1896–1935: Columbus, Grand Rapids, and the early Cleveland years The origins of the team date back to 1896, when the team was founded as the
Columbus Buckeyes, a team based in
Columbus, Ohio and competing in the
Western League. The club was owned by
Tom Loftus, a close friend of both league president
Ban Johnson and
Charlie Comiskey, owner of the league's
St. Paul Saints. In July 1899, the Western League franchise swapped cities midseason with the Grand Rapids franchise of the Interstate League, becoming the
Grand Rapids Prodigals while remaining in the Western League. In 1900, the American League was still considered a minor league. In 1901, the team was called the Cleveland Bluebirds or Blues when the American League broke with the National Agreement and declared itself a competing Major League. The Cleveland franchise was among its eight charter members and is one of four teams that remain in its original city, along with
Boston,
Chicago, and
Detroit. The new team was owned by coal magnate
Charles Somers and tailor Jack Kilfoyl. Somers, a wealthy industrialist and also co-owner of the
Boston Americans, lent money to other team owners, including
Connie Mack's
Philadelphia Athletics, to keep them and the new league afloat. Players did not think the name "Bluebirds" was suitable for a baseball team. Writers frequently shortened it to Cleveland Blues due to the players' all-blue uniforms, but the players did not like this unofficial name either. The players themselves tried to change the name to Cleveland Bronchos in , but this name never caught on. Due to the injunction, however, Lajoie had to sit out any games played against the A's in Philadelphia. Lajoie arrived in Cleveland on June 4 and was an immediate hit, drawing 10,000 fans to League Park. Soon afterward, he was named team captain, and in 1903 the team was called the Cleveland Napoleons or Naps after a newspaper conducted a write-in contest. However, the success did not last and Lajoie resigned during the 1909 season as manager but remained on as a player. After that, the team began to unravel, leading Kilfoyl to sell his share of the team to Somers.
Cy Young, who returned to Cleveland in 1909, was ineffective for most of his three remaining years and
Addie Joss died from tubercular meningitis prior to the 1911 season. Despite a strong lineup anchored by the potent Lajoie and
Shoeless Joe Jackson, poor pitching kept the team below third place for most of the next decade. One reporter referred to the team as the Napkins, "because they fold up so easily". The team hit bottom in 1914 and 1915, finishing last place both years. 1915 brought significant changes to the team. Lajoie, nearly 40 years old, was no longer a top hitter in the league, batting only .258 in 1914. With Lajoie engaged in a feud with manager
Joe Birmingham, the team sold Lajoie back to the A's. With Lajoie gone, the club needed a new name. Somers asked the local baseball writers to come up with a new name, and based on their input, the team was renamed the Cleveland Indians. The name referred to the nickname "Indians" that was applied to the
Cleveland Spiders baseball club during the time when
Louis Sockalexis, a
Native American, played in Cleveland (1897–1899). At the same time, Somers' business ventures began to fail, leaving him deeply in debt. With the Indians playing poorly, attendance and revenue suffered. All three would ultimately become key players in bringing a championship to Cleveland. Speaker took over the reins as
player-manager in , and led the team to a championship in 1920. On August 16, 1920, the Indians were playing the
Yankees at the
Polo Grounds in New York. Shortstop
Ray Chapman, who often crowded the plate, was batting against
Carl Mays, who had an unusual underhand delivery. It was also late in the afternoon and the infield was completely shaded with the center field area (the batters' background) bathed in sunlight. As well, at the time, "part of every pitcher's job was to dirty up a new ball the moment it was thrown onto the field. By turns, they smeared it with dirt, licorice, tobacco juice; it was deliberately scuffed, sandpapered, scarred, cut, even spiked. The result was a misshapen, earth-colored ball that traveled through the air erratically, tended to soften in the later innings, and as it came over the plate, was very hard to see." In any case, Chapman did not move reflexively when Mays' pitch came his way. The pitch hit Chapman in the head, fracturing his skull. Chapman died the next day, becoming the only player to sustain a fatal injury from a pitched ball. The Indians, who at the time were locked in a tight three-way pennant race with the Yankees and
White Sox, were not slowed down by the death of their teammate. Rookie
Joe Sewell hit .329 after replacing Chapman in the lineup. on a 1933 baseball card In September 1920, the
Black Sox Scandal came to a boil. With just a few games left in the season, and Cleveland and Chicago neck-and-neck for first place at 94–54 and 95–56 respectively, the Chicago owner suspended eight players. The White Sox lost two of three in their final series, while Cleveland won four and lost two in their final two series. Cleveland finished two games ahead of Chicago and three games ahead of the Yankees to win its first pennant, led by Speaker's .388 hitting, Jim Bagby's 30 victories and solid performances from
Steve O'Neill and Stan Coveleski. Cleveland went on to defeat the
Brooklyn Robins 5–2 in the
World Series for their first title, winning four games in a row after the Robins took a 2–1 Series lead. The Series included three memorable "firsts", all of them in Game 5 at Cleveland, and all by the home team. In the first inning, right fielder
Elmer Smith hit the first Series grand slam. In the fourth inning,
Jim Bagby hit the first Series home run by a pitcher. In the top of the fifth inning, second baseman
Bill Wambsganss executed the first (and only, so far) unassisted triple play in World Series history, in fact, the only Series triple play of any kind. The team would not reach the heights of 1920 again for 28 years. Speaker and Coveleski were aging and the Yankees were rising with a new weapon:
Babe Ruth and the home run. They managed two second-place finishes but spent much of the decade in last place. In 1927 Dunn's widow, Mrs. George Pross (Dunn had died in 1922), sold the team to a syndicate headed by
Alva Bradley.
