As sportswriter Bill Simmons would put it, the Indians are in life or death territory, as in whenever an Indians fan dies, you count back to see if they got to be alive during the last World Series win. Since that last win came in 1948, there are far too many Indians fans dying before they get a chance to see their team on top.
With that in mind, the Cleveland Indians need to be doing everything possible to win the World Series. Rebuilding is a necessary part of this, but the current Indians roster is littered with players that aren’t going to help the Indians get back on top.
Only Chicago Cubs fans have suffered longer than Indians fans. To prevent this suffering from going on any longer, the Indians need to go into this rebuilding process 100 percent, make some bold moves and get the fans what they want, a World Series.
Note: Projections for players came from Baseball-Reference.com’s similarity scores. Similarity scores compare a player’s statistics to all other MLB players from all time, allowing us to see what they will likely become. This is not an exact science, but it is a projection. Just because a player is not projected to do well does not mean they can defy the projection, but it is unlikely. This list is based off of these assumptions, which could be wrong, but likely are right.