The Cleveland Indians ranking ninth in Bleacher Report’s Spring Training Power Rankings is hardly a surprise considering the roster turnover.
Some may argue that the Cleveland Indians should be higher or lower than ninth when it comes to MLB Power Rankings. That all depends on how one perceives the roster construction.
Not surprisingly the Indians are the highest-ranked team in the American League Central. The next highest are the Minnesota Twins at 17. Checking in at 22 are the Chicago White Sox. The Kansas City Royals are ranked 27th while the Detroit Tigers round out the AL Central at 28th. It is quite possible that the lack of competition in the division ultimately drags the Indians down a few spots in the power rankings. For what it is worth the National League East has four teams in the first 11.
Roster turnover
Cleveland has seen many players leave in free agency or via trade. Michael Brantley, Cody Allen and Andrew Miller all signed with other teams. Trades saw the departures of Yonder Alonso, Yan Gomes, Edwin Encarnacion and Yandy Diaz. The players acquired through trade have not been well received among fans and some analysts. If there is a place to criticize it is the lack of spending free agency. There are multiple quality free agents who still remained unsigned that the team could go after but for some reason do not.
Francisco Lindor’s injury
This is a more recent development which without a doubt could impact Cleveland’s place in the rankings. Losing Francisco Lindor for any period of time will be hard for Cleveland to deal with. Lindor is one of the best players in all of baseball. MLB Network voted Lindor as the best shortstop in the game. While Lindor could return by or shortly after Opening Day, any length time after that could cause some real problems.
Indians will move up in rankings as the season progresses
This is a given. Cleveland is not a bad team. A better statement may be that they are better than many make them out to be. Also factoring in that Cleveland will play a lot of games in the weak AL Central will help them in terms of record. While record and beating up on terrible teams is not the most accurate way to analyze a team, it is important for contending teams to routinely beat the worst teams in the league. Cleveland will have plenty of opportunities to do just that.
