The free agent market is a little shallow this year, but there are still a few players the Indians should look at that are within their price range. With the biggest holes on the team being first base, DH, left field and starting pitcher, those will be the positions highlighted. None of the players listed are perfect. The Indians will not be pursuing Josh Hamilton or Zach Greinke this off-season as they are out of their pay range, but those players could help fill the needs of the richer teams, leaving some of these other players for the taking.

Lance Berkman

Berkman is old (37 next year) and hurt, giving him just enough negatives to put him in the Indians price range. He has discussed retirement and may not be interested in playing for the Tribe, but a new focus in Cleveland, started by new manager Terry Francona could help him change his mind. One thing that could entice Berkman is the full time designated hitter role. While he has played first and left field for his entire career, a move to DH could extend his baseball life while he recovers from injury. Since 2000 Berkman has only had two seasons with less than 20 home runs. In 2011 he finished in the top ten in MVP voting, although injuries kept him off the field for all but 32 games this year. He has already stated that he will not decide what team to sign with until next February, but it couldn't hurt the Indians to make an offer. Of course this offer would have to be significantly lower than the price for Travis Hafner's option or exchanging one injured DH for another would be pointless.

Melky Cabrera

Cabrera has a very different problem from Berkman. His suspension for using PEDs just recently ended, but the Giants have decided morally to keep him out of the playoffs. This shows that they are probably ready to cut ties with Cabrera. Melky was great for the Royall in 2011 hitting 44 doubles along with an impressive 18 home runs. This year he technically (although unofficially) won the NL batting title, batting .346 in 113 games. Cabrera would be a great fit in left field for the Indians in 2013 and a possible replacement for Shin-Soo Choo in right if he leaves for free agency the following season. He is one of the few players in the league that could replace Choo and play at his same level. The Indians should make a multiple year offer to Cabrera that is maybe a little higher than they would normally go. He is just entering into the prime of his career and, while there is still some risk of loss of playing time with future steroid use, should be productive for his next seven years or so. A five year deal worth around $50M could be enough to pluck this star away from the Giants. 

Ichiro Suzuki

Suzuki would have to take a significant salary cut to join the Tribe, but he probably will no matter where he wants to go. Cleveland doesn't have the spotlight that he obviously enjoys, but they could offer him a starting job in left field with the opportunity to DH when he needs to. Suzuki has been steadily decreasing in production, but still outperforms almost every player currently on the Indians at the age of 38. Like Berkman, this would be a one year only solution while the Indians try to find a more permanent answer from within. 

Kevin Correia

Correia has fallen off some since leaving San Diego's cavernous Petco Park and moving into the friendly confines at PNC. In Pittsburgh he averaged a 4.49 ERA over two years and 59 games. He has started at least 25 games each of the last four years, something only Ubaldo Jimenez can claim on the current staff. In 2012 a pitcher that started 25 games with a 4.49 ERA would have been pitcher of the year.

If the Indians don't sign any of these players, it doesn't necessarily mean anything. The free agent market is so thin, it may artificially inflate prices, efficiently hedging the Indians out. Signing one of these players would be huge however, as it would allow the team to focus on one less position and give them more prospects to trade. There are a few other players of limited interest in the market, but signing of more players like Travis Buck, Casey Kotchman, Mark DeRosa, Jose Lopez or Austin Kearns (who are all free agents this upcoming off-season) would be a complete waste of money and a waste of a roster spot. It would be better to sign nobody than to sign players of this quality.

The Cubs are tired of Alfonso Soriano and have been looking to move him for more than a year. He has an incredibly high contract based completely on his high level of production year after year. The Cubs know they have no chance to compete during the rest of the length of Soriano's contract (through 2014) and would love to save a little money by dropping some or all of the last $36M owed to him. The Cubs would much rather use that $18M a year for more productive causes and give Soriano's at bats to players that could actually be on the team when the should be back in contention in a few years.

Soriano would be a perfect fit for the Tribe. He is a veteran, a power hitter and a left fielder. He also has a lot of postseason experience, playing 44 games between the Yankees and Cubs. He has had over 40 extra base hits every single season that he has had more than 50 at bats, a time spanning from 2001-2012. This includes last season when he hit 33 doubles, 32 home runs and knocked in 108 runs. When compared to all Indians hitters in 2012 he would have lead in home runs, RBI, slugging percent and OPS.

