What's Wrong With The Cleveland Indians?

At least I’m not alone in picking the Cleveland Indians to win the World Series. Then again, perhaps I should have seen the writing on the wall when Sports Illustrated anointed them as the 2015 champions. And while things look bleak in Tribe Town, the silver lining is there are five more months left in the baseball seasons.

At least there’s plenty of room for improvement.

A lot of people will look to the bats as the reason Cleveland is struggling, and that’s fair. The team entered May 12 hitting .250 averaging 4.46 runs per game — both 17th in the majors — with 30 home runs, 13th in the majors. 

Carlos Santana, Brandon Moss, Lonnie Chisenhall and Michael Bourn are all hitting less than .250, but at least Moss and Santana are leading the team in home runs with five and four.

The bright side is that Michael Brantley is still hitting for a high average at .340. More importantly Jason Kipnis is breaking his long slump — dating back to 2014 — and is now hitting .294 with five doubles, two triples, three home runs and 14 RBIs. But the Indians need at least two other bats to step up in order to contend. 

However, offense is not a new problem for Cleveland and anyone who thought Moss was going to turn the Tribe from a so-so offense into the Detroit Tigers’ machine was sorely overestimating Moss’ impact. (By the way, I loved the Moss trade, but I certainly didn’t think the Indians were getting Miguel Cabrera.)

The real problem with the Indians is the pitching. Specifically a bullpen that’s allowed 41 earned runs and 52 total runs — sixth worst in all of baseball. Opponents are hitting .260 off of the Tribe’s relievers, seventh worst in the majors.

The bullpen has been a strength for at least the last five seasons, but with closer Cody Allen struggling and few others stepping up, it’s hard to get excited about its prospects for 2015. Allen has allowed 11 earned runs, though he has struck out 17 in 11 innings of work. He has four saves and two losses in 12 appearances

It also doesn’t help that defending American League Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber doesn’t have a win yet at 0-5 with a 5.04 ERA and 1.39 WHIP. And while the offense has let him down — he only allowed two earned runs in his first three starts — he’s allowed at least four in his last four.

The Tribe can do a couple of things, first it must promote prized prospect Francisco Lindor and see what he has. While he’s hitting .259 at Triple A Columbus with 12 runs, a home run, 11 RBIs and six stolen bases — he got off to a slow start and has been hitting .273 in his last 10. If Lindor can provide a spark it may be just what the offense needs. And if he doesn’t, he begins taking his lumps and developing at the big-league level.

Could the Indians make a trade, or two, to get back into things? Sure. But right now there are way too many holes to patch. The front office has to take a step back and answer a tough question: Is this going to turn around? If the answer is yes, then make a value trade for a bullpen arm, legitimate bat or another front-line starter to help the cause (which is always easier said than done). 

But if I were General Manager Chris Antonetti, I’d wait and see if enough of these guys can turn it around before I sell off some prospects for an immediate return. Cleveland shouldn’t mortgage the future to chase an average year. One or two trades isn't enough to fix the bullpen and the offense unless they find an absolute sucker of a trade partner (not impossible, but not likely).

Teams have slumps all the time, and while it’s never advisable to start slow (in this case extremely slow) there is still plenty of time to turn things around. But the Indians have a lot of ground to make up, and you can’t say “it’s still early” forever.

Not when Detroit and Kansas City show no signs of slowing down.