1936–1946: Bob Feller enters the show The Indians were a middling team by the 1930s, finishing third or fourth most years. brought Cleveland a new superstar in 17-year-old pitcher
Bob Feller, who came from
Iowa with a dominating
fastball. That season, Feller set a record with 17 strikeouts in a single game and went on to lead the league in strikeouts from 1938 to 1941. ; winner of the A.L. pitching
Triple Crown in 1940, member of the
1948 World Series Championship team, the Indians all-time leader in wins and strikeouts, and an
MLB Hall of Famer On August 20, 1938, Indians catchers
Hank Helf and
Frank Pytlak set the "all-time altitude mark" by catching baseballs dropped from the
Terminal Tower. By , Feller, along with
Ken Keltner,
Mel Harder and
Lou Boudreau, led the Indians to within one game of the pennant. However, the team was wracked with dissension, with some players (including Feller and Mel Harder) going so far as to request that Bradley fire manager
Ossie Vitt. Reporters lampooned them as the Cleveland Crybabies. Feller, who had pitched a
no-hitter to open the season and won 27 games, lost the final game of the season to unknown pitcher Floyd Giebell of the
Detroit Tigers. The
Tigers won the pennant and Giebell never won another major league game. Cleveland entered 1941 with a young team and a new manager;
Roger Peckinpaugh had replaced the despised Vitt; but the team regressed, finishing in fourth. Cleveland would soon be depleted of two stars.
Hal Trosky retired in 1941 due to migraine headaches and Bob Feller enlisted in the
Navy two days after the
Attack on Pearl Harbor. Starting third baseman
Ken Keltner and outfielder
Ray Mack were both drafted in 1945 taking two more starters out of the lineup.
1946–1949: The Bill Veeck years In ,
Bill Veeck formed an investment group that purchased the Cleveland Indians from Bradley's group for a reported $1.6 million. Among the investors was
Bob Hope, who had grown up in Cleveland, and former Tigers slugger,
Hank Greenberg. A former owner of a minor league franchise in Milwaukee, Veeck brought to Cleveland a gift for promotion. At one point, Veeck hired rubber-faced
Max Patkin, the "Clown Prince of Baseball" as a coach. Patkin's appearance in the coaching box was the sort of promotional stunt that delighted fans but infuriated the American League front office. Recognizing that he had acquired a solid team, Veeck soon abandoned the aging, small and lightless League Park to take up full-time residence in massive
Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Indians had briefly moved from League Park to Municipal Stadium in mid-1932, but moved back to League Park due to complaints about the cavernous environment. From 1937 onward, however, the Indians began playing an increasing number of games at Municipal, until by 1940 they played most of their home slate there. League Park was mostly demolished in 1951, but has since been rebuilt as a recreational park. Making the most of the cavernous stadium, Veeck had a portable center field fence installed, which he could move in or out depending on how the distance favored the Indians against their opponents in a given series. The fence moved as much as between series opponents. Following the 1947 season, the American League countered with a rule change that fixed the distance of an outfield wall for the duration of a season. The massive stadium did, however, permit the Indians to set the then-record for the largest crowd to see a Major League baseball game. On October 10, 1948, Game 5 of the
World Series against the
Boston Braves drew over 84,000. The record stood until the
Los Angeles Dodgers drew a crowd in excess of 92,500 to watch Game 5 of the
1959 World Series at the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum against the
Chicago White Sox. Under Veeck's leadership, one of Cleveland's most significant achievements was breaking the
color barrier in the
American League by signing
Larry Doby, formerly a player for the Negro league's
Newark Eagles in , 11 weeks after
Jackie Robinson signed with the
Dodgers. , 1948 American League MVP In , veterans Boudreau, Keltner, and
Joe Gordon had career offensive seasons, while newcomers Doby and
Gene Bearden also had standout seasons. The team went down to the wire with the
Boston Red Sox, winning a one-game playoff, the first in American League history, to go to the
World Series. In the series, the Indians defeated the
Boston Braves four games to two for their first championship in 28 years. Boudreau won the
American League MVP Award. The Indians appeared in a film the following
year titled
The Kid From Cleveland, in which Veeck had an interest. and featured many members of the Indians organization. However, filming during the season cost the players valuable rest days leading to fatigue towards the end of the season. to a syndicate headed by insurance magnate Ellis Ryan.
