Cleveland Indians: Everybody wants what they have–pitching

Pitching wins titles, and the Cleveland Indians have it. While the search for more offense continues, the staff looks to be a force to be reckoned with.

The Boston Red Sox are paying David Price $217 million for his services. Price signed a seven-year, $217 million contract with the Boston Red Sox in December, which, in turn, will average out to about $31 million annually. In contrast, the Indians pitching staff will make about $22,410,000 in 2016, according to Spotrac. THE WHOLE PITCHING STAFF. Price started 32 games in 2015 and 34 games in 2014, and if he keeps that average up and starts about 33 games in 2016, he will make about a million dollars a start. The Indians have 10 players on their 25 man roster who made less than one million dollars in 2015. 

Baseball is a pitchers game right now, there is no doubt about that. And some teams *cough Red Sox cough* are willing to drastically overpay for pitching, and not even solid team pitching, just one good pitcher. Now don’t get me wrong here, Price is a good pitcher, but $217 is a lot to shell out for any player, especially one who does his best Casper the Ghost impersonation during the playoffs (if the team he is on can even get there.)

The Indians don’t have this problem. They have seven major league ready starters on their roster, consisting of Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Danny Salazar, Trevor Bauer, Cody Anderson, Josh Tomlin, and T.J. House. Kluber is the best of the bunch, and he’s arguably one of the best pitchers in baseball. He already has won a Cy Young Award and continues to get better every year. Carlos Carrasco had a great 2015, as he finished with a 3.63 E.R.A, and on one occasion, even came within one out of a no-hitter. If Carrasco can fix the consistency issues that have plagued him throughout his career, then he could really take a step forward in 2016.

Trevor Bauer is the x-factor for the Indians pitching staff. Bauer has had some great outings in the past, like his gem against the Angels, but he has also had some rough starts, like his one against the Red Sox.  Bauer has proved that he has top of the rotation stuff, but he still has yet to have all of it click together on a daily basis. Bauer putting it all together goes a long way towards helping the Indians playoff chances in 2016.

Surprisingly, Salazar is the only one of the pitchers in The Indians rotation who has any postseason pitching experience. He started the 2013 Wild Card Game for the Indians and did not have the best outing of his life, as he went four innings and gave up three earned runs en route to a 4-0 loss. Salazar has been up and down since then, as he was sent down to Triple-A at the start of 2014, and split his year between Colombus and the Indians. In 2015, Salazar actually started the year at Triple-A, but was then called up 2 weeks into the season, and subsequently had a great year. He finished with a 14-10 record coupled with a 3.45 E.R.A. Salazar is still young and relatively raw, but 2015 was a step in the right direction for him, and if he’s able t build off of that, then the sky is the limit for him.

The fifth spot in the rotation will be a battle between Anderson, Tomlin, and House. Anderson is arguably ahead of both of them in my opinion, as he had a stellar rookie year in 2015, finishing with a 7-3 record and 3.05 E.R.A and he even won the AL pitcher of the month for September. Tomlin is an Indians veteran, having been a part of the Indians pitching staff in some way since 2010. Tomlin didn’t pitch until August last year, but went 7-2 with a 3.02 E.R.A, and he threw a complete game gem against the Tigers in September. If Tomlin doesn’t win the fifth spot, he could very well find a home in the bullpen. T.J House is a long shot at this point, as he has had opportunities with the Indians the past two years and he hasn’t made the best of them, going 5-7 with a 4.46 E.R.A.

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Now the Indians do have problems on offense, like trying to figure out how to manufacture runs until Michael Brantley is back. But the Indians also won’t give up a ton of runs, which is exactly what the need. Pitching is what has kept many teams from truly contending thus is why there is a such a market for good or even mediocre pitching. The 2016 Cleveland Indians do not have this problem, as they have good pitching that is cheap. The Indians staff is the type that will keep opposing players up at night thinking about their stuff, and will keep opposing owners up at night wondering how the Indians got so lucky.