2014 Cleveland Indians Preview

It's a little later than I wanted it to be, but here is the preview for the 2014 Cleveland Indians, who hope to build on their surprising 92-win season and play-in game appearance of a year ago.

THE LINEUP

CF Michael Bourn 
1B Nick Swisher 
2B Jason Kipnis 
DH/3B Carlos Santana 
LF Michael Brantley 
SS Asdrubal Cabrera 
RF David Murphy 
C Yan Gomes 
3B/DH Lonnie Chisenhall 

Despite the surprising nature of their 2013 season, the Indians' offense, which ranked sixth in the majors a year ago, still has room to improve. Their two big free-agent acquisitions from last year, Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn, were slightly underwhelming, and shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera cratered to a sub-.300 OBP. If these players improve, the Indians' offense can be even stronger than it was a year ago, and it can be even further improved if Lonnie Chisenhall ever breaks out.

Defensively, they lost Drew Stubbs, a good outfielder, but they will get some of that defensive value back by making Yan Gomes the permanent catcher. The extension they gave him before the season started may have been highly questionable, but Gomes is undeniably a better catcher than Carlos Santana. And speaking of Santana, they seem fairly serious about moving him to third base, but time will only tell how long that experiment will last.

THE ROTATION

Justin Masterson 
Corey Kluber 
Zach McAllister
Danny Salazar 
Josh Tomlin 

Many preseason projections have the Indians regressing to a .500ish record this season, and the rotation is usually cited as the reason. (no rhyme intended, it just happened). The Indians did lose Ubaldo Jiminez and Scott Kazmir, which will undeniably hurt them. But they can recoup a lot of that lost value through their young pitchers, specifically Danny Salazar, who has a bright future ahead. They will need to hope that they get the Justin Masterson of 2011 and '13, not the mediocre 2012 model. As for the fifth spot in the rotation, the team's best hope is that Trevor Bauer finally shows signs of being the player the Diamondbacks thought they were getting when they chose him third overall in 2011.

BULLPEN/BENCH

Much like last year, the Indians have a quality bench in place, with role players like Ryan Raburn filling in at multiple positions. (And hopefully, some more game-winning bombs from Jason Giambi). The bullpen lost Chris Perez and Joe Smith but gained John Axford, who is due for a bounceback year. They can only hope that Vinnie Pestano can similarly bounce back from a rocky 2013 that saw him end up in the minors.

OUTLOOK

The Indians lost two key members of their rotation, but get a full season of Danny Salazar, and can hope for improvements from Swisher, Cabrera, Axford, and others, ensuring that they won't fall far beyond last year's record. They may not quite match up with the stacked Detroit Tigers, but I expect them to hold off the Royals for second place in the division, and again contend for a wild-card spot.