Cleveland Indians: Once healthy, Cleveland’s roster can still contend

Once healthy, the Cleveland Indians can still contend

The Cleveland Indians have been beaten and battered by injuries over the last couple months, but despite those bumps the team has still managed to remain within shouting distance of both the divisional race and the wild card spots. As more players begin returning from the injured list, and hopefully no one else is added, the Tribe will still be able to contend once healthy. Not just for a playoff spot, but deep into the postseason.

So far this season the list of players that have hit the injured list at one point or another is rather extensive for Cleveland. Unfortunately, most of them have overlapped as well. The Tribe survived April without anyone on the injured list, but come May they started piling up.

Since May 5 the following players have all landed on the injured list at one point or another: Roberto Perez, Franmil Reyes, Zach Plesac, Jordan Luplow, Shane Bieber, Austin Hedges, Aaron Civale, Josh Naylor. There’s also been players who have missed time without going on the list like Eddie Rosario and Jose Ramirez just recently.

Hedges, Perez and Reyes are back and Plesac is on his way, but that still leaves two of the team’s best starting pitchers to return this season. At the time that Perez was placed on the injured list, Cleveland was 15-13 on the season, meaning that we’ve witnessed the Cleveland Indians at full strength for just 28 games, at best, of the 81 played. Despite that, the team is still 42-39.

Now, getting back to full strength completely won’t happen. It would be shocking to see Naylor return. However, once Plesac, Bieber and Civale are back the Tribe will be rolling on all cylinders. In the absence of the starting pitching the offense has picked up steam a bit. If those three starters can return and bring the pitching back up to the level it was at the beginning of the season, this team is ready to make a strong playoff push.

Cleveland Indians Lineup

Most of the Cleveland Indians offense is now back and healthy. Jose Ramirez has missed a couple games with elbow soreness, but other than that the lineup is nearing full strength. With that being said, a fully healthy Tribe batting order is now rather strong. Going off what we’ve already seen from Terry Francona, this is something along the lines of what opposing pitching would be looking at when facing Cleveland.

1. Cesar Hernandez, 2B
2. Amed Rosario, SS
3. Jose Ramirez, 3B
4. Franmil Reyes, DH
5. Bobby Bradley, 1B
6. Eddie Rosario, LF
7. Harold Ramirez, RF
8. Roberto Perez, C
9. Bradley Zimmer / Oscar Mercado, CF

That’s not awful by any means. A few spots are interchangeable, but overall this is probably what the club is looking at having moving forward.

With the addition of Bobby Bradley to the lineup instead of Jake Bauers and the return of Reyes, the core of the lineup is all of sudden a bit dangerous. With Jose Ramirez (switch-hitter), Franmil Reyes (right-handed), Bobby Bradley (left-handed), Eddie Rosario (left-handed) and Harold Ramirez (right-handed) in succession the opposition could have a hard time navigating that part of the lineup.

Roberto Perez has the occasional big knock, but his defense is what is important. As for center field, Francona can ride the hot bat or use a situational approach to the position. Neither are hitting the cover off the ball and there’s always a chance that the club could make a trade deadline addition to upgrade center.

Is this the lineup of the late 1990s Cleveland Indians? No. Is this lineup still much better than they are given credit? Absolutely. Ramirez and Reyes were both among the game’s best power hitters before Reyes went down and Bradley has brought another layer of power to the lineup with eight home runs in 25 games.

If this lineup can continue to produce once the pitching stabilizes, then the Tribe will be in a lot more games than they should have been over the last month. And they have still managed to stay within six games of the American League Central during the struggles.

Cleveland Indians Starting Rotation

It’s been well documented that the starting rotation of the Cleveland Indians has been hit hard this season in about every way imaginable. First, the two prospects that completed the rotation struggled and were sent down. Then, the reliable starting trio all went on the injured list. The icing on the cake has been how hard the pieced together starting rotation has been hit.

Luckily, the 2016 MLB Draft class of Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale and Zach Plesac should hopefully be returning soon. Plesac has made one rehab start already and was supposed to make his second on July 3, but hasn’t appeared since that first appearance. As for Bieber and Civale, they are still in the waiting period to begin throwing again to get a concrete timetable.

Once those three return, the Cleveland Indians will have three of five starting rotation spots taken care of. The other two are still up in the air. Of the pitchers that have filled in recently, only Cal Quantrill has an ERA below 6.00 and what is keeping Quantrill’s down at 4.20 is his reliever stats from earlier in the season.

However, Quantrill still might be the best candidate to fill a spot in the rotation at this point. After all, he is a member of the 2016 MLB Draft class.

Over seven starts this year, Quantrill is giving up just under three runs a start and he has a scoreless start and two one-run outings under his belt. The only problem is he also has a five-spot and a six-spot on the ledger as well. Consistency hasn’t been his friend, but he’s still been the best option, even if he hasn’t gone longer than 5.1 innings yet.

That would leave just one spot up for grabs in the rotation. Again, the Cleveland Indians could venture into the trade market. There are plenty of cheap starting pitchers the team could explore. If the front office sees the potential to contend in the playoffs, which they should, they know another starting pitcher is a must down the stretch to solidify the unit.