I've kinda bit my tongue on this whole Indians offseason.....
First off, for me, Dolan is easily the best owner of a professional sports organization in Cleveland.... by a mile. He lets his front office do their jobs and be innovative-- there's a reason why there's more former Indians front office execs as GM's than any other organization. Being an owner isn't just writing checks.... I like Dan a lot but, personally, I'd rather work for Dolan than Gilbert.
I respect the fact that he doesn't throw money at their roster problems. People think it's being cheap, I think it's being smart. Why not lean on and challenge your unbelievable front office to find and develop players to keep costs down? That's the only way to both sustain success and maintain financial flexibility; which is what 99% of every professional sports organizations strive for.
Look around the league. Nobody is spending. If the Indians didn't have such a great FO, I'd be way more concerned. If the Indians didn't have a top-5 farm system, I'd be more concerned. If the Indians didn't rearrange some of the deck chairs to add more talent to the upper minors, I'd be more concerned.
I don't think a lot of you understand just how good this organization is from top to bottom..... a lot of you guys just look at the fucking payroll.
Last year the Indians got nearly zero positive value out of anybody not named Lindor, Ramirez and the entire starting pitching staff. You can't convince me that they're any worse off going into this season compared to when they finished last year. More question marks? For sure. On paper, the Tribe should've been World Champs the past two years and we all know how that worked out.
Are the Indians going to move? No, don't be stupid.
This happens every year..... people piss and moan in the winter time about the Indians offseason moves so they have an excuse to ignore the team in the spring. Once the weather gets nice, people start to show up to the park. Once football starts up, attendance will dip until the playoffs and people will start to pretend to care about the team again so they can act indignant when they don't win it all. Rinse and repeat.
