Cleveland Indians: The Tribe have a real shot with a shorten season

The Cleveland Indians could win it all in a shortened season.

With a shortened season of about 50-odd games expected to be announced, the Cleveland Indians have a real shot to win it all. After labor negotiations broke down again between the two sides to get around 80 games scheduled for the still-delayed 2020 season, it’s expected that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred will enact his powers to make a 50-plus game season happen with or without the player’s approval.

Due to the negotiations made during the March 26 meeting between the union and league, Manfred can mandate games be played of around 50 games, at a prorated deal per game. This may not sit well with players and it’s entirely possible they decide to strike. Which would be a death nail in the sport in America, but assuming they don’t strike, the Indians would be the team to be beat.

The team has a stacked rotation and a good enough bullpen to do real damage in an exaggeratedly shorten season. The team is built for playoff action and considering the team will play what amounts to two playoff’s worth of games, the Indians should have spry arms ready to go deep into the shortened season.

Trust the front office.

It may also shake out where there is no trades allowed during the season or there won’t be a trade deadline, so either way, the Indians could be sitting pretty. Either their opposition can’t improve their teams or the Tribe can. They’ve made a lot of great trades under the Chris Antonetti tenure and there’s no reason to doubt that wouldn’t be the case this time around either.

While there are still position battles that need to be had, and the club still needs to get its lineup in order, everyone knows that pitching wins championships and if the Indians remain healthy and limber throughout the proposed 50 games, then there’s no team in the AL that can really match the Tribe’s rotation.

In a year full of chaos and insanity, the Indians could finally get the proverbial monkey off of it’s back.