosen had the highest peak, with his tremendous 10.1 bWAR season of 1953, but he also the fewest seasons with Cleveland and the fewest plate appearances. After considering multiple factors, I chose Ken Keltner as the starter with Rosen on the bench.
Before being purchased by Cleveland, Keltner was a much-beloved player for the Milwaukee Brewers, who were an independently owned team. The team’s president, Henry Bendinger, made it known Keltner was available and drew interested from multiple teams. Cleveland won the bidding and purchased the contract of Keltner for six players and $25,000.
After getting a single plate appearance with Cleveland in 1937, Keltner was a regular the following year and was a slightly above average hitter as a 21-year-old. Two years later, he would make his first of seven all-star teams, including five straight from 1940 to 1944.
One of the enduring moments of Keltner’s career came on July 17, 1941. Cleveland was facing the Yankees and Joe DiMaggio’s consecutive game hitting streak had run to 56 games. Keltner was known for a good glove at third base and he displayed it on this day. DiMaggio hit a screaming shot down the line in his first at-bat. Keltner, playing very deep, made a great play to rob DiMaggio of a hit. In the seventh inning, it was like déjà vu all over again when DiMaggio stepped up and hit a hard shot down the third base line. Once again, Keltner made a great play and robbed Joe D of a hit that would have extended his hitting streak. In large part because of those two great plays by Keltner, DiMaggio’s streak ended at 56 games. He would start another streak that lasted 16 games the next day, so Keltner’s defensive acumen prevented Joe DiMaggio from hitting in 73 straight games.
After making five straight all-star teams from 1940 to 1944, Keltner missed all of the 1945 season because of his service in the military for World War II. He came back and made the all-star team again in 1946 and again in 1948. That 1948 season was Keltner’s last good season. He had a career-high 31 homers and career-best 119 RBI, while hitting .297/.395/.522.
Then, suddenly, Keltner’s performance plummeted. He dealt with a lower leg injury that limited him to 80 games and he hit just .232/.335/.382 in the games in which he played. The team had a good, young prospect named Al Rosen banging on the door at third base, so they released Keltner after the season. Rosen came up and hit a league-leading 37 homers in his rookie year. Keltner played 13 games for the Red Sox in 1950.
Left Fielder—Albert Belle
(with Cleveland from1989-1996)
27.5 fWAR, 27.3 bWAR
.295/.369/.580, 913 G, 3925 PA, 150 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
When it comes to outfielders, the Cleveland franchise had three very good ones who played almost exclusively in center field (Tris Speaker, Kenny Lofton, and Larry Doby). They didn’t have the same kind of talent in the corner outfield spots. In left field, the short career excellence of Albert Belle gets him the starting spot.
Albert Belle had a controversial career because of his prickly personality, but he excelled in the batter’s box. From 1993 to 1996, Belle was a four-time all-star and four-time Silver Slugger for Cleveland. He also finished in the top three in AL MVP voting three times while averaging 5.8 bWAR per season. His average batting line over this stretch was .315/.402/.638, with 107 R, 43 HR, 126 RBI, and 12 SB per season. The guy could rake.
Outside of the batter’s box, though, wow. Belle had enough controversies to fill six major league careers. He was suspended for using a corked bat in 1994, routinely refused to speak to the media, once chased down trick-or-treaters with his car after they threw eggs at his house, and was fined for delivering a professional wrestling style forearm shiver to Fernando Vina on this play:
Writing for the New York Times, Buster Olney had this take on Albert Belle:
It was a taken in baseball circles that Albert Belle was nuts… The Indians billed him $10,000 a year for the damage he caused in clubhouses on the road and at home, and tolerated his behavior only because he was an awesome slugger… He slurped coffee constantly and seemed to be on a perpetual caffeinated frenzy. Few escaped his wrath: on some days he would destroy the postgame buffet…launching plates into the shower… after one poor at-bat against Boston, he retreated to the visitors’ clubhouse and took a bat to teammate Kenny Lofton’s boombox. Belle preferred to have the clubhouse cold, below 60 degrees, and when one chilly teammate turned up the heat, Belle walked over, turned down the thermostat and smashed it with his bat. His nickname, thereafter, was “Mr. Freeze.”
For all of his faults, Belle was a key player on the team’s 1995 World Series team that went 100-44 during the regular season. He led the league in runs, homers, RBI, and slugging percentage and finished second in AL MVP voting, despite being worth 2.6 more wins above replacement (per Baseball-Reference) than the winner that year, Mo Vaughn. He followed that up with another great season in 1996, but his time in Cleveland was done after that year. He signed a 5-year, $55 million contract with the Chicago White Sox.
When the franchise had a day to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1995 World Series team, Belle declined to attend. He also was not present when he was inducted into the Indians team Hall of Fame, although he did make an appearance during spring training in 2012 with former teammates Kenny Lofton, Sandy Alomar, Jr., and Carlos Baerga.
Center Fielder—Tris Speaker
(with Cleveland from 1916-1926)
72.6 fWAR, 74.2 bWAR
.354/.444/.520, 1519 G, 6633 PA, 158 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
Tris Speaker had already established himself as one of the best players of his era when he came to Cleveland from Boston before the 1916 season. He had helped the Red Sox win two of the previous four World Series. Despite this, Red Sox team president Joe Lannin wanted to cut Speaker’s salary from $18,000 per year to $9,000 because his batting average had dropped three years in a row. Speaker wasn’t happy about the pay cut offer and the team traded him to Cleveland.
In his first year with his new team, Speaker tore up the league, hitting .386/.470/.502, all the top rates in the American League. He also led the league in hits and doubles. This was a sign of things to come. Speaker hit over .300 10 times in his 11 years with Cleveland, including eight seasons hitting .344 or better.
In the middle of his tenure with the team, Speaker added the manager position to his repertoire. In his first year as manager, the team went 98-56 to win the American League, then beat the Brooklyn Robins to win the 1920 World Series. Speaker hit .320/.393/.480 in seven games.
That 1920 season saw the introduction of the lively ball to MLB and Speaker enjoyed the new ball, hitting .388/.483/.562, with a league-leading 50 doubles. It was one of eight seasons in which Speaker led the league in doubles and he is still the all-time record holder for doubles in a career, with 792. Amazingly, his .388 batting average in 1920 was second in the league because George Sisler hit .407.
