Cleveland Indians featured prominently in SI’s Top 100 players in 2018 list

(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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The Cleveland Indians enter the season with some amazing talent all over the diamond, and that reflects in SI’s list of the top 100 MLB players in 2018.

The doom and gloom surrounding the Cleveland Indians’ slow offseason has hopefully subsided now that Spring Training is underway and fans remember just how talented this team is in 2018.

Everyone loves to talk about the core in place, and that is a valid point to bring up whenever a rogue fan on Twitter declares the team to be doomed before playing a single game.

SI.com went ahead and ranked the top 100 MLB players in 2018, and as expected, Indians players are featured throughout.

They appear as follows:

No. 81: Andrew Miller

No. 76: Edwin Encarnacion

No. 31: Carlos Carrasco

No. 26: Jose Ramirez

No. 15: Francisco Lindor

No. 11: Corey Kluber

No surprises here, and I would argue that Cody Allen could have cracked this list as well. Maybe I’m a bit biased.

The players on this list make up most of the core that everyone is talking about, while healthy versions of Jason Kipnis and Michael Brantley could be included as well. The same goes for Danny Salazar.

Indians fans know how talented this team is, so it is nice to see some national recognition for the group. That recognition began after the 2016 postseason and should only continue to be the case as long as the team remains successful.

The even better news is that most of this core will be with the team beyond 2018, barring any absurd trades, with Miller being the only one who could potentially be gone. But that’s something to worry about months from now.

Next: Predicting who will break out in 2018

We still have 162 games to focus on, and hopefully some more in October.