Cleveland Indians smart to keep coaching staff intact

The Cleveland Indians have no plans to make changes to the coaching staff before the 2019 season, and that should be seen as a good thing.

It is easy for Cleveland Indians fans to demand changes after yet another early postseason exit. But sometimes the changes would just be made due to emotions, and not logic.

An article on Indians.com by Jordan Bastian explained how the Indians have no plans to fire anyone on the coaching staff before next season. The only way anyone goes is if they get hired by another team.

I love this.

Terry Francona made his feelings clear in the article:

"“That’s a reaction,” Francona said of making any changes to his staff. “That, to me, is a very reactionary move. It’s a small sample. And it hurt like crazy losing, yet we were probably in the upper tier in just about every offensive category.”"

There are always calls to fire the hitting coach when the offense struggles, or fire the pitching coach when the staff isn’t doing well. But it ultimately comes down to the players.

I’ll use Jose Ramirez as an example in this case. He had what was arguably an MVP season for most of the regular season. Then he struggled late and was nonexistent in the playoffs. There is only so much a coach can do for a guy with such natural talent. Once he steps up to the plate, it is on him.

It’s not like the Indians are a backward organization with the coaches shunning analytics and telling the batters to just spit on their gloves and chop at the ball. This is a well-run organization and Francona has surrounded himself with coaches he trusts.

As a fan, I would much rather have a group that Francona knows well and trusts than a group of people hastily put together because of reactionary moves.

Losing in the postseason is painful and I am still not over it. However, this team had flaws all season long, with a lot of those flaws falling on the front office and just the team’s budget in general.

And when it comes to the blame game, sometimes we have to look at our darlings such as Ramirez and realize that it just wasn’t there this time around.