Speaker played six more seasons with the team and continued to be one of the top players in the league even as he aged into his late 30s. There was some controversy after the 1926 season when former teammate Hubert “Dutch” Leonard accused Speaker and Ty Cobb of fixing a game in 1919. The commissioner of the American League, Ban Johnson, believed that Speaker and Cobb were guilty and encouraged them to resign, which they did. Then commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis overruled Johnson and cleared Speaker and Cobb. Speaker played one season with the Washington Senators and a final season with the Philadelphia Athletics before retiring for good after the 1928 season.
Right Fielder—Shoeless Joe Jackson
(with Cleveland from 1910-1915)
34.0 fWAR, 35.0 bWAR
.374/.441/.542, 674 G, 2854 PA, 182 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
Shoeless Joe Jackson grew up with one thing on his mind: baseball. His parents didn’t put him in school as a boy. Instead, he started working at a mill when he would have been in first or second grade. In those days, every factory had a baseball team and they would play against each other during the year. Jackson worked his way into the lineup of his factory team when he was just barely a teenager. He played on factory teams and semipro teams until he was 20 years old, when he signed a contract with the Greenville Spinners of the Class-D Carolina Association.
Jackson was good enough in Class-D to attract the notice of the legendary Connie Mack, manager of the Philadelphia Athletics. Mack signed Jackson to play for the Athletics. As talented as Jackson was, it never worked out for him in Philly. The city was too big for the small-town boy. In two seasons playing in the organization, Jackson had just 41 plate appearances at the major league level. He spent most of his time in the minor leagues.
A key moment of Shoeless Joe’s career was a trade in July of 1910 that sent him from Philadelphia to Cleveland. He hit .387 in 20 games with the team in the last part of the 1910 season, then hit .408/.468/.590 in 1911. He led the league in on-base percentage but finished second to Ty Cobb (.420) in batting average. He followed that up with two more incredible years in 1912 and 1913. In the three year stretch from 1911 to 1913, Jackson hit .393/.462/.574 and averaged 21 triples and 34 steals per year. The only player worth more wins above replacement during this time was Ty Cobb.
A broken leg in 1914 cost Jackson 35 games and he “slumped” to a .338/.399/.464 batting line, which was still well above average. More trouble came his way in 1915. After spending the off-season performing in a vaudeville show, Joe’s loyalty to baseball waned. He even threatened to quit baseball. With the prodding of his wife, Jackson relented and continued his baseball career.
The vaudeville controversy, a position change from the outfield to first base, and money problems for the team’s owner all contributed to the departure for Shoeless Joe from Cleveland. The team’s owner, Charles Somers, traded Jackson to the White Sox in August of 2015 in a deal that included $31,500 cash coming to Somers. Jackson’s time in Cleveland was over. Writer Henry Edwards of the Cleveland Plain Dealer didn’t mince words when the deal was made, writing, “While he does not admit it, he was becoming . . . a purely individual player who sacrificed team work for Joe Jackson. … If he were still the Jackson of 1911, 1912, and 1913, the team would not have let him get away.”
After leaving Cleveland for Chicago, Jackson would play five more years with the White Sox. His tragic story has been told many times. He was one of eight players who were banned for life from baseball by commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis for conspiring to fix the 1919 World Series. Landis’ punishment came after the 1920 season in which Jackson hit .382/.444/.589 and still looked to be at the top of his game.
Designated Hitter—Earl Averill
(with Cleveland from 1929-1939)
47.7 fWAR, 47.9 bWAR
.322/.399/.542, 1510 G, 6712 PA, 136 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
On this hypothetical all-time 25-man roster, Averill is the Designated Hitter even though the position didn’t exist when Averill played. He’s the top hitter who couldn’t crack the team’s starting lineup because he played centerfield and the franchise is flush with good centerfielders. Along with Averill, they have Tris Speaker, Kenny Lofton, and Larry Doby.
Earl Averill is a name that gets lost in the shuffle among good players in the 1930s, but he was among the best for a 10-year stretch from 1929 to 1938. During this time, Averill was ninth in baseball in FanGraphs WAR, while hitting .323/.399/.542 with an average of 115 runs scored and 108 RBI per season. He was an all-star six times and finished in the top 10 in MVP voting four times.
As good as he was from 1929 to 1938, Averill could have added a few more years to the front end of that time period. He didn’t play in the big leagues until he was 27 years old because the minor league team he played for, the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, didn’t want to sell his contract to a major league team. In his three years in the PCL, Averill hit .348, .324, and .354.
On the back end of his career, Averill had a back injury that slowed him down in his mid 30’s. He hit .330/.429/.535 in his last full season in Cleveland in 1938. When he started off the 1939 season by hitting .273 in his first 24 games, he was traded to the Detroit Tigers. He finished out the season in Detroit, then played one more year there and a final 8-game stretch with the Boston Braves in 1941.
Long after his career was over, Averill received the ultimate honor when he was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1975. He is also one of six Cleveland players to have his uniform number retired, along with Lou Boudreau, Larry Doby, Bob Feller, Mel Harder, and Bob Lemon.
Backup Catcher—Steve O’Neill
(with Cleveland from 1911-1923)
18.0 fWAR, 23.2 bWAR
.265/.348/.341, 1365 G, 4831 PA, 91 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
Steve O’Neill is not a household name because the bulk of his career in Cleveland was 100 years ago. He was also a below average hitter during his career. His spot on this team is due to his longevity with the franchise and the fact that the team’s best hitters at the catcher position didn’t stay at that spot for very long (see Santana, Carlos). Victor Martinez was named the starter because he at least had four seasons with 121 or more games behind the dish, but O’Neill was a true catcher who played 100 or more games at the position in nine seasons.
Despite his lack of name recognition 100 years after his career ended, O’Neill was one of the best catchers in baseball during his career. While with Cleveland from 1911 to 1923, O’Neill was the third-best catcher in baseball according to FanGraphs WAR, behind only Wally Schang and Ray Schalk. O’Neill provided much of his value behind the plate, where he had good footwork and a strong arm.
The advent of the lively ball was the best ting that happened to O’Neill’s production at the plate. After hitting .243/.310/.311 in the nine years from 1911 to 1919, O’Neill hit .303/.408/.393 in his final four years in Cleveland. He went from being 20% worse than league average as a hitter (80 OPS+) to 8% better than league average (108 OPS+).
The 1920 season was his time to shine. He started an incredible 145 of the team’s 154 games. For a catcher, that’s very impressive. Despite the heavy workload, he had the best season of his career with the bat, hitting .321/.408/.440. The team went to the post-season for the first time and O’Neill was one of the keys to their winning the World Series over the Brooklyn Robins.
