Cleveland Indians: 4 biggest mistakes haunting Tribe in 2019

3. Lottery tickets and unproven players

The Indians cut payroll, let their free agents walk and traded away guys with proven track records in hopes that some of their younger players, brought over from other teams, would carry the water.

We’re still waiting to figure out if Jordan Luplow can play. He was just promoted back to the Tribe for another go-roundafter a forgettable first stint with the Tribe that pretty much mirrored his lousy spring training.

He hit .241 in 13 games with the Tribe after breaking camp with 10 strikeouts in 29 at bats. He then turned into Ted Williams at Class AAA Columbus, batting .353 with a 1.094 OPS.

I’m also probably higher on Jake Bauers than most, but the stats don’t lie right now. He’s a -0.2 WAR player with a .685 OPS

Yes, the Indians did sign Hanley Ramirez, who they’ve since moved on from. In hindsight, that move really was indicative of just how desperate the Tribe was for offense.

They also tried to cover their mistakes by signing Carlos Gonzalez. Full transparency, I loved the move because the outfield was such a train wreck, but it’s also looking like a transaction that went awry. Gonzalez is batting .211 with a .588 OPS. Yuck.

It bit them early in the season when Francisco Lindor went down with an injury. Eric Stamets really struggled offensively.  So did Max Moroff. Neither are with the big-league club right now.

Baseball’s no different than any other job in that the younger workers are cheaper, but you just don’t know what you’re going to get.

The Indians are still trying to figure things out, especially in the outfield, all the while the Twins have built a 3.0 game lead in the AL Central.