1950–1959: Near misses , 1953 Most Valuable Player In ,
Al Rosen was an All Star for the second year in a row, was named
The Sporting News Major League Player of the Year, and won the
American League Most Valuable Player Award in a unanimous vote playing for the Indians after leading the AL in runs, home runs, RBIs (for the second year in a row), and slugging percentage, and coming in second by one point in batting average. Ryan was forced out in 1953 in favor of Myron Wilson, who in turn gave way to William Daley in . Despite this turnover in the ownership, a powerhouse team composed of Feller, Doby,
Minnie Miñoso,
Luke Easter,
Bobby Ávila,
Al Rosen,
Early Wynn,
Bob Lemon, and
Mike Garcia continued to contend through the early 1950s. However, Cleveland only won a single pennant in the decade, in 1954, finishing second to the
New York Yankees five times. – who was the 1955
American League Rookie of the Year, a two-time A.L. All-Star, and after his playing career was a member of the Indians broadcast team for 34 seasons (1964–1997). The winningest season in franchise history came in 1954, when the
Indians finished the season with a record of 111–43 (.721). That mark set an American League record for wins that stood for 44 years until the
Yankees won 114 games in 1998 (a 162-game regular season record of 114-48/.704). The Indians' 1954 winning percentage of .721 is still an American League record. The Indians returned to the
World Series to face the
New York Giants. The team could not bring home the title, however, ultimately being upset by the Giants in a sweep. The series was notable for
Willie Mays'
over-the-shoulder catch off the bat of
Vic Wertz in Game 1. Cleveland remained a talented team throughout the remainder of the decade, finishing in second place in 1959,
George Strickland's last full year in the majors.
1960–1993: The 33-year slump From 1960 to 1993, the Indians managed one third-place finish (in 1968) and six fourth-place finishes (in 1960, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1990, and 1992) but spent the rest of the time at or near the bottom of the standings, including four seasons with over 100 losses (1971, 1985, 1987, 1991).
Frank Lane becomes general manager The Indians hired general manager
Frank Lane, known as "Trader" Lane, away from the
St. Louis Cardinals in 1957. Lane over the years had gained a reputation as a GM who loved to make deals. With the White Sox, Lane had made over 100 trades involving over 400 players in seven years. In a short stint in St. Louis, he traded away
Red Schoendienst and
Harvey Haddix. One of Lane's early trades in Cleveland was to send
Roger Maris to the
Kansas City Athletics in the middle of 1958. Indians executive
Hank Greenberg was not happy about the trade and neither was Maris, who said that he could not stand Lane.
Curse of Rocky Colavito In 1960, Lane made the trade that would define his tenure in Cleveland when he dealt slugging right fielder and fan favorite
Rocky Colavito to the
Detroit Tigers for
Harvey Kuenn just before Opening Day in . It was a blockbuster trade that swapped the AL home run co-champion (Colavito) for the AL batting champion (Kuenn). After the trade, however, Colavito hit over 30 home runs four times and made three All-Star teams for Detroit and Kansas City before returning to Cleveland in . Kuenn, on the other hand, played only one season for the Indians before departing for
San Francisco in a trade for an aging
Johnny Antonelli and
Willie Kirkland.
