Cleveland Indians: Ranking potential playoff opponents by desirability

With just 15 games left in the 2020 regular season, here’s a look at the potential playoff opponents would be most and least desirable to match up with for the Cleveland Indians.

While the Cleveland Indians offense has been anemic at times and the club is in a three-team race in the AL Central standings, the Tribe is almost guaranteed to clinch a playoff spot in 2020.

The Indians currently are 26-19 this season and are locked into the seventh seed in the eight-team AL postseason, which would put them on pace for a potential first round matchup with the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field.

While the Indians would face off with the Rays if the season ended today, there’s a world of possibilities when it comes to their potential postseason opponents.

Cleveland is just a game and a half out of second place in the AL Central and two and a half games out of first place. The team still has two more games with the second-place Twins this season and four more with the first-place White Sox, meaning they can rise in the standings and improve their postseason positioning.

Which potential playoff opponents would be most and least desirable for the Indians to face-off with in a three-game wild card series? Here’s a look at how they rank from least to most desirable for Cleveland.

The worst potential postseason opponent for the Cleveland Indians would be who they’re currently slated to face off with in the Tampa Bay Rays.

Cleveland’s offense has struggled to score runs all season as entering play Saturday; they rank 27th in baseball in team batting average (.225) and 25th in runs scored (180).

That makes Tampa a nightmare matchup in a three-game playoff series for Cleveland due to the Rays starting pitching trio.

Whoever faces the Rays in the three-game wild card round will be faced with the daunting task of facing Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Charlie Morton and then a bullpen that former Indians bullpen coach and Rays manager Kevin Cash described as a “stable of guys that throw 98 (MPH).”

While the two teams will not matchup in the 2020 regular season due to the COVID-19 scheduling, previous history is not in Cleveland’s favor either as in 2019, the Rays went 6-1 against the Indians, which included a sweep at Tropicana Field.

Facing the pesky and pitching heavy Rays should be a terrifying task for any team, but asking an Indians offense that was nearly no-hit by Royals rookie Brady Singer is nearly impossible to imagine them scoring enough runs to win a three-game series.

It’s been an up and down season for the New York Yankees in 2020. The Bombers started the year 8-1 and after 22 games were 16-6 when a wrath of the injury bug hit.

Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu, former Indian Gio Urshela and several others have all spent time on the injured list this season, but now the team is finally getting healthy and as a result, are playing better baseball.

The Yankees have won each of their last four games, have gotten dominating pitching performances from Gerrit Cole, Masahiro Tanaka and rookie Deivi Garcia and are expected to be back to full health by next weekend.

When healthy, the Yankees have perhaps the AL’s deepest lineup with five all-stars and the current AL home run leader in Luke Voit and with a starting staff of Cole, Tanaka who is among the best postseason pitchers in the game and a promising rookie in Garcia could be a tough matchup for Cleveland to handle.

In 2017, the Yankees ended the 102-win Indians season in the ALDS after holding them to a combined five runs in the final three games of the series.

New York’s roster and pitching staff have improved since Cleveland’s offense has weakened, which makes facing a healthy Yankee team a potential matchup nightmare for the Tribe.

The fear of the Chicago White Sox young nucleus forming into baseball’s next super team appears to be coming true for the Indians.

Entering play Saturday, Chicago holds a 1.5 game lead over Minnesota and 2.5 game lead over the Indians for first place in the AL Central as their offense has raked and starting pitching continues to impress.

The White Sox rank fifth in baseball in runs scored behind a mix of young stars such as Luis Robert, Eloy Jimenez and Yoan Moncada and solid veterans such as Jose Abreu, Yasmani Grandal and Edwin Encarnacion.

As for the starting rotation, Lucas Giolito continues to develop into an ace as he is 4-2 with a 3.43 ERA and tossed a no-hitter this season. Behind him, Chicago has a former Cy-Young Award winner and World Series champion in Dallas Keuchel and promising right-hander Dylan Cease who has posted a 3.93 ERA so far this season.