O’Neill followed up the 1920 season with two more strong seasons, but slumped to a .248/.374/.285 batting line in 1923, his final year in Cleveland. He was traded to the Boston Red Sox before the 1924 season. After one year in Boston, he played for the Yankees in 1925, then finished out his career with the St. Louis Browns in 1927 and 1928.
After his playing career was over, O’Neill turned to managing. He was hired by Cleveland during the 1935 season and managed them through 1937, but never finished higher than 3rd place in an eight-team league. He had his most success as the manager of the Detroit Tigers, even guiding them to a World Series title in 1945. Overall, O’Neill managed in the big leagues for 14 seasons and never had a losing record.
Backup First Baseman—Hal Trosky
(with Cleveland from 1933-1941)
30.8 fWAR, 29.8 bWAR
.313/.379/.551, 1124 G, 4853 PA, 135 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
Hal Trosky was signed by Cleveland in 1931 and sent to their Class-D team in Cedar Rapids. He was signed as a pitcher and had a 4.75 ERA in 55 innings in his first year as a professional. He was converted to first base before the 1932 season and hit .322 with a .564 slugging percentage at three different levels of the minor leagues. The next season, he played most of the year in Double-A before getting into 11 games with Cleveland at the end of the season. His time in the minor leagues was over.
Over the eight seasons from 1934 to 1941, Trosky hit .313/.379/.552, with an average of 94 runs scored, 27 homers, and 113 RBI per season. He was overshadowed by Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg, and Lou Gehrig, but had the sixth-most WAR (per FanGraphs) of any first baseman in baseball over this stretch.
Trosky was very good despite an onslaught of migraine headaches that hampered him from 1939 to 1941. He had played 150 or more games in his first five full seasons in the big leagues, then was limited to 117 games per year over this three-year stretch. The migraines hit him hard in 1941. He said the baseball sometimes looked “like a bunch of white feathers.” After missing some games, Trosky returned to the lineup but suffered a fractured thumb and missed the final month-and-a-half of the season.
The thumb injury healed but the migraines remained and Trosky couldn’t find a remedy for them. He visited doctors all over the country looking for help with the pounding pain, but to no avail. He sat out two seasons. In 1944, he signed up to join the military but was declared 4-F because of his history of migraines.
After being ruled ineligible for the military, Trosky decided to try again in baseball. Cleveland sold his contract to the Chicago White Sox and He was back in the big leagues. He wasn’t the same player he’d been, though, and struggled through a season in which he hit .241/.327/.374, with just 10 home runs in 560 plate appearances. In the low offense era during World War II, even that poor batting line was slightly above average (102 OPS+).
While once again sitting out the baseball season in 1945, Trosky found a way to ease the migraine pain. He limited his dairy intake and took vitamin B-1 shots. He returned to the majors for one final year with the White Sox in 1946, but was a below-average hitter in 88 games and called it a career.
Backup Shortstop—Joe Sewell
(with Cleveland from 1920-1930)
40.9 fWAR, 45.6 bWAR
.320/.398/.425, 1513 G, 6580 PA, 111 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
Joe Sewell had fewer than 100 professional games under his belt, all at the Class-A level, when a tragedy opened up a spot for him on the Cleveland roster. The tragedy was the deadly beaning of Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman. Chapman was hit by a Carl Mays pitch in a game against the Yankees and died 12 hours later. The team first used Harry Lunte as Chapman’s replacement, but later called up 21-year-old Joe Sewell and he held the starting shortstop position for the next decade.
One of the most-mentioned things about Sewell’s career was his incredible ability to make contact, especially as he developed as a hitter. In his first four full seasons, Sewell struck out 62 times in 2711 plate appearances, or 2.2% of the time. That’s impressive enough, but he would be even better over the last nine seasons of his career. From 1925 to 1933, Sewell had 5539 plate appearances and struck out just 48 times. That’s 0.9% of the time. Over this nine-year stretch, he averaged 615 plate appearances per year and never struck out more than nine times in a season. He also had one stretch of 115 consecutive games without striking out.
According to legend, when Sewell first joined Cleveland in the big leagues, he didn’t have a decent bat. A teammate, George Burns, gave him a bat that weighed 40 ounces (hefty by today’s standards) and Sewell used that bat, which he named “Black Betsy”, for the rest of his career.
Sewell was more than just a guy who didn’t strike out, though. He had a lifetime batting average of .312 and an on-base percentage of .391. He didn’t hit many home runs, but had eight seasons with 36 or more doubles and drove in more than 100 runs twice. He was also durable enough to play in 1,103 consecutive games.
After experiencing his first below-average year with the bat in 1930, Sewell was released by Cleveland. Just a few days later, he was signed by the New York Yankees, where he would finish out his career.
Backup Third Baseman —Al Rosen
(with Cleveland from 1947-1956)
35.2 fWAR, 32.6 bWAR
.285/.384/.495, 1044 G, 4374 PA, 137 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
Almost all of Rosen’s career value came in the five seasons from 1950 to 1954, when he averaged 6.0 WAR per season while hitting .298/.396/.528, with 95 runs scored, 31 home runs, and 114 RBI per season. He led the league in home runs twice and RBI twice during this stretch and made the all-star team four times. He also won the 1953 MVP Award with an incredible 10.1 bWAR season (more than 3.5 WAR better than the next-best player). Over these five brilliant seasons, only two players were more valuable than Rosen—Stan Musial and Jackie Robinson.
Unfortunately for Rosen, and Cleveland fans of the time, his timing was terrible. Rosen was 18 years old in 1942, which was a rough time to be 18 years old in this country. He had just started to play professional baseball, but that was put on hold when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy to fight in World War II. Rosen spent four years in the Navy before leaving in 1946 as a lieutenant.
With the war over, Rosen returned to baseball as a 22-year-old and re-started his career at the Class-C level. He was promoted to Double-A in 1947 and even got into seven games with Cleveland at the end of the season after hitting .323 and slugging .600 in the minors. He seemed ready for big league play.
Alas, it was not to be. Cleveland had a very good third baseman holding down the position in Ken Keltner. Rosen spent almost all of the 1948 and 1949 seasons in Triple-A and continued to rake, but couldn’t crack the starting lineup with Keltner blocking him. He finally got his break when Keltner was traded before the 1950 season and he ran away with the job by hitting a league-leading and AL rookie-record 37 home runs. That was the first year of his great five-year stretch outlined above.
