Cleveland Indians enter 2018 with incredibly high playoff probability

The Cleveland Indians figure to have an easy road back to the postseason in 2018, hopefully picking up a third consecutive AL Central pennant.

The Cleveland Indians are in a great spot, even after two disappointing postseason finishes. But hey, postseason finishes are better than ending the year in September.

Unlike the Kansas City Royals, who are potentially losing a great deal of talent this offseason, the Indians enter 2018 poised to be playing in October once again, fresh off another AL Central title.

Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.com went through and calculated win projections for each MLB team in 2018, along with playoff and championship probabilities.

Doolittle projects the Indians to win 101.3 games, with a 98 percent chance of making the playoffs and a 12.8 percent chance of winning it all.

From the article:

"As mentioned, the Indians’ early projection gets a tremendous boost from a schedule heavy with weak divisional opposition in Detroit, Chicago and Kansas City. Still, with Jay Bruce and Carlos Santana on the market and Edwin Encarnacion‘s age creeping upward, you’d like to see Cleveland land another impact bat."

These projections don’t factor in roster upgrades that could happen between now and the start of the season, so it is possible the projections could increase between now and then. However, a  projection of over 101 wins is tough to top.

As with power rankings, win projections don’t mean much for fans who know anything can happen during the season. However, these projections aren’t made randomly. The Indians will be returning most of the team’s talent from 2018 and barring any major injuries or regression, they will be back in the postseason once again.

Next: Top 10 wins from 2017

Add Carlos Santana to this team along with a healthy Michael Brantley and there is no reason why this team won’t roll through the AL Central. Let’s just hope the team doesn’t need to rely on a historic win streak to get that easy division title.