Cleveland Indians: Why its time to sell and restock the farm system
The Cleveland Indians have vastly underperformed compared to last season’s iteration, so is it now time for them to sell the farm?
The Cleveland Indians, second place in the AL Central and 10 1/2 games behind the surging Minnesota Twins will face a crucial question in the coming weeks.
Is it time to give up on the season and start looking to the future, or do we continue with how the team is currently constructed?
Let’s take a deeper dive into how the Cleveland Indians are so far this season, through 65 games. As far as team pitching, they are 8th in the Majors with a 3.98 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP. They have also 20 saves out of 23 save opportunities.
This is surprising as team ace, Corey Kluber has only made 7 starts, Carlos Carrasco is on the IL and Mike Clevinger has only made 2 starts. With those injuries the pitching staff has been anchored by Trevor Bauer (3.93 ERA) and Shane Bieber (4.07 ERA).
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Luckily they haven’t had any issues in the bullpen with closer Brand Hand a perfect 19 for 19 in save opportunities. With all of these injuries, you would think the issue is with the guys on the hill, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The offense has been cold since the beginning of the season, ranking 28th in the Majors with a team batting average line of .227/.311/.386. Even though Francisco Lindor missed roughly the team’s first 20 games, he is leading the team with a .298/.366/.536 line.
Unfortunately the team lost Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Ramirez has severely regressed this season hitting a career-low .203/.299/.301. The offense has not been a pretty sight at all so far this season and the team is lucky they have a winning record at this point.
Now to the question of if they should sell and replenish their farm system. In my opinion with 97 games left it is too early to tell. The next month will be very telling.
Next. Taillon calls out umpires after Monday's game. dark
If they fall much further behind the Twins it will most definitely be time to throw in the towel and get what they can get out of the players they have on the roster.