2020 record - 35-25, 2nd place in AL Central
Key Addition - Eddie Rosario
Eddie Rosario switches teams after the Minnesota Twins non-tendered the outfielder, making him a free agent. The Twins' loss is the Indians' gain and they will be happy to see him on their side after how well he has hit off Indians' pitchers in his career. In 93 career games playing against the Indians, Rosario hit .301, 22 HR with 47 RBI.
From what we can gather, the decision to non-tender him was an effort by the Twins to cut costs rather than poor performance, but Cleveland will happily take a 1 year $8m deal for the 29 year old.
The outfield was a major issue for Cleveland in 2020. Last season, their outfielders hit a total of 11 home runs. Combined. Eddie Rosario hit 13 homers himself with a .257 average and 1.1 WAR.
Rosario looks set to be the starting left fielder at Progressive Field and be towards the top of the batting order all season long. We think that he bats around .270, with 25 HR and 90 RBI.
Just missed out - Andres Gimenez
Key Departure - Francisco Lindor
This is a no-brainer. Cleveland traded away their star player to the Mets in a deal which means they get some return for the shortstop who would almost certainly been too expensive for the Indians to re-sign when his contract ran out at the end of this season.
The whole Cleveland being a small market team argument is one we'll not get into too deeply here, but in our opinion, there is no reason why Cleveland wouldn't have the resources to re-sign Lindor. Just look at what San Diego has been doing with a similar market size. Though admittedly, the Padres are the only major sports team in San Diego right now and the effects of the pandemic probably won't ben fully known for a while.
So the Cleveland Indians traded away 2 fan favourites in Lindor and Carlos Carrasco - a truly inspirational player who returned to the Major Leagues twice after battling Tommy John surgery in 2011 and leukemia in 2019.
The return Cleveland received from the Mets wasn't bad, the highlight being the speedy infielder Andres Gimenez. But you can't trade away a player like Francisco Lindor and be a better team as a result.
Cleveland fans will be hoping that their return from the Mets will allow them to be competitive in future years but the trade makes them less likely to contend in 2021.
Just missed out - Brad Hand, Carlos Carrasco, Carlos Santana
Notable rookie cards - Daniel Johnson, Triston McKenzie
Cleveland have two rookie representatives in the 2021 Topps Series 1 set.
Daniel Johnson had a cup of coffee in the big leagues last season where he struggled in the very small sample size of 13 plate appearances over 5 games.
Johnson came over to the Indians in the Yan Gomes trade in 2018. He has put up good numbers throughout the minors, particularly at AAA Columbus in 2019 where he hit .306 in 84 games. He'll likely start the season at triple A but we fully expect him to be called up again at some point this season.
Triston McKenzie is number 2 on the Indians top prospect list and 51st overall according to MLB Pipeline. He made an excellent first impression in Cleveland in 2020, when he pitched 33.1 innings with a 3.24 ERA as both a starter and reliever.
McKenzie has 4 above average pitches, including an excellent curveball and we expect him to be in Cleveland's rotation on Opening Day and to eventually be a #2 starter.
Predicted 2021 Team MVP - Shane Bieber
This was a bit of a toss up for us between the pitcher who chose "Not Justin" as his nickname on players weekend and Jose Ramirez.
We ended up picked Bieber because we think that Jose Ramirez has a higher chance of being traded this year. That's far from a certainty though because Ramirez has 2 years of team options for '22 & '23 which will be relatively cheap for Cleveland to pick up ($11m & $13m).
That's not to take anything away from Shane Bieber though, who had an incredible 2020 season where he finished with a record of 8-1, 122 strikeouts and an ERA of 1.63. Needless to say, he won the 2020 AL Cy Young award unanimously and he finished 4th in MVP voting which is very difficult for a pitcher to do.
While we aren't expecting an ERA as low as that in 2021, we certainly think that 15 wins, an ERA in the low 3's and 250 K's are realistic targets for him which would put him in the conversation for the Cy Young Award for the third straight year.
Just missed out - Jose Ramirez
Player to watch for the future - Nolan Jones
Nolan Jones is the top prospect in the Indians' farm system and 36th overall according to MLB Pipeline. The 22 year old was drafted in the 2nd round in 2016 and he has made 3B his home throughout his minor league journey so far.
He made it as high as AA Akron in 2019 but, as was the case for so many prospects, the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season deprived us of seeing him develop at a higher level.
He has shown a lot of promise so far in the minor leagues, especially in terms of his raw power and ability to take walks. He'll likely start the season at AAA, which will give him the opportunity to work on hitting left handed pitching which he has struggled with in professional baseball.
We expect that he'll be called up to Cleveland when the rosters expand in September and that he'll be in the Indians' line-up for a many years to come.
Storyline to keep an eye on - What will the team be known as next year?
In a similar story to the Washington Football Team, formerly known as the Washington Redskins, the Cleveland Indians have formally announced that this will be the last season by which they will use the Indians nickname. A long overdue decision in the wake of mounting pressure from fans and Native American groups, Cleveland will have a new nickname in 2021.
We don't expect them to down the same route as the WFT and use "The Cleveland Baseball Team" as a stop-gap, but instead expect them to hit the ground running with a new nickname right from the start of next year.
The big question, though, is what will that nickname be?
The smart money seems to be on a name which links back to Cleveland's long and storied baseball history, with the Cleveland Spiders being a favourite. Other options from history are the Cleveland Naps, the Cleveland Blues and the Cleveland Infants. Although it's probably safe to assume that they won't choose the latter.
Other ideas floated around include the Cleveland Rockers (a nod to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame), the Cleveland Buckeyes (in reference to Ohio being known as the Buckeye State) and the Cleveland Aviators (acknowledging Ohio being the birthplace of the Wright brothers).
We're fans of the Spiders coming out on top, but time will tell.
Prediction for 2021 - 3rd in the AL Central
Cleveland appear destined for a season of relative mediocrity. They are unlikely to challenge the big spending White Sox or the power hitting Twins. But at the same time, they have more talent than the Royals and Tigers.
We expect them to finish closer to the top of the division than the bottom of it though. We think that their playoff hopes rest on MLB initiating another expanded postseason But if things stay as they are, then we think that they'll miss out and finish around .500.
Do you agree with our predictions? Or have we got them horribly wrong?
Let us know in the comments or on twitter.
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