Indians Largely a Homegrown Success Story

The Cleveland Indians hosting Game 1 of the 2016 World Series at Progressive Field on Tuesday night are largely a homegrown success story.

Like most teams that enjoy success in Major League Baseball in the 21st century, the Cleveland Indians have found it imperative that most of the on-field talent helping you achieve that success is homegrown.

By “homegrown” in this baseball sense, I mean a player who was either drafted or signed as an amateur free agent and then developed through the club’s minor league farm system.

The Indians will host the first two games of the World Series on Tuesday and Wednesday night at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

This will mark the first time in nearly two decades that the Tribe have played hosts to the Fall Classic. Both the 1995 and 1997 teams reached the World Series.

Cleveland lost in six games to the Atlanta Braves in ’95, and then in a heartbreaking seventh game to the Florida Marlins in that ’97 postseason.

The 2016 version of the Indians has a number of key additions to the roster acquired via trade, such as ALCS MVP reliever Andrew Miller, ace starting pitcher Corey Kluber, slugging first baseman Mike Napoli and veteran DH Carlos Santana.

However, the Indians are largely a team made up of a homegrown core drafted or signed by the organization and then molded in places such as Mahoning Valley (short season), Lake County (A), Akron (AA), and Columbus (AAA), all of which have been Cleveland affiliates for at least eight years.

Of the 25 players who were on the Tribe’s ALCS roster, against the Toronto Blue Jays, 10 were homegrown products.