The Cubs may be interested trading with the Indians in this situation when they may not normally for the case of the salary dump. Just a few months ago the Red Sox traded all of their high talented, expensive players to the Dodgers in a move that freed up hundreds of millions of dollars. The Marlins also just dumped a lot of salary, moving closer Heath Bell and short stop Hanley Ramirez. While the Indians would be unable to take on all of Soriano's salary, they could make up for a large part of it with prospects, especially the young pitchers in Akron and Columbus. The Indians were willing to trade their best starter in Akron (Stephen Wright) for a journeyman AAA first baseman (Lars Anderson), so they can't say they value anyone else in the system too highly.

The Indians are ready to win now, despite what one bad month made the 2012 season look like. Shin-Soo Choo and Asdrubal Cabrera are reaching the end of their time under team control and Jason Kipnis, Carlos Santana and Michael Brantley are all heading into what should be career seasons. If the team was better, they might not have to spend very much to compete, but the fact is there are still problem areas. Trading for Soriano would fill one of those holes, allowing the team to put more focus on the starting rotation. With Soriano in left, finding a powerful DH or first baseman would no longer as big of an issue, although that doesn't mean they should stop looking.

If the Indians do make a move for Soriano, they should offer to pay for no more than $24 million of the remainder of his salary. This is about what he would deserve if he was in the free agent market now, and would allow the Indians to pay the majority of his salary while not being stuck with the whole thing. Soriano does have a full no trade clause in his contract, but has stated that he is willing to go to a contender. With the new addition of Terry Francona and a renewed sense of urgency, the Indians can hopefully convince Soriano that they are just one power hitting left fielder away from their next Central Division title.

Wambsganss was part of what was possibly the rarest play in the history of Major League Baseball. In 1920, he became the only player in the history of baseball to turn an unassisted triple play in the World Series. There have been just eight total in American League history and Indians players have made three of them, including the first ever (Neal Ball in 1909) and the last (Asdrubal Cabrera, 2008). Like most unassisted triple plays, Wamby caught a line drive with the runners going, touched second and tagged the runner coming from first.

Despite being only known for this one play, Wambsganss was actually one of the best second basemen in Indians history. He directly took over for one of the most popular Indians of all time, Napoleon Lajoie, and helped lead the Tribe to their first World Series appearance and win in 1920. He then played for Cleveland for a decade, producing some of the most impressive numbers as a second baseman over that time. After he was traded in 1924 to Boston, the Indians were out of a decent secondbaseman until 1933 and the appearance of Odell Hale. The trade sent him, as well as Steve O'Neill, Dan Boone and Joe Connelly to the Red Sox for George Burns (the Indians first MVP), Chick Fewster (Wambsganss immediate replacement) and Roxy Walters.

During the World Series that he is so famous for, Bill also lead the team in at bats, playing in all seven games and scoring 3 runs and knocking in one. This is made even more impressive seeing that he only got on base six times during the entire series. Bill Wambsganss died in 1985.

With the firing of Manny Acta and Scott Radinsky earlier in the season, the Indians are set for a complete overhaul in the coaching staff. With the hiring of Terry Francona the Indians have already started making some changes. Interim manager and bench coach for the last few years, Sandy Alomar has been retained for an undisclosed position while third base coach Steve Smith and batting coach Bruce Fields have been let go. The Indians have yet to announce any formal changes outside of Francona, so it is yet to be known whether or not they will exchange pitching coach Ruben Niebla or bullpen coach Dave Miller for coaches chosen by Francona himself. Former Columbus Clippers manager Mike Sarbaugh finished the year as the team's interim bench coach, but will almost certainly go back to 2013. He didn't take over the job until long after the end of the AAA season, so he was already spending each game in the Indians dugout.

There have already been some rumors and speculation about possible replacement coaches, the strongest being about former Houston Astros manager Brad Mills. The Indians have had interest in Mills for awhile now, as the looked at him as a possible manager before hiring Acta in the first place. Now that the Astros are cleaning house before their move to the American League, Mills is available again and has a lot of close ties to new manager Francona. Mills spent six years under Francona as the bench coach for the Boston Red Sox. The most likely job for Mills would be bench coach, but that position has been tentatively filled by Alomar. Alomar is unlikely to accept a demotion to base coach and the same is true of Mills. One position that is open is that of batting coach, which Mills could possibly take over, although that is unlikely.

