How does the Cleveland Indians bench compare with the rest of the AL Central?

In this series so far we have shown that the infield may be in pretty decent shape and that the outfield, while not a strength, is not a complete train wreck in respect to their AL Central brethren.

Manager Terry Francona does tend to use his bench a bit more than the other rivals. Sometimes this is not a good thing (see Mike Aviles' use the past three seasons). Will this be a strength in 2016? As we covered the backup catchers in that article, we will just focus on the rest of the bench here.

Cleveland Indians

With Aviles departing, his super sub role should default to another super sub in Jose Ramirez. Ramirez should not only be better with the glove than Aviles but also with the bat as well. Originally I had Rajai Davis as a role player, but with Almonte's suspension, that upgrades another bat. I am going to list Tyler Naquin here, but I have a sneaky suspicion Will Venable gets this spot initially.

Chicago White Sox

With the signing of Austin Jackson to play center field this season, I am going to slide Adam Eaton over to right and move Avisail Garcia to a fourth outfielder role. This will bump either J.B. Shuck or Jerry Sands off the roster by the end of spring. I will stick with Shuck for the time being. Although Jimmy Rollins is likely to start at short now, I will leave Tyler Saladino in a backup role and Leury Garcia moving back to the minors.

Detroit Tigers

Even with Cameron Maybin starting the year injured, I suspect Anthony Gose will stick with the fourth outfielder role as Maybin is due back in April. The other two spots should end up with Andrew Romine and Mike Aviles.

Kansas City Royals

Like Detroit, one of the starting outfielders is slated to begin the season on the DL. But I don't think Jarrod Dyson will miss too much time and I will leave Paulo Orlando as the fourth outfielder. Christian Colon should be the backup infielder. I don't see a reason for Ned Yost to carry three catchers as he rarely sits Salvador Perez, I'll go with NRI Travis Snider as the last bench player.

Minnesota Twins

The Twins will likely have a similar bench to the Tribe in that Eduardo Nunez are both fairly diverse in where they can play. I also expect Max Kepler to slide into the last bench spot with NRI Carlos Quentin with an outside shot.

My take

While trying to project what a bench will do over the course of the year is pretty much folly due to injuries etc., I think it's pretty clear that the Twins have the best bench of the group. I also think the Tribe slides into second with the Royals just a smidge behind them. The White Sox and Tigers have very poor depth in my opinion and cannot sustain any major injuries this year if they hope to compete.

I'd rank them as follows:

1. Minnesota
2. Cleveland
3. Kansas City
4. Detroit
5. Chicago

Please post your rankings in the comments.

Previous entries:

• Third Base
• Shortstop
• Second Base
• First Base
• Catcher
• Left Field
• Center Field
• Right Field
• Designated Hitter
• Infield Summary
• Outfield Summary