Cleveland Indians up to No. 8 in ESPN power rankings

The Cleveland Indians are continuing to trend in the right direction and recently moved up one spot in ESPN’s MLB power rankings.

Cleveland Indians fans did not see a great series over the weekend, but the team did end the week on a positive note with a big win over the Kansas City Royals.

And after taking a four-game series against the Oakland Athletics, the Indians saw a slight jump up ESPN’s MLB power rankings.

The Indians rose up one spot to No. 8 on the list which is firmly dominated by the Houston Astros. But for now, No. 8 isn’t too bad.

From the article:

"Corey Kluber was excellent in his return from the DL on Thursday, needing just 77 pitches for six scoreless innings and 10 strikeouts against the A’s. But after a brilliant April, Carlos Carrasco has not pitched well lately, and the rest of Cleveland’s starters have been disappointing (Trevor Bauer’s 14-K game aside). The good news is the Tribe’s offense has been great over the past two weeks, and their bullpen continues to be the best in the bigs. The surprise is that they might need to add a starter to push them over the top. — Michael Bonzagni, ESPN Stats & Information"

Corey Kluber‘s return is huge for this team, and will hopefully be enough to help the staff reach preseason expectations. Putting Danny Salazar in the bullpen was a frustrating move, but perhaps Mike Clevinger can provide some more consistent work.

And while the offense has been better, the group is still not where it needs to be. The injuries in the outfield have not helped establish consistency in the lineup, but players like Edwin Encarnacion, Carlos Santana and even Francisco Lindor need to get back to playing at a high level for this team to make the jump from around .500 to well over the mark.

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This was around the time last year when the Indians made that jump and went two weeks without losing a game, so hopefully another stretch of dominance is right around the corner. The current record of 29-26 is nice, but the Astros have set the bar in the American League, and the Indians need to make a run for the top spot.

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