An unorthodox move that could work out is the transition of Alomar to pitching coach. After catching Major League pitching for more than 20 years, there are few people around baseball more capable of taking over the Tribe's staff. He could be given the bullpen coach job or the full time pitching coach job where he would be able to stay in Cleveland and still work with Carlos Santana while having his main focus on helping out the Indians young relievers. This would allow Mills to become the bench coach with holes at the base coaches and hitting coach.

While Francona may want to bring the whole bunch back together in Cleveland, he will be unable to bring his old hitting coach from Boston, Dave Magadan, as he was recently signed by Texas to be their new hitting coach. Hitting coach will probably be the most important decision for the Tribe as the team is mostly filled with young players who would benefit greatly from a good teacher.

If Sarbaugh does not go back to AAA, I wouldn't be surprised to see him be instated as the new third base coach. It is not the most important position on the staff, but is a good introductory job for a potential future manager. It would be a step up from his current position in Columbus and help he see how things are done at the Major League level on a day to day basis. If he is promoted, Aeros manager Chris Tremie should get a shot in Columbus after the fantastic things he did with a fluctuating roster in Akron this year. Akron was the most successful part of the entire Cleveland Indians organization, winning the Eastern League title by beating the Trenton Thunder.

Whoever the Indians decide to hire, they are expected to make their decisions soon, so the entire coaching staff can get some input on the make-up on the roster. Hiring Terry Francona was the most important move and retaining Sandy was the second. Now the most important thing is to get a group of people together that can work as a team and bring the Indians back to excellence.

The Tigers are moving on to the World Series in impressive faction by sweeping the Yankees and scoring almost more runs in a single game (8) than the Orioles did in the entire five game series against New York (10). Former Indians factored largely in the final game with Jhonny Peralta hitting a two run home run off C.C. Sabathia, the crushing blow that cemented the Tigers victory. Sabathia gave up 5 earned runs in all and Derek Lowe gave up another run. During the entire postseason with the Yankees Lowe showed how valuable he can be by pitching a whole inning and allowing two runs. There is an important lesson here that a first place team should probably not be picking up players that are dropped by a last place team.

On the other side, the Giants completed an improbable comeback against the Cardinals after being down 3-1 early in the series. Former Indians weren't as important in this series although Ed Mujica did pitch four shut out innings in relief and earned a win for St. Louis. Guillermo Mota allowed two runs while recording just two outs in his single appearance for San Francisco. Out of hatred for the division rival Tigers, Indians fans will have to switch allegiences now, rooting for the San Francisco Giants to win the World Series.

It will be interesting to see how the extended time off will effect the Tigers who finished their series on the 18th. The Tigers will get six games off between games with ace pitcher Justin Verlander getting 9 days of rest. Max Scherzer will likely pitch game two, also on 9 days rest and if Doug Fister pitches game three it will be on 14 days rest. The Giants on the other hand will get just a single day off between series as they took the Cardinals to the limit, needing to win each of the last three games to advance. While the Tigers starters have been pitching on the side, this is not the same as facing real hitters, especially the best team in the National League. 

George Uhle played for the Cleveland Indians for more than a decade, starting in 1919, but wasn't a true starter for the Tribe until 1921, the year after he won his ring behind Tris Speaker and his championship Indians. In that World Series, Uhle pitched 3 innings in two games, striking out 3 in relief, showing a glimpse of what he was going to become.

In 1921 he started 28 games, although he spent a lot of time in the bullpen, relieving in 13 games as well. The next year he started 40 games (still pitching ten in relief) good enough for one of the top ten most starts in a single season. In 1923 Uhle became the Indians work horse, setting a single season record with 44 starts (again he pitched in 10 games in relief) and a record with 378 hits allowed. His 3.78 ERA was the best in his career to this point and the second best he would ever have. After a couple more average seasons, Uhle had his career year in 1926 setting career bests in wins, ERA, strike outs, K/9 and BAA.

