Believeland Ball’s Top 25 Indians Players of 2018: Number 6

This month we are taking a look at the top 25 Cleveland Indians players from the 2018 season. Today we talk about an outfielder whom we may have seen the last of.

In the midst of all the trade rumors that we are hearing about, there are still some fan-favorite players that we have yet to see the Cleveland Indians re-sign. Michael Brantley is one of those players. He was a huge contributing factor and Comeback Player of the Year for the Tribe.

Brantley played a remarkable 2018 season after being plagued by injuries for the two prior seasons. He didn’t blow away his career numbers, but he quietly had his best season since 2014, and it was good enough to land him All-Star honors.

He proved to be one of the most consistent bats throughout the season for the Indians, and it netted him the second spot in the Indians batting order. Brantley didn’t have the crazy numbers that Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez had. He didn’t have the RBI that Edwin Encarnacion had, but he played a consistent role.

When it came everyday players, Brantley led the team in batting average at .309. His OBP was also an impressive .364, good for second on the team behind only Ramirez. That ability to get on base was part of what Encarnacion and Ramirez drive in as many runs as they did.

Brantley’s signature moment of the year came when he drove in the winning run against the Twins to give the Indians back-to-back walk-off wins. He drove in Greg Allen after the Twins fought their way back to tie the game up.

That may be one of the last signature moments that we see from Brantley in an Indians uniform. It’s unclear if the Indians will give him an offer as of now. With the Winter Meetings underway, another team could extend an offer his way.

But that doesn’t discount the heroics we’ve seen from Brantley this past season and in years prior. He will always be a fan-favorite amongst us, and like Lonnie Chisenhall, it’ll be hard to root against him if he is on another team.