The Indians recently signed slugger Edwin Encarnacion, and everyone is pretty excited. I think he'll be a wonderful fit for Cleveland. Dare I say it, we even have a better chance in 2017 than we ever did in 2016! Of course, the Indians taught us in 2016 that anything can happen, but things are looking up. I think it's safe to say the 2017 Cleveland Indians will be heavy favorites to return to the World Series, and particularly AL favorites.
To understand what I'm saying, you have to know how good Edwin Encarnacion really is. Simply put, he's a slugger. He's a beast. He's a tank. Edwin was batting an AVG. of .263 this year with the Blue Jays. He also had 42 home runs with them during that time, the most of any Blue Jays player during the 2016 season. His stats with runners on base are fantastic, and his stats with no runners on base are even better! Without any exaggeration, it's plain to see that he has wonderful stats all around. I will put a link to his stats here.
He truly is a great fit for Cleveland. Last year, the Indians were running on what they had left after so many injuries happened to them. Their pitching was phenomenal still, and so was the hitting. I couldn't help but still feel that there was always something missing, and I never knew what it was until I realized we had a chance to land EE. That was when it all clicked in my head and I knew we just had to have him.
Next year the Indians will have Michael Brantley back, and now Edwin Encarnacion will be on our side which will improve our hitting immensely. They'll also have Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar back, making their superb pitching staff even bigger and better than it was in 2016, which is pretty difficult to do after the amazing performances of pitchers like Andrew Miller and Corey Kluber.
The Tribe is going to have even better hitting next year, along with even better pitching. A team that was already good enough to make it to game 7 of the World Series will be much improved. We have every missing piece filled, and I really feel like EE was the missing piece to this puzzle. Sadly, this does mean the Party At Napoli's is likely over. We'll all miss you, Mike! Thanks for all you did for us. We won't forget it. We can all agree with Jose on this one. I'm not crying, you're crying!
Merry Christmas, CLE! I know this is the gift I had wanted so badly, and I can tell from your reactions on social media that you wanted the same. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the 2017 season even more than I already was before. I didn't even know that was possible! Welcome to Cleveland, Edwin. We're glad you're here.
