What’s the National Perception of the Indians When it Comes to Competing for a World Series?

As the Cleveland Indians embark on the 2020 season, a lot of national experts seem to feel that the team is not one of the favorites by any means to bring home a World Series title.

The club came close in 2016, but since then have failed to make it back to the ‘Fall Classic,’ losing in the first round to the New York Yankees in 2017, the first round to the Houston Astros in 2018, and last season despite winning 93 games they failed to qualify for the postseason.

This offseason the team traded away former two-time Cy Young award winner Corey Kluber, and toyed with the idea of moving superstar shortstop Francisco Lindor, though a deal never came to fruition.

Many writers around the league feel that the best the Tribe can do is make it to the postseason, but that’s about as far as they will go.

It’s nothing new for the Indians to not be getting any love nationally, as even in the 2016 season when they were two runs away from winning a title in game seven, they were not selected to make it all the way to game seven of the World Series.

So as 2020 gets closer it’s no surprise that again the team is being looked at as a middle of the pack squad, a team that has some talent and a solid starting pitching staff, but the lack of offense and the issues with the outfield will be too much to overcome.

MLB.com has come out with rankings for all of the teams in baseball from 1 to 30 and how they look when it comes to being equipped to win a championship.

The Indians are just above the halfway point, as according to the site they are ranked 12 out of the 30 teams.

Here’s what they had to say about the Tribe and their 2020 chances:

Speaking of “teams who have spent the winter deliberating about whether they’ll trade their star player,” I am simultaneously very in and very out on Cleveland. The latter part is obvious; the outfield is weak, the Indians haven’t done much to help it, they have to deal with the Twins and the White Sox now, and no one liked the Corey Kluber trade. But the “in” part starts on the mound, where the rotation is still excellent and the bullpen is sneaky good: James Karinchak is the next relief ace that people don’t know yet (dig the not-a-typo 22 strikeouts per nine [!!!] at four levels of pro ball last year), Emmanuel Clase throws a 100-mph cutter, Brad Hand is still great and Shane Bieber and Mike Clevinger may be two of baseball’s top 10 starters. Oh, and Francisco Lindor is still there, and I’m very in on the idea that José Ramírez’s huge second half (.327/.365/.739) was a rebound born from giving up on the idea of “beating the shift.”

On the other hand, Clevinger is already down with knee surgery. Carrasco has a leg issue of his own. They're not expected to miss much time, but ... it's not the start you want when you've given yourself no margin for error, is it?

As correctly pointed out, the Indians pitching is their strength once again in 2020, and with a starting rotation of Mike Clevinger, Shane Bieber, Carlos Carrasco, Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale, the team can boast the best starting rotation in the AL Central.

The offense is clearly a work in progress, as the team needs to get a good season from new second basemen Cesar Hernandez, and the outfield with 10 players fighting for three spots, need to not be as weak as a lot of people seem to feel it could be.

The one other thing the Tribe has going for it is a future Hall of Fame manager who has always kept the Indians competitive no matter the circumstances, and once again it will be up to Terry Francona and the coaching staff to push the right buttons to make this team go.

It shouldn’t take too long into the season to see how good this team can be, and hopefully some things will go the way of the Tribe in 2020 and that 12 ranking will improve as the season progresses.

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