The Indians were active in 16-17 and it paid dividends. I have no issues with with those seasons. They acted like a team with urgency to win.
But, they did start to take their foot off the gas prior to the 2018 season. That off season they lost Santana, Bruce and a bunch of bullpen arms via FA. The only MLB addition was to bring in Alonso. They did not make a single trade until the deadline deals . This despite clearly having a pretty weak OF group. Aside from Brantley finally staying healthy, their OF production was predictably terrible. That off season, guys like Yelich, Ozuna, Dickerson, McCutchen, Souza, Grichuk were all traded. Pham was traded during that season as well. Now, some of those guys weren’t very good in 2018, but they all had value at the time of the trade.
Fast forward to the following off season, the Indians lost another key bat in Brantley. They were actually active on the trade front swapping EE for Carlos and also acquiring Wittgren, Luplow, and Bauers with some reasonable hope they could help the MLB team. But they once again stopped short and did not address the horrible OF situation. Instead, they rolled out some of the worst lineups I’ve ever seen from a contending club for much of April and May.
Both of those seasons the approached seem to be throw shit at the wall to start and wait to make upgrades later on. I never understood it. They had a great rotation and Linder/Jose core and they needed to maximize that opportunity. Instead we heard the comments and chatter about “balancing the current and future”. Well the future was last season. Winning game
ok, never was a poor word choice. I shouldn’t have framed my argument with an absolute. I clearly support and want more of what we saw early on during that run.
Draw a line between the 17 and 18 seasons and that’s where my issues starts. They acted like a contending team in 16/17, but took their foot off the gas those last years. They started losing valuable pieces offensively and didn’t adequately replace them. They never addressed a woeful OF (still haven’t) in a meaningful way. The notion they didn’t have assets is untrue. They chose not to go this route for whatever reason.
With the SP’s + Jose/Lindor core in place, I think they wasted an opportunity. It’s really that simple. And all for what? So they could avoid an all out rebuild? If that’s the case, make some fucking trades this off season and don’t waste another season of Jose/Bieber in their prime. It’s time to be a little aggressive again.