Akron Beacon Journal columnist
Terry Pluto documented the decades of woe that followed the trade in his book
The Curse of Rocky Colavito. Despite being attached to the curse, Colavito said that he never placed a curse on the Indians but that the trade was prompted by a salary dispute with Lane. Lane also engineered a unique trade of managers in mid-season 1960, sending
Joe Gordon to the Tigers in exchange for
Jimmy Dykes. Lane left the team in 1961, but ill-advised trades continued. In 1965, the Indians traded pitcher
Tommy John, who would go on to win 288 games in his career, and 1966 Rookie of the Year
Tommy Agee to the White Sox to get Colavito back. for a number of players who made no impact. Constant ownership changes did not help the Indians. In 1963, Daley's syndicate sold the team to a group headed by general manager
Gabe Paul. of the
Stouffer Corporation empire. Prior to Stouffer's purchase, the team was rumored to be relocated due to poor attendance. Despite the potential for a financially strong owner, Stouffer had some non-baseball related financial setbacks and, consequently, the team was cash-poor. In order to solve some financial problems, Stouffer had made an agreement to play a minimum of 30 home games in
New Orleans with a view to a possible move there. After rejecting an offer from
George Steinbrenner and former Indian
Al Rosen, Stouffer sold the team in 1972 to a group led by
Cleveland Cavaliers and
Cleveland Barons owner
Nick Mileti. Only five years later, Mileti's group sold the team for $11 million to a syndicate headed by trucking magnate Steve O'Neill and including former general manager and owner Gabe Paul. O'Neill's death in 1983 led to the team going on the market once more. O'Neill's nephew Patrick O'Neill did not find a buyer until real estate magnates
Richard E. and David H. Jacobs purchased the team in 1986. The team was unable to move out of last place, with losing seasons between 1969 and 1975. One highlight was the acquisition of
Gaylord Perry in . The Indians traded fireballer
"Sudden Sam" McDowell for Perry, who became the first Indian pitcher to win the
Cy Young Award. In , Cleveland broke another color barrier with the hiring of
Frank Robinson as Major League Baseball's first African American manager. Robinson served as player-manager and provided a franchise highlight when he hit a pinch-hit home run on Opening Day. But the high-profile signing of
Wayne Garland, a 20-game winner in
Baltimore, proved to be a disaster after Garland suffered from shoulder problems and went 28–48 over five years. The team failed to improve with Robinson as manager and he was fired in . In 1977, pitcher
Dennis Eckersley threw a no-hitter against the
California Angels. The next season, he was traded to the
Boston Red Sox where he won 20 games in 1978 and another 17 in 1979. The 1970s also featured the infamous
Ten Cent Beer Night at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The ill-conceived promotion at a 1974 game against the
Texas Rangers ended in a riot by fans and a forfeit by the Indians. There were more bright spots in the 1980s. In May 1981,
Len Barker threw a
perfect game against the
Toronto Blue Jays, joining Addie Joss as the only other Indian pitcher to do so.
"Super Joe" Charboneau won the
American League Rookie of the Year award. Charboneau was out of baseball by 1983 due to back injuries and Barker, who was also hampered by injuries, never became a consistently dominant starting pitcher. Cleveland's struggles over the 30-year span were highlighted in the 1989 film
Major League, which comically depicted a hapless Cleveland ball club going from worst to first by the end of the film. Throughout the 1980s, the Indians' owners had pushed for a new stadium. Cleveland Stadium had been a symbol of the Indians' glory years in the 1940s and 1950s. However, during the lean years even crowds of 40,000 were swallowed up by the cavernous environment. The old stadium was not aging gracefully; chunks of concrete were falling off in sections and the old wooden pilings were petrifying. In 1984, a proposal for a $150 million domed stadium was defeated in a referendum 2–1. Finally, in May 1990,
Cuyahoga County voters passed an
excise tax on sales of alcohol and cigarettes in the county. The tax proceeds were to be used for financing the construction of the
Gateway Sports and Entertainment Complex, which would include
Jacobs Field for the Indians and
Gund Arena for the
Cleveland Cavs basketball team. The team's fortunes started to turn in , ironically with a very unpopular trade. The team sent power-hitting outfielder
Joe Carter to the
San Diego Padres for two unproven players,
Sandy Alomar Jr. and
Carlos Baerga. Alomar made an immediate impact, not only being elected to the
All-Star team but also winning Cleveland's fourth
Rookie of the Year award and a
Gold Glove. Baerga became a three-time All-Star with consistent offensive production. Indians general manager
John Hart made a number of moves that finally brought success to the team. In , he hired former Indian
Mike Hargrove to manage and traded catcher
Eddie Taubensee to the
Houston Astros who, with a surplus of outfielders, were willing to part with
Kenny Lofton. Lofton finished second in AL Rookie of the Year balloting with a .285 average and 66
stolen bases. The Indians were named "Organization of the Year" by
Baseball America in 1992, in response to the appearance of offensive bright spots and an improving
farm system. The team suffered a tragedy during spring training of , when a boat carrying pitchers
Steve Olin,
Tim Crews, and
Bob Ojeda crashed into a pier. Olin and Crews were killed, and Ojeda was seriously injured. (Ojeda missed most of the season, and retired the following year). By the end of the 1993 season, the team was in transition, leaving Cleveland Stadium and fielding a talented nucleus of young players. Many of those players came from the Indians' new
AAA farm team, the
Charlotte Knights, who won the
International League title that year.
