BEREA/CLEVELAND, Ohio -- On a baseball day bathed in football weather, the Browns unveiled their starting rotation Monday, lined up on a stage in Berea: Baker Mayfield, Odell Beckham Jr., Myles Garrett and Jarvis Landry, three aces and a crafty vet.

In Cleveland, the Indians sent too many batters to the plate who swung like linemen.

Two hours apart in Northeast Ohio, it was both Odell Day and Opening Day. If Cleveland fans were more intrigued by the receiver in the brown suit for his introductory news conference than the Quadruple-A outfielders in the red jerseys for their introductory groundouts, well, if you can’t own your home opener, that’s on you.

But if the Browns were stealing anything from the Indians on Monday, it wasn’t their thunder. It was their plan. For years, all Cleveland fans have wanted is for their football team to make moves half as smart as their baseball team. Now, with a new assemblage of talent and a players’ coach in charge, the Browns look a lot like the Indians -- if the Indians had any money.

The Browns are so filled with talent, they can take it as a given. Head coach Freddie Kitchens, who spent his news conference on the first day of offseason football workouts talking team building, brushed off the idea of good players populating the locker room. It’s assumed.

“Our roster looks great on paper,” Kitchens said. “Whoopty-hell, all right? But at the end of the day, we’d better be a good team.”

Beyond the debate over the correct spelling of whoopty, something else in that sentence should jar your senses. Our roster looks great on paper isn’t the kind of thing Browns employees typically can say in April and mean it. But they can now.

That’s the main difference between the Browns and Indians, and why fans freezing in the stands at Progressive Field might have been talking about Mayfield-Beckham touchdowns in between Mike Clevinger strikeouts.

On paper, the Browns are beating the Indians right now. The Browns crushed the Indians in the offseason. While the Browns filled holes, the Indians created them. After the Browns traded for Beckham, the Indians would have needed to sign Bryce Harper to compete. Offseasons can win the day on April 1.

“I think we are talented," Kitchens said, admitting he agreed with the assessment of Ravens coach John Harbaugh that the Browns have the most talent in the AFC North.

Then he detoured toward talent isn’t enough, highlighting the fact that new Browns Beckham, Olivier Vernon and Sheldon Richardson haven’t ever won a playoff game. The Indians, aiming for their fourth straight playoff trip, on Monday trotted out several veterans of a World Series Game 7.

The Indians have a past the Browns envy. But the Browns are enjoying juice the Indians are lacking. The best-case scenario for the Indians is the kind of tight, low-scoring game they produced for most of Monday. Clevinger dominated, the lineup meditated and other than rising for an inning-ending strikeout in the seventh, fans stayed seated through a low-action, quick-moving duel through seven innings. Then the bullpens took turns imploding and the Indians walked away with a 5-3 win that passes for an offensive onslaught this season. Watching the White Sox walk in runs added some thrill to that chill.

Meanwhile, the Browns debated whether it was Landry who taught Beckham how to catch the ball one-handed, or the other way around. On paper and off, the Browns are more fun.

But the Indians suffer from their own success. Perhaps the Browns will one day enjoy the pleasure of their fans taking the postseason for granted. The Indians won 91 games and fans are awash in anxiety. The Browns won seven games and are engendering Super Bowl talk.

On paper, the Indians are top-heavy and unbalanced, relying on too many retreads and unknowns to supplement six or seven All-Stars. On paper, the Browns are deeper and focused on both offense and defense. A previous lament about the Browns lacking a middle class of players -- solid veteran starters beneath that top level of stars -- now applies far more to the Indians.

What the Indians do have -- a front office and manager to trust -- the Browns now have, too. Kitchens and Terry Francona have yet to meet, but everything Kitchens has said since he was hired sounds like it comes from the Tito manual of letting players play. That may not have worked with past Browns talent. But now? Kitchens will stick a boot where it’s needed if it’s needed -- Bill Parcells, one of his mentors, wouldn’t have it any other way -- but he’ll also let his stars be themselves.

“I love him,” Beckham said of Kitchens. “He’s just straight forward. He’s authentic.”

This is how Kitchens said he wants his players to think of him.

“I want them to view me with [that] I gave them something. I gave them either something personally or professionally that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives," Kitchens said. “All we are going to ask in return of them is just their best.”

Through three AL Central titles, that’s what the Indians have given Francona. Taking advantage of a weak division, the Indians have become a playoff staple, and now the Browns may do the same, as the rest of the AFC North prepares to age out of contention.

Kitchens wore an Indians cap to his news conference and opened by wishing the Indians good luck. A high school fireballer and Alabama relief pitcher his senior year of college, Kitchens comes by his baseball naturally. But someone else may have crammed that cap on his head and told him to make nice since the start of the football offseason was trampling the start of the baseball season.

But the Indians can hack it. They’re winners. When Garrett, Landry, Beckham and Mayfield stood for a group photo, I flashed to Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco and Clevinger. A Browns Big Four, an Indians Big Four.

The Indians, for their flaws, are a repeat World Series contender. That’s not easy. The Browns -- any flaws hidden for now behind Beckham’s flash -- are Super Bowl hopefuls. In April, that is easy.

But if the Browns build their team the way Kitchens was promising Monday, they’ll be the Indians, and then some: Homegrown young talent, a leader who can get the most out of it -- but with a more complete roster, more money to spend and this Beckham guy.

Did the Browns show up the Indians on Monday? No. The Browns just want to win like them. They’re ready to. The Indians aren’t going anywhere. One day, two teams, two sets of championship hopes.

That’s an opener.

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