CLEVELAND — For Cleveland sports fans, this week has been a cold slap of reality.
LeBron James is gone. Heck, the banner with his picture on it is already down.
Sadly, it means that the Cleveland Cavaliers probably won't be relevant for the next couple of seasons as they look to re-tool.
On the bright side, the James departure to Los Angeles is a good way to remind us that the Cavs' next-door neighbors are in first place.
Yes, the Cleveland Indians. You remember them, right?
Terry Francona's squad enters the Fourth of July holiday with a 47-37 record, good for a 10.5 game lead in the American League Central. They're primed and poised for a third straight trip to the playoffs this fall, where anything can happen.
The Indians have outstanding starting pitching, led by 2-time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber. Trevor Bauer is having an All-Star caliber season and when he's healthy, Carlos Carrasco has Cy Young stuff. Mike Clevinger has excelled in his first full season as a starter, while youngsters Shane Bieber, and Adam Plutko, have both impressed.
Offensively, I'm eating my words on the club picking up the option on OF Michael Brantley. He's been superb this season and is the perfect compliment to Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, and Edwin Encarnacion in the middle of the lineup. It's not a perfect batting order by any means, but not too shabby either.
The Achilles heel for the Tribe is their bullpen. Their ERA of 5.04 is next-to-last in the American League. In fact, only the Royals and the Rockies have a worse earned-run average than the Indians. Andrew Miller is hurt. Cody Allen is overworked. Too often, good starting pitching performances have gone by the wayside.
The other problem is the Indians will have to go through some combination of the Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, or Seattle Mariners to get back to the World Series. Those teams are really good. The Tribe is 2-5 against the Seattle, 3-4 against Houston, and 0-3 against the Yankees with four games coming up next week. They've yet to play Boston.
It's clear that without some reinforcements, the Indians cannot make a deep run in the postseason.
I thought former MLB GM and current Sirius XM MLB Radio host Jim Bowden made a great statement in The Athletic about what the stakes are for Tribe President Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff:
The Indians are clearly now Cleveland’s only sports hope, so the time might be now for them to make a couple of painful deals, use their farm system to upgrade their ’pen, and give themselves a better chance of winning close postseason games.
'Painful deals' might involve Bieber, Plutko, or Francisco Mejia, currently tearing up AAA Columbus with his bat. Bowden has suggested the Tribe deal Mejia and Bieber to Cincinnati for relievers Raisel Iglesias and Amir Garrett.
According to Fox Sports/The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal, the Indians are reportedly in the mix for Orioles SS Manny Machado, who would move to 3B in Cleveland. Suddenly Jason Kipnis' .214 batting average would no longer be an issue. A Machado-Lindor-Ramirez-Alonso infield would look mighty good.
I've had people tell me that there's interest in Orioles CF Adam Jones, especially since the Tribe can't seem to keep their outfielders healthy (see Bradley Zimmer and Lonnie Chisenhall).
The bottom line is the window of opportunity is wide open for the Tribe. They need to embrace it.
Because as we have seen with Mr. James, nothing lasts forever.
Watch the Donovan Live Postgame Show in the player above