1994–2001: New beginnings 1994: Jacobs Field opens sign pictured in 2006 Indians General Manager
John Hart and team owner
Richard E. Jacobs managed to turn the team's fortunes around. The Indians opened
Jacobs Field in 1994 with the aim of improving on the prior season's sixth-place finish. The Indians were only one game behind the division-leading
Chicago White Sox on August 12 when a
players strike wiped out the rest of the season.
1995–1996: First AL pennant since 1954 Having contended for the division in the aborted 1994 season, Cleveland sprinted to a 100–44 record (the season was shortened by 18 games due to player/owner negotiations) in 1995, winning its first-ever divisional title. Veterans
Dennis Martínez,
Orel Hershiser and
Eddie Murray combined with a young core of players including
Omar Vizquel,
Albert Belle,
Jim Thome,
Manny Ramírez,
Kenny Lofton and
Charles Nagy to lead the league in team batting average as well as team ERA. After defeating the
Boston Red Sox in the
Division Series and the
Seattle Mariners in the
ALCS, Cleveland clinched the American League pennant and a
World Series berth, for the first time since 1954. The
World Series ended in disappointment, however: the Indians fell in six games to the
Atlanta Braves. in 1996 Tickets for every Indians home game sold out several months before opening day in 1996. The Indians repeated as AL Central champions but lost to the
wild card Baltimore Orioles in the
Division Series.
1997: Two outs away In 1997, Cleveland started slow but finished with an 86–75 record. Taking their third consecutive AL Central title, the Indians defeated the
New York Yankees in the
Division Series, 3–2. After defeating the
Baltimore Orioles in the
ALCS, Cleveland went on to face the
Florida Marlins in the
World Series that featured the coldest game in World Series history. With the series tied after Game 6, the Indians went into the ninth inning of Game Seven with a 2–1 lead, but closer
José Mesa allowed the Marlins to tie the game. In the eleventh inning,
Édgar Rentería drove in the winning run giving the Marlins their first championship. Cleveland became the first team to lose the World Series after carrying the lead into the ninth inning of the seventh game.
1998–2001 In
1998, the Indians made the postseason for the fourth straight year. After defeating the wild-card
Boston Red Sox 3–1 in the
Division Series, Cleveland lost the
1998 ALCS in six games to the
New York Yankees, who had come into the postseason with a then-AL record 114 wins in the regular season. For the
1999 season, Cleveland added relief pitcher
Ricardo Rincón and second baseman
Roberto Alomar, brother of catcher Sandy Alomar Jr., and won the Central Division title for the fifth consecutive year. The team scored 1,009 runs, becoming the first (and to date only) team since the 1950 Boston Red Sox to score more than 1,000 runs in a season. This time, Cleveland did not make it past the first round, losing the
Division Series to the
Red Sox, despite taking a 2–0 lead in the series. In game three, Indians starter Dave Burba went down with an injury in the 4th inning. Four pitchers, including presumed game four starter
Jaret Wright, surrendered nine runs in relief. Without a long reliever or emergency starter on the playoff roster, Hargrove started both
Bartolo Colón and
Charles Nagy in games four and five on only three days rest. Four days later, Hargrove was dismissed as manager. In 2000, the
Indians had a 44–42 start, but caught fire after the All Star break and went 46–30 the rest of the way to finish 90–72. The team had one of the league's best offenses that year and a defense that yielded three gold gloves. However, they ended up five games behind the
Chicago White Sox in the Central division and missed the wild card by one game to the
Seattle Mariners. Mid-season trades brought
Bob Wickman and
Jake Westbrook to Cleveland. After the season, free-agent outfielder
Manny Ramírez departed for the
Boston Red Sox. In 2000,
Larry J. Dolan bought the Indians for $320 million from Richard E. Jacobs, who, along with his late brother David, had paid $45 million for the club in 1986. The sale set a record at the time for the sale of a baseball franchise.
