There’s Always Next Year: Cleveland Indians Edition

Starting Pitchers: They have been the highlight of the team all season and why fix what’s not broken. While Corey Kluber didn’t repeat his Cy Young season, he still had a year that you would expect from an ace.

His ERA was a little higher this year and his win loss record at 9-16 is extremely deceiving, but most of his other stats stayed consistent from last year.

He could not benefit any run support this year especially in the beginning of the year. Carlos Carrasco stepped up into the number two role and has also put a great season together for himself. He amassed over 200 strikeouts this year and kept his WHIP around 1 with more innings compared to his small sample size that the Indians took their chance on from last year when they resigned him.

Trevor Bauer has had his ups and downs throughout the year but he has shown flashes of being a great pitcher. Danny Salazar has also had his ups and downs but was much better this year compared to last. Both of those guys also have the ability to strikeout batters with both getting at least 170.

However pitch control remains a problem for both, as they have a high amount of walks and pitch counts that limit how deep they go every five days. The fifth spot is still open for the grabbing with Josh Tomlin and Cody Anderson looking like the top two options.

Tomlin has come on strong in the second half as he is coming back from Tommy John and his WHIP was actually the best in baseball after his return. Anderson has also pitched well all year besides the couple of starts he was dealing with a shoulder injury that saw him land on the DL. The Indians could also look to resign Floyd who came out of the bullpen in September as he returns from Tommy John and he as well looked decent.

The Tribe should be sitting in good shape here next year and the only way I would mix things up here is if one of these young pitchers besides Kluber gets moved to bring in a big bat on offense. Carrasco would be the one with the most demand because of his talent and favorable contract.

Salazar would be my guess for second because he has the most potential of the remaining guys. If nobody gets moved, Kluber, Carrasco, Salazr, Bauer, and Tomlin would be my starting five with Anderson being ready to get the first call up if an injury were to occur.

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