Fans May Feel Otherwise, But Don't Tell the Indians They Have Taken a Step Back This Offseason

CLEVELAND - The doom and gloom that many Indians fans and even some media have spun this offseason isn't being felt by the team that won 102 games last season.

Inside the clubhouse at Progressive Field, the players and coaches of the Cleveland Indians don't want to hear about those that are no longer with the team, instead they feel they are more than capable of another World Series run in 2018.

Losing Carlos Santana, Jay Bruce, Bryan Shaw and even Joe Smith hasn't given fans much confidence that the Indians are doing enough to challenge the best in baseball this season, but don't tell the players that this team doens't have enough and is heading backwards.

"Backwards? No, I don't think so," Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor said Friday. "We have a great group of guys, everybody here works as hard as they can, the guys that we lost are definitely going to be missed, but the guys that came in, I am pretty positive they are going to do their job and help up win.

"At the end of the day it's not about what you have, it's about what you have in front of you, and what you are going to do with it."

It's amazing that some of the same fans that tend to give leeway to a team that went 0-16 this season don't want to give that same to a baseball team that has won the most amount of games in the American League the last five seasons.

"I don't think anybody should be pessimistic right now, my goodness we've had the best record in the American League the last five years," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "This has been a good run of baseball, and I don't see that going anywhere.

"We've kept our core together, we've had very little movement on our team, you're going to lose guys, we can't be the team that signs guys to their second and third contract, we need to be the team that gets guys years one through eight, maybe give them that second contract but that's not where we are at right now."

The Tribe's historic 22-game win streak and run to the best mark in the American League was mostly forgotten after the club failed in the American League Divisional Series against the Yankees.

The club jumped out to a 2-0 series lead and it looked like the road to a second straight ALCS was in their hands, but they ran into a buzzsaw at Yankee Stadium, and then former Indians Cy Young award winner C.C. Sabathia did enough to win a game five at a stunned Progressive Field, ending the Indians season.

Then with losing a couple of their key players in the offseason has sent some fans over the deep end, thinking that the club can't recover enough to again have the best team record-wise in the AL.

What some fans are quickly forgetting is that team still has a solid core, and health will again play a key role in how good this team can be.

"The fans need to trust us and trust those of us that are here, we're the ones that are important to them now," Indians INF Jose Ramirez said.

"We're going to keep trying and give our very best, and we're going to come out everyday to win for ourselves and for the fans, they are so important and they are out there supporting us every single day."

The Tribe will have to fill the spots of the players now gone, the biggest two being Santana and Shaw, two players that played big roles a season ago.

Santana's role will go to the teams' offseason big pickup, Yonder Alonso, who the club hopes will continue to build on last seasons numbers of 28 homers and 67 RBI.

The business of baseball may have caught up with losing some players this offseason, but there's still a lot of talent in the clubhouse that feels they will overcome last seasons' letdown and finally reach their ultimate goal of a World Series this season.

"We're still really good, we are, you can't take anything away from the guys we had and what they did, but at the same time it's business," reliever Zach McAllister said.

"I think fans need to understand as loyal as players and ownership wants to be at the end of the day it comes down to being in business, as tough as it is to swallow, it happens, but we're good, our core is still intact."

A key will still be one of, if not the best starting five in baseball, a starting five that will enter the season with AL Cy Young award winner Corey Kluber.

The health and success of that group should keep the Indians more than in the race this season not only winning the AL Central, but also hopefully again boasting the best mark in the American League.

"You try to do your best to try to replace those guys, the one thing we can control is what we do on the field, the guys that are here are pretty driven to try and win World Series," Indians pitcher Josh Tomlin said.