Along with Rosen’s career getting started late, it also ended early. He started to experience back pain in 1954 and was limited to 137 games. More injuries built up in 1955 and he once again missed about a dozen games, but he also was much worse when he did play. After being a well above average hitter for the previous five years, Rosen was just slightly above league average in 1955, then again in 1956. After dealing with injuries over the last few years of his career, he chose to retire.
Backup Outfielder—Larry Doby
(with Cleveland from 1947-1955, 1958)
45.0 fWAR, 43.4 bWAR
.286/.389/.500, 1235 G, 5079 PA, 140 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
Every April 15, Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson for breaking the modern color barrier. Players and umpires wear Robinson’s #42 and ceremonies are held around baseball to honor him. It’s a great thing to remember the man who was the first to break down the door that had kept many great African-Americans out of the white major leagues.
Unfortunately, it seems to get lost that Larry Doby joined the major leagues just a few months after Robinson and faced all of the same racist attitudes that Robinson faced. In Doby’s case, he couldn’t fight the racism with his play on the field because he hardly played during that first season. Maybe this was better because he wasn’t the focus point that Robinson was, but it’s likely that Doby would have liked the opportunity to prove he belonged that Robinson had. Doby had to wait a year to get significant playing time.
The 1948 season was a great one for Cleveland baseball. After a 27-year post-season drought, the team won 97 games, including a one-game playoff victory over Boston to make it to the World Series for the second time in franchise history. Doby was one of the team’s better players. He split time between centerfield and left field and most often batted second in the lineup. In the team’s World Series victory, Doby became the first African-American player to hit a home run in a World Series.
That was just a precursor to what was to come. Doby became a perennial all-star over the next seven years, making the AL squad every year from 1949 to 1955. During this stretch, he hit .286/.394/.505 and averaged 97 runs, 27 homers, and 95 RBI per season. Based on FanGraphs WAR, Doby was the fifth-best player in baseball during his peak.
After the 1955 season, Doby was traded to the Chicago White Sox, where he played for two years. In the off-season before the 1958 season, Doby was traded twice. The White Sox traded him to Baltimore and Baltimore then traded him to Cleveland. He was 34-years-old but was still an effective player with the team despite playing in just 89 games. He finished out his career with one final season split between Detroit and Chicago in 1959.
After his playing career was over, Doby was a hitting instructor and coach for major league teams, with the goal of being a major league manager. He finally got his chance when he took over the Chicago White Sox after Bob Lemon was fired in 1978. The White Sox were 37-50 under Doby. This managerial position made Doby the second African-American to manage a major league team.
Unfortunately, that was the only chance he got. He was not given a chance with the White Sox in 1979 and never got a manager’s job after, which was a disappointment to him. He would later say, “I can’t truly say what kind of manager I was or could’ve been because I didn’t have enough time. I thought I could have been successful. I thought I had those intangibles.”
Backup Outfielder—Kenny Lofton
(with Cleveland from 1992-1996, 1998-2001, 2007)
43.1 fWAR, 48.5 bWAR
.300/.375/.426, 1276 G, 5767 PA, 109 OPS+ (with Cleveland)
Kenny Lofton was much better than most people realize. It’s likely that a big part of the problem for Lofton is that he played for 11 different teams in his 17-year career. The majority of his career, 10 years, was played in Cleveland, but after he left the team he seemed to pop up everywhere. Perhaps if he had stayed in one spot for the majority of his career, he would be regarded differently.
As it is, Lofton was very good. According to Baseball-Reference WAR, Lofton is tied with Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk on the career WAR list, at 115th. He had more Wins Above Replacement than Ernie Banks, Roberto Alomar, Duke Snider, Craig Biggio, and many other Hall of Fame players. Per FanGraphs WAR, Lofton is the 15th-best centerfielder in baseball history, just behind Duke Snider and ahead of Max Carey, Andre Dawson, and Richie Ashburn.
Lofton got off to a bit of a late start to his career. He was 25 years old when he first got regular playing time in 1992. He was second in AL Rookie of the Year voting to Pat Listach, despite being worth 2.2 more Wins Above Replacement. Lofton led the AL in steals that year and would lead the league in steals for the next four seasons also. Starting in 1996, he appeared in six straight all-star games. He was the igniter on the very good offensive teams Cleveland had in the mid-1990s.
One of the most amazing games Lofton was part of happened on August 5, 2001. Cleveland was hosting the Seattle Mariners, who would go on to win 116 games that year. In this game, the Mariners jumped out to a 12-0 lead after three innings. Cleveland got two runs back in the bottom of the fourth but gave them right back in the top of the 5th. Down 14-2 going into the bottom of the seventh inning, it looked like a lost cause.
But it wasn’t. Russell Branyan led off the bottom of the seventh with a home run. Later in the inning, Jolbert Cabrera singled in Einer Diaz and Kenny Lofton to make it 14-5. Cleveland picked up four more runs in the bottom of the eighth, with Lofton picking up a single in the midst of the run scoring.
It was 14-9 going into the bottom of the ninth. Cleveland had the bases loaded with two outs when Einar Diaz singled in two runs to make it 14-11. Kenny Lofton followed with a single of his own to re-load the bases. Omar Vizquel then delivered the big blow, a triple to right field that scored three, including Lofton, with the tying run. The game Cleveland had once trailed 14-2 would go to extra innings.
Neither team scored in the 10th. John Rocker, of all people, pitched a scoreless top half of the 11th inning for Cleveland, setting the stage for the bottom of the inning. With one out, Lofton singled and Vizquel singled. Then Jolbert Cabrera singled to left to score Lofton with the game-winning run. Cleveland 15, Seattle 14.
Lofton was all over that comeback. He was 4-for-6, with one walk and three runs scored. Every time someone had a big hit, it seemed like Lofton was the one coming across the plate to score another run. That’s the Kenny Lofton I remember and he was a damn good player.
Starting Pitcher #1—Bob Feller
(with Cleveland from 1936-1941, 1945-1956)
62.4 fWAR, 65.2 bWAR
266-162, .621, 3.25 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 3827 IP, 122 ERA+ (with Cleveland)
Bob Feller grew up at a time in this country where a farm boy who dominated local competition could get noticed by a pro scout and sign a contract with a major league team as a teenager. This was long before the draft was created that assigns the best amateur players across the country to the MLB team that chooses him. Feller was signed when he was just 16 years old after pitching five no-hitters for his high school team. He had yet to finish his junior year in high school. Even before that success, Feller made waves when he was 11 years old and pitched against the high school team.
