Cleveland Indians: 3 players who could have a breakout year

The Cleveland Indians are in need of some breakout success, and here are three who could have a big year in the shortened 2020 season.

The Cleveland Indians are in a situation where they need to find guys constantly to step up from season to season. As a small-market team, they can’t just throw money at guys all the time like the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Dodgers. It wouldn’t matter if they did, as that’s not how you build a winner in the majors anyway. Constant development is. That’s why the Indians, as long as their minors keep producing talent, should always have their competition window open.

Yet, to keep that competition window open, they need the young guys to step up and deliver with authority. The team under Mark Shapiro was so janky due to the inability to develop prospects and young players acquired from other teams. If they were more consistent then the team would’ve never fallen off after 2007, leading to Eric Wedge’s firing. They would’ve been able to transition seamlessly into a new era.

Now Chris Antonetti is going to have to do just that. With Carlos Carrasco, Carlos Santana, Jose Ramirez, and Francisco Lindor the last real pieces of that World Series team, the team needs to find their next crop of stars. Framhil Reyes looks like he could be a Jim Thome type of guy. Big numbers and big hits, but not a big average. Shane Bieber is also a guy who looks like he’s ready to be the new ace of the team, but can he be as dominant as Kluber?

Maybe, but they can’t do it all themselves, so here are three names that could join the list of breakout stars for 2020.