2001 saw a return to the postseason. After the departures of Ramírez and
Sandy Alomar Jr., the Indians signed
Ellis Burks and former
MVP Juan González, who helped the team win the Central division with a 91–71 record. One of the highlights came on August 5, when the Indians completed the biggest comeback in MLB History. Cleveland rallied to close a 14–2 deficit in the seventh inning to defeat the
Seattle Mariners 15–14 in 11 innings. The Mariners, who won an MLB record-tying 116 games that season, had a strong bullpen, and Indians manager
Charlie Manuel had already pulled many of his starters with the game seemingly out of reach. Seattle and Cleveland met in the
first round of the postseason; however, the Mariners won the series 3–2. In the 2001–02 offseason, GM John Hart resigned and his assistant,
Mark Shapiro, took the reins.
2002–2010: The Shapiro/Wedge years – Indians GM from 2001 to 2010, President from 2010 to 2015, and two-time
Sporting News Executive of the Year First "rebuilding of the team" Shapiro moved to rebuild by dealing aging veterans for younger talent. He traded
Roberto Alomar to the
New York Mets for a package that included outfielder
Matt Lawton and prospects
Alex Escobar and
Billy Traber. When the team fell out of contention in mid-, Shapiro fired manager
Charlie Manuel and traded pitching ace
Bartolo Colón for prospects
Brandon Phillips,
Cliff Lee, and
Grady Sizemore; acquired
Travis Hafner from the
Rangers for
Ryan Drese and
Einar Díaz; and picked up
Coco Crisp from the
St. Louis Cardinals for aging starter
Chuck Finley.
Jim Thome left after the season, going to the Phillies for a larger contract. Young Indians teams finished far out of contention in 2002 and under new manager
Eric Wedge. They posted strong offensive numbers in , but continued to struggle with a bullpen that blew more than 20 saves. A highlight of the season was a 22–0 victory over the
New York Yankees on August 31, one of the worst defeats suffered by the Yankees in team history. In early , the offense got off to a poor start. After a brief July slump, the
Indians caught fire in August, and cut a 15.5 game deficit in the Central Division down to 1.5 games. However, the season came to an end as the Indians went on to lose six of their last seven games, five of them by one run, missing the playoffs by only two games. Shapiro was named
Executive of the Year in 2005.
The next season, the club made several roster changes, while retaining its nucleus of young players. The off-season was highlighted by the acquisition of top prospect
Andy Marte from the
Boston Red Sox. The Indians had a solid offensive season, led by career years from
Travis Hafner and
Grady Sizemore. Hafner, despite missing the last month of the season, tied the single season grand slam record of six, which was set in by
Don Mattingly. Despite the solid offensive performance, the bullpen struggled with 23 blown saves (a Major League worst), and the Indians finished a disappointing fourth. In , Shapiro signed veteran help for the bullpen and outfield in the offseason. Veterans
Aaron Fultz and
Joe Borowski joined
Rafael Betancourt in the Indians bullpen. The Indians improved significantly over the prior year and went into the All-Star break in second place. The team brought back
Kenny Lofton for his third stint with the team in late July. The Indians finished with a 96–66 record tied with the Red Sox for best in baseball, their seventh Central Division title in 13 years and their first postseason trip since 2001. won the 2007 AL
Cy Young Award with the Indians. won the AL Cy Young Award in 2008. The Indians began their playoff run by defeating the
Yankees in the
ALDS three games to one. This series will be most remembered for the swarm of bugs that overtook the field in the later innings of Game Two. They also jumped out to a three-games-to-one lead over the
Red Sox in the
ALCS. The season ended in disappointment when Boston swept the final three games to advance to the
2007 World Series. Indians Pitcher
CC Sabathia won the second
Cy Young Award in team history with a 19–7 record, a 3.21 ERA and an MLB-leading 241
innings pitched. Eric Wedge was awarded the first
Manager of the Year Award in team history. Shapiro was named to his second
Executive of the Year in 2007. The Indians, falling to last place for a short time in June and July, traded
CC Sabathia to the
Milwaukee Brewers for prospects
Matt LaPorta, Rob Bryson, and
Michael Brantley. and traded starting third baseman Casey Blake for catching prospect
Carlos Santana. Pitcher
Cliff Lee went 22–3 with an ERA of 2.54 and earned the AL Cy Young Award.