Incredibly, Bob Feller was pitching for Cleveland in the major leagues when he was just 17 years old. He was good too, albeit in just 14 games and 62 innings. His innings were limited again the following year, but he became a workhorse at the age of 19 when he pitched 277 2/3 innings and led the league in strikeouts, with 240.
This was just a sign of things to come. Over the next three years, Feller averaged 25 wins and 320 innings per year, with a 2.88 ERA. He finished in the top three in AL MVP voting all three years. He also became the only pitcher to throw a no-hitter on Opening Day, which he did on April 16, 1940.
After the 1941 season, Feller had just completed his age-22 year and already had 107 career wins. On December 7, 1941, Feller heard about the attack at Pearl Harbor and enlisted in the Navy. He spent more than three years serving our country and accumulated eight battle stars along the way. He returned to Cleveland to finish out the 1945 season with nine strong starts down the stretch.
In 1946, Feller was back to the dominant pitcher he’d been before the war. He led the league in wins, starts, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched, and strikeouts. The 371 1/3 innings he pitched were a career high, as were his 348 strikeouts. As crazy as it seems to fans of baseball today, Feller spent part of that off-season pitching during a barnstorming tour of players called “Bob Feller’s All-Stars” that played 34 games in 27 days. The opposing club was usually the “Satchel Paige All-Stars” and the Negro League legend often pitched against Feller for a few innings every game.
Feller continued to pitch well over the next two years. He led the league in wins in 1947 and led the league in strikeouts in 1947 and 1948. The 1948 team made the post-season for the second time in franchise history after winning a one-game playoff against the Boston Red Sox. Feller started two World Series games but lost them both and had a 5.02 ERA. Cleveland won the World Series anyway, beating the Boston Braves in six games.
As he turned 30, Feller slowed down a bit. He had pitched at least 277 innings in each of the last seven full seasons (excluding the war year of 1945), but pitched between 200 and 250 over the three years from 1949 to 1951. Still, he was 22-8 in 1951, leading the league in wins.
In 1952, Feller had an ugly year. He was 9-13 with a 4.74 ERA. He rebounded the following year when his workload was reduced. He essentially became a one-start-per-week pitcher in 1953 and 1954. That 1954 team was the best in franchise history, winning a team-record 111 games. Feller was 13-3 with a 3.09 ERA. Unfortunately, they were swept in the World Series and Feller never got a chance to pitch. He pitched two more seasons with Cleveland, but was no long the pitcher he’d once been.
After his playing career was over, Feller was the first president of the Major League Baseball Players Association and did some broadcasting. He was also a frequent participant at sports memorabilia events and enjoyed talking baseball with fans of all ages. When he was 72 years old, he participated in an MLB Old Timer’s Game, as shown in this video:
When the team opened Jacobs Field, they had a statue erected of Feller. The team currently has statues of Feller, Larry Doby, and Jim Thome, and will add Frank Robinson and Lou Boudreau this season.
Starting Pitcher #2—Stan Coveleski
(with Cleveland from 1916-1924)
43.7 fWAR, 55.3 bWAR
172-123, .583, 2.80 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 2502.3 IP, 129 ERA+ (with Cleveland)
Before joining Cleveland in 1916, Coveleski pitched in five games with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1912. Athletics manager Connie Mack sent Coveleski to the far reaches of the country in Spokane, Washington, to pitch in the Northwestern League and expected to be able to get Coveleski back when he was ready for the big leagues. Instead, after two seasons with Spokane Coveleski was traded to Portland of the Pacific Coast League. Cleveland purchased his contract from Portland before the 1916 season.
Coveleski was a spitball pitcher back when it was legal to throw the pitch. Part of the effectiveness of throwing a spitball is getting the hitter worried about when the pitch was coming. Like other spitballers, Coveleski made it appear that he was throwing it every pitch, even when he wasn’t. He would go to his mouth each time, but didn’t always throw the spitter. Many years later, Gaylord Perry would do something similar. Perry touched multiple parts of his body before every pitch to make the hitter think he was loading the ball up as part of the deception.
After spending three years in the minor leagues, Coveleski joined Cleveland as a fully-developed 200-plus innings per year starter. He had one of his best seasons in the team’s World Series-winning year of 1920. Coveleski was 24-14 with a 2.49 ERA in 315 innings and also led the league with 133 strikeouts. He then pitched three complete game victories in the team’s World Series win over Brooklyn. He allowed just two runs in 27 innings.
Three more good seasons followed that 1920 season, but Coveleski struggled in 1924, going 15-16 with a 4.04 ERA. It was the first time his ERA had been higher than 3.50 in his career. Despite many years of great pitching with Cleveland, he was traded in the off-season to the Washington Senators. He had two good years in Washington before his arm went bad and caused him to struggle through two final seasons.
It took more than 40 years, but Coveleski was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969 by the Veterans Committee. He’s also a member of the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame and had a minor league stadium named after him in South Bend, Indiana.
Starting Pitcher #3—Bob Lemon
(with Cleveland from 1946-1958)
32.8 fWAR, 37.5 bWAR
207-128, .618, 3.23 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 2850 IP, 119 ERA+ (with Cleveland)
Bob Lemon was signed as a 17-year-old just after graduating from high school in 1938. He spent most of the next five years in the minor leagues as a position player, including a season in Double-A in which he hit 21 homers and drove in 80 runs. In 1941 and 1942, he got into a handful of games in the major leagues as a third baseman.
Like many young players in the 1940s, Lemon’s career was interrupted by his military service in World War II. Lemon spent three years in the Navy before returning to play for Cleveland in 1946. After a strong spring training, he started the year playing centerfield and even made a great catch to help preserve the no-hitter by Bob Feller on Opening Day.
As much as he wanted to be an everyday position player, it wasn’t in the cards for Lemon. He only hit .180/.240/.247 in his first year and manager Lou Boudreau decided he would be more valuable as a pitcher. Lemon pitched mostly in relief that year and had a 2.49 ERA in 94 innings. He followed that up with another solid season starting and relieving in 1947.
The 1948 season was the coming out party for Lemon. He won 20 games and led the league with 293 2/3 innings, 20 complete games and 10 shutouts. He also won both of his World Series starts to help the team win the second World Series in franchise history. This season was the start of a nine-year stretch in which Lemon averaged 21 wins and 272 innings pitched per season, with a 3.16 ERA. He made the all-star team seven times and regularly picked up MVP votes. In the team’s 111-win season in 1954, Lemon was 23-11 and led the league in strikeouts.
