2013 Preseason Survey: When Will Indians Next Make the Playoffs?

Last week, 15 Cleveland Indians writers representing six different publications participated in a multi-part preseason survey in which we made predictions and offered our opinions about the 2013 Tribe. We’ll be releasing part of the results each day this week as we count down the days until the start of the season—continuing today with predictions for when the Indians will next hit certain milestones.

First question: When will the Indians next finish the season with a winning record?

Here’s some good news! All but two respondents expect the Tribe to win 82 games or more in 2013, and the couple skeptics both think the Indians will be there by 2014. So we’re on the right track.

But of course, finishing over .500 isn’t really the end goal—if nothing else, you want your team’s season to last beyond the end of September. So how long before October baseball comes to Cleveland?

Not long! Three writers expect the Indians to make the postseason in 2013, with two-thirds of respondents expecting a playoff berth within the next couple seasons and a unanimous expectation that they’ll make it by 2015.

Okay, but that includes the possibility of a Wild Card spot, which doesn’t guarantee more than one playoff game and isn’t as prestigious a way to get to the postseason. How long before the Indians win the division?

So, it’s probably not going to happen this year. But a majority of respondents expect to see Cleveland at the top of the standings by next season, and we all project the Tribe to be the class of the AL Central at some point in the next three years.

Finally, the big one: When will the Indians next win the World Series?

So this won’t be the year. But a whopping 40% of us expect at least one championship at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario in the next four seasons. And I can get behind that for sure.

Survey participants: Ed Carroll from Cleveland.com; Steve Eby and Vince Guerrieri from Did the Tribe Win Last Night?; Kevin Dean and Andrew Zajac from Indians Baseball Insider; Nino Colla from The Tribe Daily; TD from WaitingForNextYear; and Geordy Boveroux, Brian Heise, Nick Houghtaling, Steve Kinsella, Jeff Mount, Lewie Pollis, Merritt Rohlfing, and Evan Vogel from Wahoo’s on First.