Grady Sizemore had a career year, winning a
Gold Glove Award and a
Silver Slugger Award, and the Indians finished with a record of 81–81. Prospects for the 2009 season dimmed early when the
Indians ended May with a record of 22–30. Shapiro made multiple trades:
Cliff Lee and
Ben Francisco to the
Philadelphia Phillies for prospects
Jason Knapp,
Carlos Carrasco,
Jason Donald and
Lou Marson;
Victor Martinez to the
Boston Red Sox for prospects
Bryan Price,
Nick Hagadone and
Justin Masterson;
Ryan Garko to the
Texas Rangers for
Scott Barnes; and
Kelly Shoppach to the
Tampa Bay Rays for
Mitch Talbot. The Indians finished the season tied for fourth in their division, with a record of 65–97. The team announced on September 30, 2009, that Eric Wedge and all of the team's coaching staff were released at the end of the 2009 season.
Manny Acta was hired as the team's 40th manager on October 25, 2009. On February 18, 2010, it was announced that Shapiro (following the end of the 2010 season) would be promoted to team President, with current President
Paul J. Dolan becoming the new Chairman/CEO, and longtime Shapiro assistant
Chris Antonetti filling the GM role.
2011–present: Antonetti/Chernoff/Francona era , who has served as Indians/Guardians' general manager since 2015 , who in his tenure with the Indians/Guardians (2013–2023) was a three-time AL Manager of the Year (2013, 2016, 2022), led the team to the 2016 AL Championship, and is the all-time franchise leader in wins by a manager On January 18, 2011, longtime popular former first baseman and manager
Mike Hargrove was brought in as a special adviser. The Indians started the 2011 season strong – going 30–15 in their first 45 games and seven games ahead of the
Detroit Tigers for first place. Injuries led to a slump where the Indians fell out of first place. Many minor leaguers such as
Jason Kipnis and
Lonnie Chisenhall got opportunities to fill in for the injuries. The biggest news of the season came on July 30 when the Indians traded four prospects for
Colorado Rockies star pitcher,
Ubaldo Jiménez. The Indians sent their top two pitchers in the minors,
Alex White and
Drew Pomeranz along with
Joe Gardner and
Matt McBride. On August 25, the Indians signed the team leader in home runs,
Jim Thome off of waivers. He made his first appearance in an Indians uniform since he left Cleveland after the 2002 season. To honor Thome, the Indians placed him at his original position, third base, for one pitch against the Minnesota Twins on September 25. It was his first appearance at third base since 1996, and his last for Cleveland. The Indians finished the season in 2nd place, 15 games behind the division champion Tigers. , who is a two-time AL
Cy Young Award winner with the Indians (2014, 2017) The Indians broke
Progressive Field's Opening Day attendance record with 43,190 against the
Toronto Blue Jays on April 5, 2012. The game went 16 innings, setting the MLB Opening Day record, and lasted 5 hours and 14 minutes. On September 27, 2012, with six games left in the Indians' 2012 season,
Manny Acta was fired;
Sandy Alomar Jr. was named interim manager for the remainder of the season. On October 6, the Indians announced that
Terry Francona, who managed the Boston Red Sox to five playoff appearances and two World Series between 2004 and 2011, would take over as manager for 2013. The Indians entered the 2013 season following an active offseason of dramatic roster turnover. Key acquisitions included free agent 1B/OF
Nick Swisher and CF
Michael Bourn. The team added prized right-handed pitching prospect
Trevor Bauer, OF
Drew Stubbs, and relief pitchers
Bryan Shaw and
Matt Albers in a three-way trade with the
Arizona Diamondbacks and
Cincinnati Reds that sent RF
Shin-Soo Choo to the Reds, and
Tony Sipp to the
Arizona Diamondbacks. Other notable additions included utility man
Mike Avilés, catcher
Yan Gomes, designated hitter
Jason Giambi, and starting pitcher
Scott Kazmir. The 2013 Indians increased their win total by 24 over 2012 (from 68 to 92), finishing in second place, one game behind Detroit in the Central division, but securing the number one seed in the American League Wild Card Standings. In their first postseason appearance since 2007, Cleveland lost the
2013 American League Wild Card Game 4–0 at home to Tampa Bay. Francona was recognized for the turnaround with the 2013