Three years later, at the age of 36, decline came a-calling. Lemon’s final two seasons in Cleveland were full of struggles. He didn’t pitch much because he had a sore arm and he didn’t pitch all that well when he was able to pitch. His big league career as a player ended after the 1958 season.
Lemon went on to manage teams in the major and minor leagues, including some memorable stints with the New York Yankees of the late-1970s and early 1980s. These were the Bronx Zoo Yankees of George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and Reggie Jackson. In the middle of all the craziness was the calmness of Bob Lemon.
In 1976, Lemon was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He had his number retired by Cleveland in 1998. Even if he couldn’t make it as an outfielder, he did finish his career with 37 career home runs, one short of the record for pitchers held by Wes Ferrell.
Starting Pitcher #4—Mel Harder
(with Cleveland from 1928-1947)
48.3 fWAR, 47.9 bWAR
223-186, .545, 3.80 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 3426.3 IP, 113 ERA+ (with Cleveland)
Mel Harder was signed as an 18-year-old while pitching for a Class A team in 1928 and spent his first two big league seasons in the bullpen for Cleveland. He finally got a chance to start regularly in 1930 and began a stretch of 11 seasons in which he averaged 15 wins and 228 innings per season. He wasn’t flashy. He didn’t strike out a ton of guys and was more of a 15-win per year pitcher than a 20-win guy, but he was solid and dependable.
Major League Baseball began playing the mid-season All-Star Game in 1933. Harder pitched in four straight all-star games from 1934 to 1937. In the 1934 game that is most remembered for National League pitcher Carl Hubbell striking out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin in succession, it was Mel Harder of the American League who was the winning pitcher after throwing five scoreless innings. At the next year’s all-star game, Harder picked up the save for Lefty Gomez for three scoreless innings. He had two more scoreless innings in the 1936 All-Star Game and another save and three more scoreless innings in the 1937 game. In four all-star game appearances, Harder pitched 13 scoreless innings against the National League’s top hitters.
The latter part of Harder’s career was hindered by injuries. He averaged just 121 innings per year over the last seven years of his career. He retired as an active player after the 1947 season, but returned to the team as a pitching coach and helped the 1948 team to a World Series victory. He was also instrumental in the conversion of Bob Lemon from weak-hitting outfielder to a very good starting pitcher.
Harder’s influence as a pitching coach was considerable. He remained with Cleveland through the 1963 season and helped many pitchers through the years, including Early Wynn, Mike Garcia, Herb Score, Jim Perry, Tommy John, and Luis Tiant. He later coached with the Mets, Cubs, Reds, and Royals. Cleveland retired his number 18 on July 28, 1990.
Starting Pitcher #5—Early Wynn
(with Cleveland from 1949-1957, 1963)
32.3 fWAR, 35.8 bWAR
164-102, .617, 3.24 ERA, 1.27 WHP, 2286.7 IP, 119 ERA+ (with Cleveland)
Early Wynn was a veteran of eight big league seasons when Cleveland traded for him before the 1949 season. At the time, he had a career record of 72-87, with a 3.94 ERA. When he arrived in Cleveland, he worked with recently-retired pitcher Mel Harder, who had transitioned to a coaching role after retiring. Years later in an article in The Sporting News, Wynn credited Harder with helping him develop an effective curveball and slider, saying, “I could throw the ball when I came here but Mel made a pitcher out of me.”
In the next nine seasons with Cleveland, Wynn was 163-100 with a 3.27 ERA. This included four 20-win seasons. One of the enduring legacies of Early Wynn was his intimidating presence on the mound. He made sure everyone knew that he owned the plate and hitters shouldn’t get too comfortable. In his book A Season in the Sun, Roger Kahn wrote about Wynn pitching to his son during batting practice and brushing him back with an inside pitch.
Despite his reputation, Wynn never led the league in hit batters and usually only hit a handful of batters per season. He averaged one hit batter every 71 innings in his career. During the years he pitched, all pitchers averaged one hit batter every 52 innings, so Wynn hit batters less often than his peers.
Wynn’s first stint with Cleveland came to an end after he had a down year in 1957. He had won 60 games in the three previous seasons and had an ERA under 3.00 all three years, but went 14-17 with a 4.31 ERA in 1957 and the team thought he might be losing it at the age of 37. He was traded to the White Sox.
It turned out Cleveland may have been a bit hasty in trading him. He made the all-star team in his first three years with the White Sox and led the league in wins and innings pitched in 1959 and in shutouts in 1960. At this point, he was 16 wins away from 300 wins for his career and he made it clear to everyone that he intended to get to that magic number. He was 8-2 with a 3.51 ERA in 16 starts for the White Sox in 1961, but struggled with a 7-15, 4.46 ERA season in 1962 and the Sox figured he was done. They released him after the season, then invited him to spring training, but he didn’t make the team. He was one win short of his goal.
Wynn stayed in shape in the hopes that a team would give him a chance for his 300th victory. A few teams offered him one-game contracts, but he held out for a full year deal. A few months into the season, Cleveland signed him to a one-year deal. It took him four starts but he finally picked up win number 300 on July 13, 1963. Nine years later, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Starting Pitcher #6—Sam McDowell
(with Cleveland from 1961-1971)
45.6 fWAR, 42.3 bWAR
122-109, .528, 2.99 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 2109.7 IP, 119 ERA+ (with Cleveland)
Sam McDowell was a phenom as a high school pitcher in Los Angeles who struck out 162 batters in 63 innings in his senior year. Almost every team in baseball wanted to sign him, but Cleveland was the team that made the best offer, a $75,000 signing bonus, and McDowell signed on the bottom line.
The young pitcher had a tremendous arm but was also very wild. The control problems prevented McDowell from establishing himself in the big leagues as a regular in the rotation until 1964, after four years with seasons split between the major and minor leagues. When he finally got a regular turn in the rotation in 1964, he went 11-6 with a 2.70 ERA. He struck out 177 batters in 173 1/3 innings, while also walking 100 batters.
The next year brought more of the same. McDowell was 17-11 with a league-leading 2.18 ERA. He also led the league in strikeouts, with 325, and walks, with 132. In fact, McDowell would lead the league in strikeouts five times in the six years from 1965 to 1970 and would lead the league in walks five times in the seven years from 1965 to 1971.
