Cleveland Indians: How long can the Indians dominate the AL Central?

 The Cleveland Indians have played great baseball the last two seasons. The team is constructed well and seems poised to be a threat for a few years. Just how long can they continue the AL Central dominance?

The Cleveland Indians have had great success the last couple of seasons. They managed to get within one win of a title in 2016 and made it back to October in 2017.

The Indians’ core is poised to make another run next season. With the farm system they have developed, they are in a good spot to continue their recent divisional dominance.

The Indians have two key players who are free agents this offseason in Bryan Shaw and Carlos Santana. Other than those two, the meat of their core is under team control through 2018.

The Indians have done a fantastic job overhauling the team and creating a winning culture around the club. Cleveland has built a farm system, spent on free agents and traded their way to being a World Series favorite each year.

The question remains to be, how long can they keep this up? With a young and upcoming core, it is inevitable teams will see their top young guys ask for more money.

The Indians will have this problem sooner than later as Francisco Lindor keeps climbing the ladder to stardom. He is under team control through 2018 before arbitration eligibility begins and runs through 2021.

Following the 2021 season, Lindor will be an unrestricted free agent. The team reportedly tried to extend him prior to 2017 but he rejected the offer.

Lindor has said he loves Cleveland and loves his team and playing for the Tribe. However, we have all seen sports players say that before and then leave when the time comes.

Lindor is a key cog in the machine that is the Cleveland Indians. He has been in the majors for just two full seasons and part of another but quickly became a leader on the team.

Keeping Lindor will go a long way in extending the Indians’ dominance in the AL Central. His stardom and production will only help the team’s consistency year to year.

The Indians have a deep farm system even after it took a hit in the Andrew Miller trade. They have prospects that are close to helping the major league club as early as 2018 and more that can help in the not-so-distant future.

Cleveland is in better shape for MLB success now than the rest of their division. Detroit is in a selling mode, Chicago is currently rebuilding, Kansas City’s window has closed and they will enter a rebuild and Minnesota was good in 2017 but overachieved.

The Indians have a championship window that is still open but not near as open as it was in 2016. Still though, being one win away from a World Series title and having the majority of that team return for 2017 and possibly 2018, the Indians are in good shape for at least next season.

Should the Indians fail to retain the services of Carlos Santana, they can look for a veteran first baseman to help fill the void or use the money to help efforts in retaining Jay Bruce. Whatever the Indians end up doing, we as fans can rest assured that they know what they are doing.

Next: Potential outfield options in 2018

Cleveland may not be a perennial powerhouse year in and year out but they are one of the best teams in, not only the AL Central, but all of baseball. Barring anything major shaking up the core of the Cleveland Indians, I don’t see that changing for at least a few more years.