Draft Day 1 recap

Wow, interesting day drafting by the Indians.  Just for grins, let's take a look at when we lose our top ML players.

Looking at our future free agents and when they become free agents, our window starts to close next year and is completely closed by the time the 2021 season rolls around.  Yeah, we still have Lindor, Ramirez and Kluber, but, from the current minors and guys who are we currently on the ML roster, there isn't much talent there unless some guys like Zimmer, Allen, Mejia, Bradley, Chang and Diaz make major steps forward from where they are right now.

The only way this year's draft could influence our competitiveness in 2021 is if we drafted college hitters.  If we draft HS players I would argue that our intent is to be in rebuild mode by 2021 to anticipate a big influx of talent from our recent (including this year's) HS draftees in 2022, 2023and 2024.

So who did we draft:

Pick #29 - Noah Naylor, high school catcher

Pick #35 - Ethan Hankins, high school RHP

Pick #41 - Lenny Torres, high school RHP

Pick #67 - Nick Sandlin, college RHP (ranked in the 140s - so an overdraft)

So, looking at these picks it is apparent the Indians don't have any anticipation that the first three picks will impact the 2021 ML team.  To me, for a small market team with a weak farm system, this means they don't intend to compete in 2021, and maybe even before that.

Hey, in a vacuum I like this draft.  But not to help us by 2021.

I just think that the next talent bolus coming up from the minors will be 2022, 2023 and 2024.   I just don't see our current high class A, AA and AAA talent making a huge impact on our team in 2021.  Yes, there will be positive impact but not enough.

So, Indians fans, I think tonight we saw the first acknowledgement that we will be undergoing a huge rebuild (as opposed to a re-load) in the next 2-3 years.  Think 2018 Chicago White Sox and 2022 Cleveland Indians looking a lot the same.