Uhle is one of the 10 Indians pitchers to throw more than 2,000 innings in his career. He is also in the top ten in wins, starts and complete games. Despite being wild (Uhle holds the team record with 95 hit batters), Uhle allowed less home runs than all but two pitchers in the top ten in innings pitched. During the 1928 offseason, Uhle was traded to the Tigers for Ken Holloway and Jackie Tavener. He came back later (something the Indians have been fond of doing over the history of the franchise) and ended his career with the Tribe in 1936 as a relief pitcher after taking a year away from baseball.

Uhle was a Cleveland man through and through. He was born in Cleveland in 1898 and died in Lakewood in 1985.

Before moving into the Hot Stove season when the Indians will start to look into improving their roster, it is important to know what needs to be improved upon. The roster should be broken down into a few different groups of players based on the probability of their return.

The Returning Starters

C Carlos Santana

2B Jason Kipnis

3B Lonnie Chisenhall

SS Asdrubal Cabrera

CF Michael Brantley

RF Shin-Soo Choo

These players are all signed through next season and are considered big parts of the future of the Indians. They will almost all certainly return for 2013. It would take a huge trade to pull any of these players out of Cleveland.

The Returning Pitchers

SP1 Justin Masterson

SP2 Ubaldo Jimenez

SP3 Zach McAllister

CP Chris Perez

RP1 Joe Smith

RP2 Vinnie Pestano

RP3 Esmil Rogers

RP4 Cody Allen

RP5 Rafael Perez

Although these pitchers did not all perform at their expected level, they will probably all return for next season. All but Jimenez are signed through 2013 and he has a $5.75M option. This option should really be considered a $4.75M option since there is a $1M buyout if the Indians don't take the option.

Internal Fillings

1B Russ Canzler

C2 Luke Carlin

MI Brent Lillibridge

CI Jack Hannahan

OF Ezequiel Carrera

SP4 Carlos Carrasco

RP6 Nick Hagadone

With the exception of Carrera and Carrasco, these players are just recommendations out of the plethora of choices that are available. These positions could certainly be filled by better players currently outside of the organization, but should not be a top priority. There is a lot of flexibility here as Carrera can play all three outfield positions and Canzler can move some too. I have listed Carlin instead of Marson as he couldn't possibly any worse and deserves a true shot in the Majors.

Holes

With all these players in place there are only three roster spots open for 2013. These spots are for a starting pitcher, a left fielder and a designated hitter. The Indians lineup is extremely lacking in power and the two positions that are missing are notorious for housing players that are well endowed in that ability. There are upcoming free agents and players on the trading block that could easily fill these holes in the roster, the Indians will just have to decide where to put there money and which players are most expendable when acquiring new talent.

Who Will Go

With three empty roster places and over 30 players on the final roster, there are obviously a few players that will not be returning at the start of 2013. Most of these players will be returning to AAA for next season. This includes Corey Kluber, Lou Marson, Jason Donald, Jeanmar Gomez, Scott Barnes, Juan Diaz, Scott Maine, Thomas Neal, Cord Phelps, Vinny Rottino, Chris Seddon and Frank Herrmann. Josh Tomlin will also miss all of next season while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.

A few players have expiring contracts that should be removed from Indians payroll, giving the team more monetary flexibility. These are Casey Kotchman, Travis Hafner and Roberto Hernandez. None of these players played up to the level expected of them in 2012 and should not be returning for next season.

There are also three players still under contract who should not be returning in any form. David Huff, Tony Sipp and Matt LaPorta are all out of options and should be given a chance to leave the Indians and play elsewhere. They all have replacements already with the team that are better than they are and are still under team control. These players could be used in trades prior to arbitration next Spring or simply released, but there is no reason to keep them on staff when they have already shown exactly who they are.

Focus

The Indians need to put all their efforts into filling those three open positions. While it may be easier to find slight improvements over the players listed as internal fillings, the fact is that those positions are just not as important. Any money saved from expiring contracts or extra money put into the team needs to go first to finding a new DH to replace Hafner. The importance of a DH that doesn't rotate has been expounded upon already. Left field will be a tougher position to fill, but could be done internally if absolutely necessary. The Indians do not have a hitter who could inspire fear in opposing pitchers like a good DH should. The inclusion of Canzler on the roster will give the Indians a little more flexibility as he can play first or left field, allowing the Indians to sign a first baseman if possible, although this shouldn't be the first choice. A new starting pitcher should be the Indians final priority as there are quite a few potential options in Columbus that could possibly work. This is still an important hole to fill in the roster and the Indians need to do as much as they can to find some new blood to help fill out the rotation.