American League Manager of the Year Award. With an 85–77 record, the 2014 Indians had consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 1999–2001, but they were eliminated from playoff contention during the last week of the season and finished third in the AL Central. , who won the 2020 AL Cy Young Award, giving the team five winners in 14 seasons In 2015, after struggling through the first half of the season, the Indians finished 81–80 for their third consecutive winning season, which the team had not done since 1999–2001. For the second straight year, the Tribe finished third in the Central and was eliminated from the Wild Card race during the last week of the season. Following the departure of longtime team executive
Mark Shapiro on October 6, the Indians promoted GM
Chris Antonetti to President of Baseball Operations, assistant general manager
Mike Chernoff to GM, and named
Derek Falvey as assistant GM. Falvey was later hired by the
Minnesota Twins in 2016, becoming their President of Baseball Operations. The Indians set what was then a franchise record for longest winning streak when they won their 14th consecutive game, a 2–1 win over the
Toronto Blue Jays in 19 innings on July 1, 2016, at
Rogers Centre. The team clinched the Central Division pennant on September 26, their eighth division title overall and first since 2007, as well as returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2013. They finished the regular season at 94–67, marking their fourth straight winning season, a feat not accomplished since the 1990s and early 2000s. The Indians began the 2016 postseason by sweeping the
Boston Red Sox in the best-of-five
American League Division Series, then defeated the Blue Jays in five games in the
2016 American League Championship Series to claim their sixth American League pennant and advance to the
World Series against the
Chicago Cubs. It marked the first appearance for the Indians in the World Series since 1997 and first for the Cubs since 1945. The Indians took a 3–1 series lead following a victory in Game 4 at
Wrigley Field, but the Cubs rallied to take the final three games and won the series 4 games to 3. The Indians' 2016 success led to Francona winning his second AL Manager of the Year Award with the club. From August 24 through September 15 during the 2017 season, the Indians set a new American League record by winning 22 games in a row. On September 28, the Indians won their 100th game of the season, marking only the third time in history the team has reached that milestone. They finished the regular season with 102 wins, second-most in team history (behind 1954's 111 win team). The Indians earned the AL Central title for the second consecutive year, along with home-field advantage throughout the American League playoffs, but they lost the
2017 ALDS to the
Yankees 3–2 after being up 2–0. In 2018, the Indians won their third consecutive AL Central crown with a 91–71 record, but were swept in the
2018 American League Division Series by the
Houston Astros, who outscored Cleveland 21–6. In 2019, despite a two-game improvement, the Indians missed the playoffs as they trailed three games behind the
Tampa Bay Rays for the second AL Wild Card berth. During the 2020 season (shortened to 60 games because of the
COVID-19 pandemic), the Indians were 35–25, finishing second behind the
Minnesota Twins in the AL Central, but qualified for the expanded playoffs. In the best-of-three
AL Wild Card Series, the Indians were swept by the
New York Yankees, ending their season. In February 2025,
Larry J. Dolan, who owned the team since the year 2000 and served as the longest owner in the history of the Cleveland franchise, died. His son
Paul, who is listed as the team's "Owner/CEO/Chairman," has held ownership duties over the team since 2013, and is also the only of Larry J. Dolan's children who has held major leadership roles over the Guardians.
Guardians rebranding , who has led the team to two A.L. Central titles, and is a two-time A.L. Manager of the Year (2024 and 2025) On December 18, 2020, the team announced that the Indians name and logo would be dropped after the 2021 season, later revealing the replacement to be the Guardians. Following Francona's retirement at the end of the 2023 season, the Guardians named
Stephen Vogt as their new manager on November 6, 2023. Vogt would lead the Guardians to a bounce-back season, winning the AL Central with a 92–69 record. The Guardians would beat their AL Central rival the
Detroit Tigers in the AL Division Series in five games, but would lose to the
New York Yankees in the AL Pennant in five games. In 2025, Vogt led the team back from a 15.5 game deficit in July, to overtake Detroit and win the second straight AL Central title under his watch. ==Season-by-season results==