History in the Making: Reaching The Cleveland Indians All-Time Top 20

Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Are there any current Cleveland Indians that could crack the franchise top 20 in WAR?

If you’ve ever visited Baseball Reference’s franchise encyclopedia pages, you’ll have seen their top 20 players in franchise history by WAR, their head shots lined up at the top of the page.. It’s a neat little snapshot of the history of the team no matter its age. It’s usually mostly black and white shots, whether Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig for the Yankees or Ty Cobb for the Tigers though the collection of randos for the Rays or Rockies is a nice change of pace too. For the most part,though, it’s a list of the legends of the team, guys we’ve read about in the history books and heard about in the Ken Burns documentaries, along with a dash or two of color from more modern players.

The Indians, for instance, have Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker and Bob Feller leading the pack, a lot more grey faces, then Kenny Lofton and Jim Thome back to back at seven and eight. Mostly it’s black and white, though Sam McDowell is sitting looking constipated at 14th with his 47 WAR. There’s no Manny or Roberto Alomar, any of the other studs from the 90’s, since they amassed their WAR elsewhere, and nobody from the most recent run back in 2007 since everyone got hurt and left. The last guy on the list, Bill Bradley, last suited up as a Cleveland Nap and earned 34 WAR. He also had the ability to be photographed like Bigfoot.

The lineup needs a bit of color though. It’s too monochrome, it needs some pizazz. There must be someone on the team right now, so rife with youth and talent, to work their way onto the list and cast Bradley and maybe Shoeless Joe Jackson (also 34 WAR before leaving for Chicago) down into the pit of anonymity. Well, Shoeless Joe might still stick around, but Bradley and Wes Farrell (36 WAR)? With respect to their family, they’re rather superfluous. Who has the best shot to unseat them, though?

Just a note, I’m using Baseball Reference WAR for this. I find their site easier to navigate, and anyway that’s the WAR their Franchise Top 20 uses.

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