Reason for optimism: Despite 94 regular-season wins and coming so close to a World Championship in 2016, this year's team is markedly better.
Reason for pessimism: Too much optimism?
Cleveland Indians fans were treated to 104 total victories, a three-games-to-one lead over the Chicago Cubs and a positive World Series win expectancy in the bottom of the 9th of Game 7 last season. With the core entirely intact for 2017, management made improvements on the margin, but in terms of significance they weren't marginal improvements.
Most notably, they signed one of the biggest bats in the free-agent market, Edwin Encarnacion, replacing Mike Napoli in the lineup, if not the field. Napoli slugged 34 home runs for the Tribe last season, and while his offensive skills aren't what they were at his peak, he still got on base more often (.335 OBP) than the average American League first baseman in 2016 (.331). Those rates were effective, but likely to decline this season, which is why Encarnacion is a material upgrade. A year younger than Napoli, he hasn't hit fewer than 34 home runs since 2011 and typically gets on base more than 35 percent of the time.
