The Cleveland Indians have some work to do at the upcoming July 31 trade deadline. The team currently sits at 45-46, 7.5 games back of the division-leading Detroit Tigers and 3.5 games back of the Seattle Mariners for the second wild-card spot.
The Indians need help in a couple of different areas, including the starting rotation and the bench. Aside from those two areas, the team has a collection of players who are simply underperforming. For a team with limited funds, and limited willingness to give up top prospects, it can be difficult to bring in the pieces necessary to put themselves over the top.
In any event, the team needs to do something, and that’s what I’m here to help sort out. Over the next few slides, I’ll break down the club’s biggest areas of need, their moveable pieces, some possible targets and even propose a few deals the Indians could look at to bolster their roster.
Let’s get started.
All stats are current through play on July 10, 2014 and come courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and Fangraphs.com unless otherwise noted.