By: Ethan Tabor

My news feed is still crowded with hate for the Dolans and the trade of Francisco Lindor to the Mets. I am against the Dolans with you due to their lack of spending, but I’m a firm believer that this Cleveland Indians team is better today than it was last year and I want to show you why. 

Before we dive into it, we can’t ignore how baseball works. Just because Lindor had a batting average of .258 in 60 games, doesn’t at all mean that a 162 game season would yield those same results. The beautiful thing about baseball is that sure, he could have and likely would have improved over that course of time making my stats below look foolish, BUT... it just as likely could have gotten worse over the course of a full season. What we have to go off of is the stats and that’s what you’re going to see below. So, are the Indians in the gutter because we traded our All Star Shortstop?

Riddle me this, can we replace a .258 BA, .415 SLG%, and 750 OPS? 

If we translated Lindors numbers to a regular 162 game season, you’d be looking at a .258 BA with 22 homeruns, 73 rbis, and 16 stolen bases. By far the worst year of his career. Yet the Indians still made the playoffs and were 1 of 8 teams to see 35+ wins in 2020.

We also chose not to spend and opted out on guys like Carlos Santana......

Can we replace a .199 BA, .350 SLG%, .699 OPS? 

Santana’s regular season numbers would equate to a .199 BA, 22 homeruns, 81 rbis, and 127 walks. Now, 127 walks would be a career high and it’s just an insane number, but even with that, his on base % sat at a career low .349 because he just couldn’t hit!

Long story short, these were 2 of our first 4 batters in the lineup for all of 2020. A lineup that sat in the basement of Major League Baseball in just about every offensive category there is. We’ve held on to every other major piece and added Eddie Rosario, who’s stat line would equate to a .259 BA, 35 homeruns, 113 rbis, 8 stolen bases and a .792 OPS if last year were a full season.

To just match the combined production from Lindor and Santana last year, while factoring in the addition of Rosarios 2020 numbers... we would need that one remaining spot in our lineup to make up for just 9 homeruns, 41 rbis and 8 stolen bases in a 162 game season. Something you honestly could see from an every day 9 hitter, let alone a top 4 spot in the lineup.

The Indians return one of the best starting rotations in baseball. They get back Emmanuel Clase, giving them a scary 1-2 punch of relief with him and Karinchak late in games. The pitching staff all together had a 3.54 ERA last season and like last year you can expect them to carry this team again. They kept one of our best hitter from last season FOR LESS MONEY in Cesar Hernandez. They have a guy named Jose, who was a top MVP candidate in the AL for a THIRD time. Then, they added Eddie Rosario to their lineup and I’m comfortable saying they have a top 10 farm systems in all of baseball to fill in the gaps.... Why the concern?

I get it, Francisco Lindor had become a staple to Cleveland baseball. That smile, the crazy hair, and the electric play in the middle of our infield won’t be forgotten. Hell, I can’t even say it won’t be missed... It’s actually funny that he just did an interview with the Mets and brought up how analytics have taken over too much of this game. The reality of last years statistics show that Lindor and Santana will be far from missed from this lineup in 2021. 

Go Tribe!