When McDowell was on his game, he was brilliant. In the 1965 season in which he struck out 325 batters, McDowell had 17 games in which he struck out 10 or more batters, including two 10-inning outings in which he struck out 15 and 16 batters. In 1966, he struck out 14 hitters in just six innings. His impressive ability landed him on the cover of Sports Illustrated on May 23, 1966, with the caption, “Faster Than Koufax?” Two days later, he injured his arm. He may have been an early victim of the Sports Illustrated curse.
In the 1968 season that became known as the “Year of the Pitcher”, McDowell had a 1.81 ERA, but finished with a record of 15-14 because he got such poor run support from his offense. Amazingly, his 1.81 ERA wasn’t even the best in the league among starting pitchers. Luis Tiant led the AL with a 1.60 ERA. Overall, five AL starting pitchers had ERAs under 2.00.
McDowell had his last great season in 1970, when he was 20-12 with a 2.92 ERA. He led the league in innings, strikeouts, and walks. The next year, he held out during spring training, hoping to sign a big contract, but settling for an incentive-laden deal, which was illegal at the time. The contract was declared void by the commissioner in June and McDowell felt he should be a free agent and free to sign with any team. There was no free agency in those days, so McDowell was out of luck. He had to pitch for Cleveland or not pitch at all. He returned to the team, but wasn’t happy and ended up going 13-17 with a 3.40 ERA.
Cleveland traded McDowell to the San Francisco Giants for starting pitcher Gaylord Perry and shortstop Frank Duffy in November of 1971. McDowell was only 29 years old but developed a sore shoulder midway through the year and was limited to 164 1/3 innings. The arm problems would continue over the next three years and McDowell’s career ended after the 1975 season.
During his major league career, McDowell went from drinking socially to being a full-on alcoholic. Five years after his last big league season, he was in debt and living at home with his parents. He was able to overcome his alcoholism through treatment and eventually returned to baseball as a sports addiction counselor. It’s said that McDowell was the basis for the Sam Malone character portrayed by Ted Danson on the TV show Cheers.
Relief Pitcher #1—Doug Jones
(with Cleveland from 1986-1991, 1998)
11.0 fWAR, 10.7 bWAR
27-34, .443, 129 SV, 3.06 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 452.3 IP, 137 ERA+ (with Cleveland)
Doug Jones was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1978 and toiled in the minor leagues for a few years before getting into four games for the Brewers in 1982. They released him after the 1984 season and he signed as a free agent with Cleveland just before the start of the 1985 season.
After spending nine years mostly in the minor leagues, Jones finally got a full-time gig in the Cleveland bullpen in 1987 and posted a 3.15 ERA in 91 1/3 innings. He wasn’t a closer yet, but would become the team’s closer for three all-star seasons from 1988 to 1990. This was the best stretch of pitching of his career. He averaged 83 innings and 37 saves per season, with a 2.39 ERA. He even got way down ballot MVP votes in two of those years (which is silly, but he did).
Then, suddenly, he lost his mojo in 1991. His ERA more than doubled and he was removed as the team’s closer. He was released at the end of the season. The Houston Astros signed him and he bounced around the major leagues for the next six seasons until eventually making his way back to Cleveland in the second half of the 1998 season. The 41-year-old Jones was no longer the closer, but he did pitch well enough to have a 3.45 ERA in 31 1/3 innings. Once again, though, Cleveland released him at the end of the season. He signed with Oakland and pitched two more years before hanging up the spikes for good.
Unlike many closers in baseball history, Jones was not an intimidating fireballer on the mound. He succeeded with his best pitch being a changeup that kept hitters off balance. He wasn’t a big strikeout guy, but limited walks and home runs allowed enough to be effective for many years.
Relief Pitcher #2—Jose Mesa
(with Cleveland from 1992-1998)
6.2 fWAR, 10.5 bWAR
33-36, .478, 104 SV, 3.88 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 647.3 IP, 116 ERA+ (with Cleveland)
Jose Mesa (Joe Table) pitched for eight different major league teams, but spent more years with Cleveland than with any other team. He was the team’s closer during their strong run of success in the mid-1990s after coming over in a trade from the Baltimore Orioles. When he first came to Cleveland, Mesa was a starting pitcher. He would be a starter in his first year-and-a-half with Cleveland before being shifted to the bullpen after the 1993 season.
In 1994, Mesa was in the bullpen, but not yet the closer. That would happen in 1995 and Mesa ran with the job by earning a league-leading 46 saves to go with a 1.13 ERA in 64 innings. His impressive season earned him a spot on the all-star team, a second place finish in the AL Cy Young Race, and a fourth place finish in the AL MVP voting. He was a key part of a team that went all the way to the World Series, which they would lose to the Atlanta Braves.
Mesa had another all-star season in 1996 when he saved 39 games, but his ERA jumped from 1.13 to 3.73. The next season, 1997, his saves total dropped to 16. He also had a moment during the World Series that Cleveland fans will remember for a long time. The team had a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the ninth of Game 7. They were looking to win their first World Series since 1948. Unfortunately, Mesa couldn’t hold the lead. He gave up a single, got a strikeout, then allowed another single. A sacrifice fly from Craig Counsell tied the score. Cleveland would go on to lose the game and the series in the bottom of the 11th on a single by Edgar Renteria off of Charles Nagy.
In the middle of the 1998 season, Mesa was traded to the San Francisco Giants and would meander around the big leagues for the next 10 years. When former teammate Omar Vizquel harshly criticized Mesa for blowing the save in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series, Mesa reacted strongly, saying, “If I face him 10 more times, I’ll hit him 10 times. I want to kill him.” Mesa beaned Vizquel the next two times he faced him, but faced him three times after that and didn’t hit him again.
Relief Pitcher #3—Eric Plunk
(with Cleveland from 1992-1998)
6.1 fWAR, 10.0 bWAR
36-23, .610, 26 SV, 3.25 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 462 IP, 140 ERA+ (with Cleveland)
Deciding on the relief pitchers for Cleveland’s all-time 25-man roster was difficult. Saves is the stat relief pitchers are most known for, but they are more a product of opportunity than performance. The team’s all-time leader in saves is Bob Wickman, but Wickman wasn’t as valuable as many other relievers for the franchise who didn’t get many save opportunities. Eric Plunk is one such reliever.
Plunk joined Cleveland as a free agent before the 1992 season. He would go on to pitch six-and-a-half years with the team, mostly as a setup man. He was good setup, man, though, particularly during a four-year stretch from 1993 to 1996 when he had a 2.60 ERA in 283 2/3 innings. He helped the team make the playoffs in 1995 and 1996, although he struggled in the post-season.