Looking forward to next year, the majority of the players will likely be returning through various states of team control. These break down into a couple of categories, with most players being either in their arbitration years or earlier in their careers. Every player currently on the 40 man roster and those on the DL/restricted list are mentioned below.

Pre-Arbitration

Michael Brantley (1), Vinnie Pestano (2), Lonnie Chisenhall (3), David Huff (4), Jason Donald (5), Jeanmar Gomez (6), Jason Kipnis (7), Cody Allen (8), Lars Anderson (9), Scott Barnes (10), Russ Canzler (11), Ezequiel Carrera (12), Cord Phelps (13), Juan Diaz (14), Chris Seddon (15), Frank Herrmann (16), Corey Kluber (17), Zach McAllister (18), Scott Maine (19), Thomas Neal (20), Vinny Rottino (21), Danny Salazar (22), Fabio Martinez (23), Carlos Carrasco (60 Day DL), Nick Hagadone (MiLB Restricted) and Josh Tomlin (60 Day DL) will all be back for 2013 assuming they don't get released or traded prior with the exception of Tomlin who will miss the entire season after Tommy John surgery. 

Arb 1

Tony Sipp (24), Brent Lillibridge (25), Lou Marson (26), Esmil Rogers (27) and Matt LaPorta (28) are all going into their first years of arbitration. 

Arb 2

Chris Perez (29), Justin Masterson (30) and Jack Hannahan (31) are going into their second arbitration seasons.

Arb 3

Shin-Soo Choo (32), Kevin Slowey (33) and Joe Smith (34) are all entering their final years of arbitration. Rafael Perez (60 Day DL) is entering his fourth year of arbitration after missing almost all of 2012 with injury.

Signed through 2013

Asdrubal Cabrera (35) and Carlos Santana (36) are the only two players with guaranteed contracts going through next year. Both are a steal for their level of production and show the value of signing young players to long term contracts. Santana will make $556,000 while Cabrera will pull in $6.5M.

Options

Travis Hafner (37), Roberto Hernandez (38) and Ubaldo Jimenez (39) each have options of varying values. Hafner's is a $13M option with a $2.5M buyout, making it a net difference of $11.5M for the Indians to keep him. Jiminez has a $5.75M option with a $1M buyout (net of $4.75M), while Hernandez has a $6M option with no buyout.

Free Agents

Grady Sizemore (60 Day DL) and Casey Kotchman (40) are the only free agents that have the option of leaving the Indians under their own free will going into 2013.

This article is mostly meant as a reference point and primer for future articles. 

Prior to the season starting, the writers at Burning River Baseball made some bold predictions of what would happen during the Indians season. We also made predictions for all of baseball that will be reviewed after the World Series.

The inaccuracy of the predictions has a lot more to do with Indians players not meeting expectations than bad guesses. Going line by line, Kipnis and Cabrera were two of the five players who qualified for the batting title and finished 3rd and 4th in that category among qualifiers. Santana performed as expected by leading the team in home runs for the second season in a row, but still underperformed. Hafner completely disappointed this year, but Choo came in fourth in RBI, just 9 behind the leaders and Cabrera.

Like Santana taking the home run title, Masterson took all three of the pitching triple crown stats, but was very unimpressive in doing so. Only two Tribe pitchers qualified for the ERA title and both were terrible. The Jimenez pick for strike out leader was not far off as he finished just 16 back from Masterson and was the only other pitcher to qualify with at least 162 innings pitched. Tomlin ended up with the highest ERA (6.36) of all starting pitchers despite leading the team in ERA in 2011.

