The Cleveland Indians need to stay at or around .500 during the time they are without infielders Francisco Lindor and Jason Kipnis.
The beginning of the year will not pretty offensively for the Cleveland Indians. Being without both Francisco Lindor and Jason Kipnis will make things much more difficult for the Tribe. Cleveland should be able to keep themselves afloat while they are without two key bats in their lineup. If the Indians can stay at or around .500 during this time it will go a long way.
While this goal is not the most difficult, it is the most realistic due to the rather unimposing lineup without Lindor and Kipnis. Through April 17th Cleveland does not face a playoff team from last season. That is 18 games against sub-par competition. Considering the Indians will not have their full compliment of players, winning somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-10 games is not out of the question. Granted if Lindor and Kipnis were able to play the expected win total would be much higher.
Cleveland has already lost one game this season, a 2-0 loss to Minnesota on Opening Day. That leaves 17 more games against competition that is not necessarily good. After returning home from Minnesota, Cleveland will face the White Sox and Blue Jays at home. Afterwards the Indians go out on the road to take on the Tigers, Royals and Mariners. All of these games are winnable for Cleveland, even with their current depleted roster.
As long as Cleveland can get into that 8-10 win range everything should be fine over the remainder of the season. Lindor and Kipnis will both return and there are inevitable call-up candidates sitting at AAA who will make an impact this season. While many are quick to already write the epitaph on the Indians 2019 season after one game, it is a bit premature. There are 161 more games after all.
