CLEVELAND -- After a long winter break, baseball is back.
And despite coming up short of a second consecutive World Series appearance in 2017, the Cleveland Indians are primed for another run at not only the American League Central Division Championship, but also, another extended postseason appearance.
PHOTOS: Cleveland Indians set to open 2018 season against Seattle Mariners tonight
Here are five predictions for the season that lies ahead for the Indians.
FOCUSED MINDSET
The Indians may have made an earlier-than-anticipated exit from the 2017 MLB Playoffs and were unable to retain several key free agents from a team that won an AL-record 22 straight games late in the regular season, but confidence is not a problem heading into 2018.
According to second baseman Jason Kipnis, the Indians are poised for another run to the World Series, just as they did in 2016, and this time around, the sole focus is on finishing the job and finally holding his annual locker clean-out celebration on a parade route.
“There’s no doubt,” Kipnis said of Cleveland’s World Series chances prior to TribeFest. “We know what we have in here. We proved it two years ago, knowing that we’re very capable of getting as far as we want.
“Now, it’s just to prove it to ourselves and to our fans that we owe it to finish what we started. We have the staff, the bullpen, the lineup, so there’s no team that we look over there and we’re like, ‘Oh, wow. They have it better than we do.’ We’re very confident in the group we have here.”
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LINDOR WILL CONTINUE TO BLOSSOM
Already one of the best young players in all of Major League Baseball, Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor will have another standout season, one that will feature a third straight year of representing the AL in the 2018 MLB All-Star Game.
Lindor finished 2017 with 178 hits in 651 at-bats (.273 batting average) with 44 doubles, four triples and 33 home runs. He drove in 89 runs, scored 99, drew 60 walks and stole 15 bases in 18 attempts while posting .337 on-base and .505 slugging percentages.
Lindor set single-season personal bests for at-bats, games played (159), total bases (329), doubles, triples, home runs, RBI, walks and slugging percentage in 2017. He improved his doubles by 14 and home runs by 18 from 2016 to 2017.
In his first three seasons with the Indians, Lindor collected 482 hits in 1,645 at-bats (.293 batting average), smacked 96 doubles, 11 triples and 60 home runs with 218 runs batted in, 248 scored, drew 144 walks and stole 46 bases.
CARRASCO WILL BE SOLID
In September of 2016, starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco suffered broken bones in his pitching hand and was lost for the balance of the season, which proved costly, as the Indians were forced to cobble together a rotation with both him and Danny Salazar on the sidelines.
When Carrasco returned for the 2017 season, he did so ready to make an impact, and certainly accomplished that.
Carrasco was 18-6 with a 3.29 ERA over 32 starts. In those outings, Carrasco struck out a career-best 226 hitters over 200.0 innings of work with 173 hits, 73 earned runs and 46 walks allowed. Carrasco’s 226 strikeouts allowed him to surpass his previous personal best, 216, from the 2015 season.
Carrasco was outstanding in road starts last season, posting a sterling 11-2 record with a 2.65 ERA in 17 starts, including one complete game. Carrasco struck out 119 batters against just 25 walks allowed over 105.1 innings of work. Away from Progressive Field, batters hit just .210 against Carrasco.
KIPNIS TO ANSWER QUESTIONS, DISPROVE DOUBTS
One of several Indians to have injuries in 2017, Kipnis suffered through hamstring issues during the second half of the season, but was able to get healthy enough to play during the stretch run and playoffs despite being out of position in the outfield upon his return.
Limited to 90 games in 2017, Kipnis hit .232 with 78 hits in 336 at-bats with 25 doubles, 12 home runs, 35 RBI and 43 runs scored. But after an offseason of conditioning and agility work, Kipnis feels primed and ready to lead the Indians back to the postseason.
“I think when I’m healthy, there’s no one better there, and I plan to prove that,” Kipnis told reporters ahead of spring training, where he hit six home runs, drove in 12 runs, scored 12 and registered 18 hits 52 at-bats (.346 average).
Kipnis is a lifetime .268 hitter with 201 doubles, 21 triples, 88 home runs, 477 runs scored and 389 RBI in seven years with the Indians.
BULLPEN WILL BE FINE
Middle reliever Bryan Shaw was one of the key losses the Indians incurred in free agency.
In 378 appearances over five years with the Indians, Shaw compiled a 21-22 record with a 3.11 earned run average. Over 358.2 innings of work, Shaw allowed 307 hits and 143 runs, 124 of which were earned, and 31 home runs, an average of just over six round-trippers per season.
However, with Tyler Olson (1-0, 0.00 ERA over 30 appearances) and Nick Goody (1-2, 2.80 ERA in 54.2 innings) back in the fold after standout showings in 2017, left-handed reliever Andrew Miller is confident they can stem the loss of Shaw.
“First of all, to me, what we saw out of Olson and Goody last year, for young guys to come in and show what they could do was huge, and they’re going to be counted on,” Miller said early in spring training. “They earned that last year, and they’re going to be a big part of what we do.
“McAllister and Otero have probably been overlooked for what they’ve done. They’ve been steady, they’ve been really good for years now, and I think with Bryan being gone, those guys are going to have to fill that hole. He left a big hole. He threw a lot of innings, a lot of important innings for us, but I think those four guys alone are capable.”