The only correct prediction in the Burning River Awards section was Jen's pick of McAllister for Rookie of the Year. The picks of Choo were as close as can be with Kipnis ending the season in a virtual tie with Kipnis for team MVP. Hagadone removed himself from the Rookie of the Year discussion by punching something and breaking his hand after blowing a game, but this was not a terrible pick. Both picks for Comeback player were based on players who underperformed in 2011, but the winner was a player who was actually above average compared to the rest of the team that year, he was just a lot better this year than last. Crowe was never given a chance on the Indians this year even though the Indians couldn't find a decent left fielder through more than half the season.

The second installment of the Indians Top 10 Positional Leaders will feature the best Indians left fielders of all time.The Indians have had a lot of great outfielders over the history of the franchise and while most of them have been centerfielders, there have been a few good ones in left as well, including the second most prolific home run hitter in team history. For more information on any player click on the link on their name for their All-Time Indians Bio. Players will be linked as more bios are added.

10. Al Smith - Years Starting Left Fielder 1954, 1956

Smith only played two years as the Indians starting left fielder, but still accrued more than 1,000 total bases during his time in Cleveland. Smith also played right field and third base during his time with the Tribe, but the appearance of a young star right fielder (Rocky Colavito) kept him starting in left.

9. Mel Hall - 1984, 1986-1988

The 1980's weren't that bad of a time to be an Indians outfielder, with Cory Snyder, Brett Butler and Joe Carter all around by 1986. Hall was probably the worst of this group, but at least played long enough to be considered as one of the better left fielders in Indians history.

8. Jack Graney - 1910-1911, 1913-1917, 1919

Graney is what it looks like when a mediocre player plays an extremely long career (to see what it looks like when a good player plays a long career, check out Charlie Jamieson). Graney played in more games than any left fielder outside of Jamieson, but his .250 average was by far the worst on this list. He is one of the few speed outfielders on the list, stealing 148 bases or about 10 per season.

7. Leon Wagner - 1964-1967

Wagner showed a lot of power for the Tribe, hitting 97 home runs in just six seasons. Only one player ahead of him on the home run rankings did it in less games and most played 300 or more games than Wagner. Wagner did this despite playing in one of the hardest times for the Indians, the years between 1955 and 1994.

6. Tito Francona - 1960-1961, 1963

Francona is one of four players listed between the 1950's and 1960's compared to the single player from 1901-1920 and the zero players listed from 1969-1983. The Indians were lucky to have so many talented outfielders over this time, but they came at a cost. The cost for Francona was Larry Doby, one of the Indians all-time greats. 

5. Dale Mitchell - 1947-1953

Dale Mitchell was a member of the last two Indians World Series appearances prior to the 1990's. He was one of just five players to play on both the 1948 and 1954 teams, but he wasn't very successful in either. During the regular season, he did a lot to help the Tribe get to the postseason with a .312 career average and more than 550 runs scored.

4. Joe Vosmik - 1931-1936

Vosmik was one of the most consistant left-fielders in Indians history, taking over for Jamieson after a decade of great play. Vosmik played next to Earl Averill in center for six years, making this one of the best outfields in Indians history.

3. Charlie Jamieson - 1920-1930

Jamieson started two more seasons in left than any other player on this list and thus leads everyone in at bats, runs, doubles and total bases. He ranks as low as he does because he played in more than 500 more games than the two players ahead of him and still trailed in home runs, RBI, slugging percent and OPS.

2. Jeff Heath - 1938-1940, 1942-1943, 1945

Heath immediately preceeded Mitchell as the Indians starting left fielder and outplayed him in every offensive facet of the game despite a shorter career. Mitchell played in 150 more games, but Heath still had more doubles, triples, home runs, RBI, walks and steals. Heath is definitely one of the most underrated players in Indians history.

1. Albert Belle - 1991, 1993-1996

Belle was the most pure power hitter in the history of the Cleveland Indians. His 242 home runs are second all-time to Jim Thome and his .285 Isolated Power is the highest in team history. Belle spent some time as DH, but was a serviceable left fielder during the majority of his time in Cleveland. Despite a short career, Belle not only ranks as number one on this list, but should be considered highly on the list of top ten hitters in Indians history. Belle's inclusion with Manny Ramirez in right and Kenny Lofton in center makes the Indians outfield from 1994-1996 the best group in Indians history.

Borderline: Matt Lawton, John Lowenstein, Minnie Minoso, Gene Woodling, Bill Hinchman