x
Breaking News
More () »

Jason Kipnis has no doubt Cleveland Indians can win 2018 World Series

Veteran second baseman Jason Kipnis has no doubt the Cleveland Indians can win the 2018 World Series.
Cleveland Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis (22) is congratulated in the dugout after hitting a solo home run in the first inning against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Indians may have made an earlier-than-anticipated exit from the 2017 MLB Playoffs and were unable to retain several key free agents from a team that won an American League-record 22 straight games late in the regular season, but confidence is not a problem heading into 2018.

According to second baseman Jason Kipnis, the Indians are poised for another run to the World Series, just as they did in 2016, and this time around, the sole focus is on finishing the job and finally holding his annual locker clean-out celebration on a parade route.

“There’s no doubt,” Kipnis said prior to TribeFest. “We know what we have in here. We proved it two years ago, knowing that we’re very capable of getting as far as we want.

“Now, it’s just to prove it to ourselves and to our fans that we owe it to finish what we started. We have the staff, the bullpen, the lineup, so there’s no team that we look over there and we’re like, ‘Oh, wow. They have it better than we do.’ We’re very confident in the group we have here.”

With the New York Yankees bolstering their roster by acquiring Giancarlo Stanton in an offseason trade, the defending World Series Champion Houston Astros full of young stars and the departures of Carlos Santana and Bryan Shaw, among others, some have questioned whether the Indians still have a chance to win the pennant.

However, to Kipnis, those who question do not understand what the Indians still have in their locker room.

“As long we have good players like we do in this locker room, the window’s always going to be open,” Kipnis said. “When you have the staff that we do and the position players and the depth of the lineup, there may always be some moving pieces or mixing and matching some lineups, but when the core of the group that’s as talented as it is here, you’re going to have a window that’s open.

“It was a lot of group effort there, and they’re going to see this group is capable of doing everything we want to accomplish.”

Cleveland Indians center fielder Jason Kipnis (22) hits a RBI single during the second inning in Game 2 of the 2017 American League Division Series against the New York Yankees at Progressive Field.

Kipnis suffered through hamstring injuries during the second half of the 2017 season, but was able to get healthy enough to play during the stretch run ahead of the playoffs despite being out of position in the outfield.

Not wanting to upset the balance of the Indians’ talented infield, manager Terry Francona moved Kipnis to center field and he came up with the defensive play of the postseason for the team.

Limited to 90 games in 2017, Kipnis hit .232 with 78 hits in 336 at-bats with 25 doubles, 12 home runs, 35 RBI and 43 runs scored. But after an offseason of conditioning and agility work, Kipnis feels primed and ready to lead the Indians back to the postseason.

“With the type of high-character guys, nobody likes losing and nobody likes losing when we’re as good as we are,” Kipnis said.

“Anytime we fall short, we know it’s on us. We’ve got a lot of guys with a lot of pride here and know what kind of team we’re capable of being. We just got cold at the wrong time last year and came up short two years ago, so I think we’re all hoping and determined to put it together this year.”

Before You Leave, Check This Out