After that offseason, it’s pretty hard to pin down exactly what the upcoming season of baseball will bring for Cleveland.
Not that 2020 really set the bar high, but anytime you have “the crown jewel” in the “golden age of shortstops” plying his trade for your team — plus the reigning Cy Young and the fifth-best position player in all of baseball since 2016 (yes, José Ramírez has been better than Francisco Lindor the last five seasons) — fans should rightfully expect to be in contention in October.
With Lindor gone, and Carlos Carrasco in New York with him, Cleveland is cobbling together a club on a shoestring budget that looks a lot like a full-on rebuild.