Francisco Lindor trade: 5 things to come next for Cleveland Indians

5. Runs will be hard to come by

If pressed to guess, the Indians lineup probably looks like this: CF, Oscar Mercado; 2B, Yu Chang; 3B, Jose Ramirez; DH, Franmil Reyes; LF, Josh Naylor; 1B, Bobby Bradley; C, Roberto Perez; SS, Gimenez,  RF, Daniel. Johnson.

The only two offensive threats there are Jose Ramirez and Franmil Reyes. Everywhere else, the Indians are living on luck.

With Francisco Lindor in 2020, the Indians were 13th (out of 15 teams) in the American League in runs scored. Take Lindor out of the equation–even though Lindor had a down year in 2020–and it’s bad.

The big problem facing Cleveland in 2021 is that they just don’t have to get lucky once. They’ve got to hit the jackpot a couple times over, or it could be a slow go of things on the base paths on the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.

Can Oscar Mercado shake the sophomore slump and look like the viable offensive threat he was in 2019?

Will Yu Chang hit for the power he displayed at summer camp once he becomes an everyday player?

Can Naylor hit enough to give the Tribe an instant return on the Clevinger deal?

Bobby Bradley has power, but he’s never got to show off for an extended period ofttimes at the big league level. Can he produce?

Daniel Johnson’s stock has gone up since coming to Cleveland in the Gomes deal, but can he hold onto an OF job without going back to the minors?

It’s a lot of question marks and playoff contending teams usually have answers, not questions.