Plunk’s ERA blew up in 1997 to 4.66 as his walk rate rose to 4.9 BB/9 and he was rocked for 12 home runs in 65 2/3 innings. When he started the 1998 season with a 4.83 ERA in his first 41 innings, he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for Doug Jones (previously of Cleveland). He pitched for another year-and-a-half with Milwaukee before being released for good after the 1999 season.
As a pitcher, Plunk had a high-90s fastball early in his career, but struggled with control. By the time he got to Cleveland, the fastball was more mid-90s, but his control was better. He was a tall guy, 6’5”, and one of the few players in baseball history to wear glasses.
Relief Pitcher #4—Cody Allen
(with Cleveland from 2012-present)
6.1 fWAR, 7.0 bWAR
17-16, .515, 92 SV, 2.61 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 306.3 IP, 159 ERA+ (with Cleveland)
Allen slips onto this list because he’s been very good with Cleveland in his career and I expect he’ll bump past the relievers who have arguably had more value than Allen so far. With 92 career saves, Allen is currently sixth on the team’s all-time list, but could easily jump to fourth place this year and has a chance to move up to as high as second place.
It took a couple years after reaching the big leagues for Allen to earn the closer’s role. He sat behind Chris Perez in 2012 and 2013, despite putting up above average seasons, then led the team in saves for the first time in 2014. He’s since led the team in saves in each of the last two seasons, while also extending his streak of seasons with an ERA under 3.00 to four straight.
During the team’s run to the World Series last year, Allen was a steady rock in the bullpen who was overshadowed by the flexible brilliance of Andrew Miller. Both pitchers were very good in the bullpen during the post-season. Allen pitched 13 2/3 post-season innings without allowing a run. He also struck out 25 batters and picked up six saves.
Armed with a 94 mph hour fastball and an 84 mph curve, Allen ranks fifth in strikeouts per nine innings among AL relievers with more than 200 innings over the last five years. With Cleveland the favorite to win the AL Central this year, Allen should continue to lock down games and help the team make the playoffs.
Hypothetical Closer: Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn
Ricky Vaughn was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of a Malibu, California, high school in 1984 where he was as much known for his awesome mullet as for his blazing fastball. In 1986, he met Jean Bueller, the younger sister of Ferris, at a police station, but the romance didn’t develop beyond their initial meeting.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last time Vaughn was spotted at a police station. After starting four games in the minor leagues in 1987, Vaughn was arrested for grand theft auto and sent to prison, where he would participate in the California Penal League. He became well known for his still blazing fastball and his interesting haircut that looked like an Edward Scissorhands Special.
Vaughn’s fortunes would turn when former exotic dancer Rachel Phelps purchased the Cleveland Indians in order to stock the team with rejects in the hopes of triggering a “poor attendance” clause that would allow the team to move to a new city. Vaughn was among the “rejects” on the team, along with Willie Mays Hayes, Roger Dorn, Jake Taylor, Pedro Cerrano, and Eddie Harris. After struggling with his control initially, Vaughn turned into a solid closer down the stretch and helped the team make it all the way to a one-game playoff against the New York Yankees. When Vaughn came into the game, the crowd went nuts.
The team lost that playoff game, but the excitement created by Vaughn and his teammates prevented the team from being moved. They tried to catch the same magic again the next year, but even though the team eventually played well they didn’t seem as interesting or entertaining.
Vaughn pitched for a few years in the big leagues, then hit it big writing commercial jingles while living in Malibu with his brother Alan and Alan’s son Jake. Things worked out well at first, but Vaughn grew increasingly erratic and would leave Malibu and embark on a very bizarre series of events that are still inexplicable when looking back. He was last seen feuding with Rihanna.
Super Scout: Cy Slapnicka
While researching the players on the all-time 25-man roster for Cleveland, the name of scout Cy Slapnicka kept coming up. Slapnicka played professional baseball for many years, but only had parts of two seasons in the major leagues. When his career as a player ended in 1920, he began working as a scout for Cleveland, a position he would hold for many years.
Slapnicka’s most famous signing was Bob Feller, but he also signed many other great players during his career as a scout, including Lou Boudreau, Mel Harder, Ken Keltner, Roger Maris, Herb Score, and Hal Trosky. This was long before the amateur draft was instituted in 1965 and scouting in those days was a rogue operation. The few rules that were in place were often bended and sometimes broken. Slapnicka played this game as well as anyone.
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Feller was not only the most famous signing by Slapnicka, it was also the most controversial. Feller was just 16 years old when Splanicka signed him to a contract for $1 and an autographed baseball. At the time, MLB teams were barred from signing a player that young to a major league contract. After signing, Feller was put on the roster of a team in Fargo of the Northern League, then sent to a minor league team in New Orleans, which was another team in Cleveland’s organization. He didn’t pitch for either team, though, and was moved up to Cleveland at the end of the school year.
The owner of a team in Des Moines, Lee Keyser, who had originally tried to sign Feller, objected to what Cleveland had done with Feller. They very obviously broke the rules. Keyser appealed to baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, which spurred an investigation. Ultimately, Landis ruled that Cleveland would keep the rights to Feller, but had to pay Des Moines a penalty fee. The main reason Landis made this decision is because Feller and his father told Landis the pitcher wanted to stay with Cleveland.
Slapnicka spent more than 50 years in baseball, as a player, manager, general manager, and scout. He signed 31 players who would become major leaguers.
Next: Indians 2017 Team Preview
Cleveland All-Time 25-Man Roster:
Starting Lineup
RF Shoeless Joe Jackson
CF Tris Speaker
2B Nap Lajoie
1B Jim Thome
LF Albert Belle
DH Earl Averill
3B Ken Keltner
C Victor Martinez
SS Lou Boudreau
Bench
C Steve O’Neill
1B Hal Trosky
SS Joe Sewell
3B Al Rosen
OF Larry Doby
OF Kenny Lofton
Starting Rotation
SP Bob Feller
SP Stan Coveleski
SP Bob Lemon
SP Mel Harder
SP Early Wynn
SP Sam McDowell
Relievers
RP Doug Jones
RP Jose Mesa
RP Eric Plunk
RP Cody Allen
Fictional Reliever Ricky Vaughn
Longtime Scout Cy Slapnicka
Just Missed the Cut (the next 10 players)
C Carlos Santana
SS Ray Chapman
SS Omar Vizquel
3B Terry Turner
OF Manny Ramirez
OF Elmer Flick
SP Addie Joss
SP Mike Garcia
SP CC Sabathia
SP Willis Hudlin