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Jason Miller/Getty Images

Suffering Since: 1948

Oh, poor Indians. They were so close. It was right there. Right. There.



But, oh well. Although they'll be the butt of Golden State Warriors-esque memes over the next year, the 2016 Indians were not a one-and-done championship contender.

It's true that Cleveland's future is on thinner ice than that of the Cubs. Where the Cubs will be returning just about all their key players, the Indians need to worry about re-signing primary power source Mike Napoli and World Series near-hero Rajai Davis. Napoli, in particular, figures to be expensive.

However, coming back in 2017 is a core headlined by super-shortstop Francisco Lindor and fellow stars Jason Kipnis, Jose Ramirez and Carlos Santana. Corey Kluber will once again lead the rotation. Andrew Miller and Cody Allen will once again anchor the bullpen, and manager Terry Francona just gave an exciting preview of how he could use the two of them in 2017.

The Indians can also look forward to having Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar back healthy next year. There's some doubt about how much they'll contribute, but this isn't a Mets-type situation. Neither Carrasco nor Salazar will be coming off a serious surgery in 2017.

The bigger wild card is outfielder Michael Brantley, whose bothersome right shoulder basically cost him all of 2016. But he might still be a quality hitter, even if he's limited by that. He was a .319 hitter in 2014 and 2015, after all.

What should also help Cleveland in 2017 is a farm system that still has good depth, even after a couple of blue chips were sent to the New York Yankees to make the Miller trade this summer. With the Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox all at their own sort of crossroads, the Indians also figure to have an easy path through the AL Central.

Yes, the Indians blew a 3-1 lead in the World Series. But a year from now, that could all be forgotten.

As Soon As: 2017

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs. Payroll information courtesy of Cot's Baseball Contracts.