The one weak spot for the White Sox is their bullpen that ranks 17th in the majors in ERA, but that doesn’t mean this would be a desirable matchup for the Indians.

Giolito and Keuchel both eat-innings and could shutdown the Indians lackluster offense for seven to eight innings, which could put the Tribe into an 0-2 hole quickly.

Even if Shane Bieber and whoever the Indians select as their second starter are able to battle them pitch for pitch, Cleveland’s bullpen has struggled of late, meaning a battle of the bullpens may not be as big of an advantage in a series with Chicago as once thought.

The Indians have far more postseason experience than the White Sox as a whole, but they still would not be an ideal opponent in a three-game series due to their offense that can attack anyone and top of the rotation combo that’s as good as anyone in the AL.

2020 has not been kind to the defending AL champion Houston Astros. Through 45 games, the Astros are just 22-23 this season and trail the A’s by seven games in the AL West.

Despite this, Houston should find themselves in October as they hold a 2.5 game lead for second place in the division over a rebuilding Seattle Mariners ball club.

Houston has been ravaged by injuries this season and continue to deal with the distraction brought on by their 2017 sign-stealing scandal but still would not be the top choice for the Indians in a three-game playoff series.

Two-time Cy-Young Award winner Justin Verlander is expected back for the postseason, which would give Houston a three-man rotation of Verlander, Zack Greinke who also owns a Cy-Young and either Framber Valdez who has posted a 3.61 ERA in seven starts this season or Lance McCullers who has postseason experience.

Offensively, the Astros have seen their stars underperform, but it’s hard not to fear a battle tested offense that includes Alex Bregman, Jose Altuve, George Springer, Michael Brantley and Carlos Correa.

The weakest link for the Astros is their bullpen, who is without closer Roberto Osuna for the rest of the season; thus, if the Indians can do just enough against the Astros starters and get into the pen, they should be able to find ways to win.

These aren’t the same Astros that have won at least 100 games each of the past three seasons, but they are a club that just needs to get in to make noise making them only semi-desirable for Cleveland as a potential first round opponent.

The Minnesota Twins are well on their way to their third postseason berth of the past four seasons’ but that doesn’t mean the Indians should fear their division foe.

While the Twins lead the season series 5-3 over Cleveland, the Indians matchup better in a three-game postseason series due to their pitching.

Cleveland can roll out Bieber in game one and other strong arms such as Zach Plesac, Triston McKenzie, Carlos Carrasco or Aaron Civale in the next two games while the Twins rotation is full of question marks outside of Kenta Maeda.

Minnesota’s bullpen has posted a 4.17 ERA and have seen closer Taylor Rogers struggle leaving them without a reliable option to close out games with the pressure high.

By far the Twins biggest strength is their offense that can hit the ball out of the yard better than anyone in the majors but if the Indians starting rotation can continue to perform at their MLB best pace, they should have enough to keep Minnesota in the yard and allow their offense to chip away at the Twins shaky rotation.

While the Twins still present several challenges that would make them a tough out, the Indians matchup nicely with them and have the talent to win a three-game playoff series over their division foe.

By far, the most desirable postseason opponent for the Indians would be the young and upcoming Toronto Blue Jays.

Toronto’s rebuild has run a year ahead of schedule due to their outstanding offensive attack and a young bullpen that have exceeded expectations, but they don’t quite have the depth or experience needed to make a deep playoff run.

Their offense has almost no postseason experience and would likely have trouble against Bieber and the Indians filthy starting rotation.

As for their pitching, Toronto’s starting rotation outside of Hyun-jin Ryu have struggled and will be counting on veteran arms such as Tanner Roark and Robbie Ray to return to form as solid mid-rotation options.

While there’s been a lot to like from the Toronto bullpen, former closer Ken Giles has had a miserable season, current closer Rafael Dolis is a journeyman who seems to have simply caught lightning in a bottle and the rest has almost no experience.

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Thus, if the Indians can move up in the AL Central standings and into second place or perhaps win the central to matchup with Toronto, they could have a great chance to clinch a trip to the ALDS.