Cleveland Indians: Five expectations for the 2019 season

The Cleveland Indians open the season as a favorite to make the postseason in 2019. While they lost many contributors from the past few years of successful teams, they have a lot of promise still remaining and expectations should be high.

The Cleveland Indians team looks a lot different from 2018 to now. They did, however, make some additions that should help them stay on top of the division and make it to the 2019 postseason.

The team still possesses one of, if not, the best rotations in all of baseball. That alone will keep them in many games this season.

With the bullpen having one of the worst seasons they have had in a long while, the additions they have made there look to help turn that around this year. They have a good mix of young guys and veteran leaders in both the pitching staff and the lineup to keep the dugout balanced and motivated.

The Indians fell short of expectations last season after an embarrassing divisional round exit. Expectations vary from fans to front office to media, but here are five expectations that the team can live up to in 2019.

Win the division

The Indians have won the AL central division each of the last three seasons. There is nothing to suggest they cannot do this again for a fourth straight crown in 2019.

The pitching staff returns fully intact and one through five they are one of the top rotations in baseball. With a top pitching staff, the pressure isn’t on the lineup to score 10 runs a game.

The lineup does, however, need to give that rotation some support. As we saw in 2018 with Mets starter Jacob DeGrom, run support is still needed no matter how well you pitch.

The Indians lineup has enough balance to be able to score runs and help their rotation control games every game. They have a good mix of speed and power as well as speed to control the base paths.

The rest of the division did not do much to get better. The Twins look to be the biggest threat but baseball always has surprises and a young team like the White Sox could surge into the discussion. Regardless, the Indians have the best team in the division and there is no reason they shouldn’t win the division in 2019.