Raider917 wrote:how long did it take Shapiro to turn things around in Cleveland?
Hard question to answer. He took over after the 2001 season, which was the last in their long span of dominating the AL Central. That team was even older than ours...at 28, Einar Diaz was the only guy in their top 9 in PAs under 30. Within two years, they had the second-youngest position player grouping in baseball, and the third-youngest pitching staff, in compliance with the owner's demand that they reduce payroll. By 2005 they were good...they just happened to make the mistake of being good in a season where four teams in the AL won 95+, and they missed the playoffs. In 2007 they were division winners despite a low payroll, knocked off the Yankees, and then were within a game of the Series before completely collapsing. So, for the first iteration it took four seasons to transform them from a team of old, expensive sluggers into a younger grouping that could compete at a high level, and six to reach the point where they could contend.
The second iteration came when they blew that playoff team up in 2008. They proceeded to suck for four years, and haven't been below .500 since.
What should be heartening is that they weren't strictly a draft-and-development team (which is good, because their drafting was pretty damned bad in the aughts, which may have been exacerbated by a lack of resources)...they did extremely well when they had to trade off their vets. The trades they made in 2008 shaped a good part of their core now...they got Carlos Santana, Michael Brantley and Carlos Carrasco in deals around the deadline. Got Corey Kluber at the deadline in 2010. Acquired Bauer for Shin-Soo Choo, who was due to be a free agent after the following season. If you assume that our scouting staff is better than what Cleveland had, that combination bodes pretty well for a rebuild that will start with a wave of trades.