USA Today projects Indians to finish 2nd in AL Central

The Cleveland Indians are projected to finish in second place in the American League Central according to USA Today Sports.

USA Today Sports has released their standings projections for the upcoming baseball season. The six-person panel has the Cleveland Indians finishing with a record of 86-76, good for second place in the American League Central.

This projection has the Minnesota Twins repeating as division champions. The Chicago White Sox also nearly catch the Tribe at 83-79.

It is easy to understand this projection. Minnesota and Chicago made massive improvements to their rosters while the Indians did not do all that much. Cleveland traded Corey Kluber to Texas for Delino DeShields and Emmanuel Clase and signed Cesar Hernandez to replace Jason Kipnis at second base. These moves are nice, but a far cry from the additions by the Twins and White Sox.

Minnesota added Josh Donaldson, Homer Bailey, Jhoulys Chacin, Alex Avila, and Tyler Clippard.

Chicago added Dallas Keuchel, Yasmani Grandal, Gio Gonzalez, Edwin Encarnacion, Nomar Mazara, and Steve Cishek.

Pretty tame offseason for the Tribe. Plenty of rumors, but overall not much in the improvement department. It is entirely possible that they finish with around the win total projected here. Cleveland did finish with 93 wins in 2019 despite a laundry list of injuries and others underperforming.

There is the possibility that the Indians win 90+ games in 2020. It would have to take some sort of strange voodoo for Cleveland’s pitching staff to be depleted once again and Jose Ramirez batting under .200 in mid-June for a second straight season.

Exactly how many games Cleveland wins this season seems entirely dependent on the outfield. It is a group that overall is rather lackluster. There are some bright spots with Oscar Mercado and Jordan Luplow in his platoon role. Franmil Reyes could also play an integral role, but exactly what position he plays is a mystery. Reyes could easily split time between the outfield and the designated hitter spot.

If Cleveland’s outfield performs better than expected, the Tribe could easily surpass the 86-win projection here, maybe even win the division. If not, things could get ugly and some unpopular trades may be on the horizon.