1986 Cleveland Indians season explained

The 1986 Cleveland Indians season was the 86th for the franchise. On November 13, 1986, the O'Neill estate would sell the team to Richard Jacobs, who would run the team with his brother David for the next decade.^[1]

Offseason

• December 10, 1985: George Vukovich was purchased from the Indians by the Seibu Lions (Japan Pacific).^[2]
• January 7, 1986: Roy Smith and Ramón Romero were traded by the Indians to the Minnesota Twins for Ken Schrom and Bryan Oelkers.^[3]
• January 14, 1986: Troy Neel was drafted by the Indians in the 9th round of the 1986 Major League Baseball draft. Player signed May 5, 1986.^[4]
• January 23, 1986: Fran Mullins was purchased by the Indians from the San Francisco Giants.^[5]
• February 8, 1986: Dickie Noles was signed as a free agent by the Indians.^[6]
• February 10, 1986: Butch Benton was released by the Indians.^[7]
• February 25, 1986: Jim Kern was signed as a free agent by the Indians.^[8]

Regular season

Notable transactions

• March 28, 1986: Dave Von Ohlen was released by the Indians.^[9]
• April 1, 1986: Jerry Willard was released by the Indians.^[10]
• June 2, 1986: Greg Swindell was drafted by the Indians in the 1st round (2nd pick) of the 1986 Major League Baseball draft. Player signed July 31, 1986.^[11]
• June 17, 1986: Jim Kern was released by the Indians.^[8]
• June 20, 1986: Neal Heaton was traded by the Indians to the Minnesota Twins for John Butcher.^[12]

Opening Day Lineup

Opening Day Starters

	Name	Position
2		CF
30		RF
14		SS
29		DH
26		3B
10		1B
4		2B
27		LF
6		C
18		P

^[13]

Roster

1986 Cleveland Indians
Roster
Pitchers		Catchers Infielders		Outfielders		Manager Coaches (Pitching) (Hitting/First Base) (Bullpen) (Third Base)

Player stats

Batting

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases

Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	SB
align=left		101	293	30	66	7	3	1	29	.225	10
align=left		92	254	28	68	9	0	2	26	,268	0
align=left		5	14	3	5	2	0	1	4	.357	0
align=left		146	562	88	169	28	4	17	73	.301	17
align=left		161	587	92	163	17	14	4	51	.278	32
align=left		162	663	108	200	36	9	29	121	.302	29
align=left		85	205	34	57	9	0	8	32	.278	2
align=left		18	58	10	16	1	0	3	9	.276	1
align=left		149	599	80	183	30	5	10	74	.306	10
align=left		140	442	68	131	29	2	18	77	.296	6
align=left		158	583	83	168	30	4	17	80	.288	2
align=left		28	40	3	7	4	0	0	5	.175	0
align=left		105	95	33	25	4	1	0	8	.263	23
align=left		6	10	1	2	0	0	0	2	.200	0
align=left		103	416	58	113	21	1	24	69	.272	2
align=left		130	473	61	154	29	2	6	48	.326	3
align=left		120	401	49	92	14	0	17	66	.229	4
align=left		5	7	2	1	0	0	0	1	.143	0
Team Totals	162	5702	831	1620	270	45	157	775	.284	141

Pitching

Note: W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; H = Hits allowed; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts

Player	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
align=left		10	10	4.95	62	10	7	112.2	123	70	62	43	60
align=left		1	5	6.93	13	8	0	50.2	86	43	39	13	16
align=left		2	4	4.08	51	0	20	57.1	60	26	26	31	36
align=left		16	12	3.57	36	34	0	252.1	234	112	100	106	167
align=left		0	2	7.64	13	0	0	17.2	27	16	15	12	9
align=left		3	6	4.24	12	12	0	74.1	73	42	35	34	24
align=left		1	0	2.50	11	0	1	18.0	18	5	5	6	12
align=left		1	1	7.90	16	0	0	27.1	34	28	24	23	11
align=left		11	11	4.32	34	32	0	210.1	241	126	101	95	81
align=left		3	2	5.10	32	0	0	54.2	56	33	31	30	32
align=left		3	3	4.70	35	4	1	69.0	70	38	36	40	33
align=left		0	0	6.30	5	0	0	10.0	14	10	7	4	6
align=left		1	2	6.55	6	5	0	22.0	23	20	16	17	9
align=left		14	7	4.54	34	33	0	206.0	217	118	104	49	87
align=left		4	4	5.00	19	13	0	84.2	88	48	47	34	33
align=left		5	2	4.23	9	9	0	61.2	57	35	29	15	46
align=left		4	4	4.91	26	0	4	40.1	43	23	22	16	32
align=left		5	3	5.15	39	3	1	76.2	84	48	45	37	50
Team Totals	84	78	4.58	162	162	34	1447.2	1548	841	736	605	744

Game log

|- style="text-align:center; background:#bfb;"| 1 || April 7 || @ Orioles || 6-4 || Schrom (1-0) || Flanagan (0-1) || Camacho (1) || 52,292 || 1-0|- style="text-align:center; background:#fbb;"| 2 || April 9 || @ Orioles || 4-3 || Aase (1-0) || Bailes (0-1) || || 13,039 || 1-1|- style="text-align:center; background:#fbb;"| 3 || April 10 || @ Orioles || 5-1 || Dixon (1-0) || Kern (0-1) || Bordi (1) || 12,933 || 1-2|- style="text-align:center; background:#fbb;"| 4 || April 11 || Tigers || 7-2 || Terrell (1-0) || Niekro (0-1) || || 32,441 || 1-3|- style="text-align:center; background:#bfb;"| 5 || April 12 || Tigers || 6-2 || Schrom (2-0) || Morris (1-1) || Camacho (2) || 17,426 || 2-3|- style="text-align:center; background:#bfb;"| 6 || April 13 || Tigers || 8-2 || Bailes (1-1) || Tanana (0-1) || || 10,463 || 3-3|- style="text-align:center; background:#fbb;"| 7 || April 15 || Yankees || 6-2 || Niekro (1-0) || Candiotti (0-1) || Fisher (1) || 3,223 || 3-4|- style="text-align:center; background:#bbb;"| - || April 16 || Yankees || colspan=6| Postponed|- style="text-align:center; background:#bfb;"| 8 || April 17 || Yankees || 6-4 || Niekro (1-1) || Tewksbury (1-1) || Bailes (1) || 5,602 || 4-4|- style="text-align:center; background:#fbb;"| 9 || April 18 || @ Tigers || 6-1 || Tanana (1-1) || Schrom (2-1) || || 20,703 || 4-5|- style="text-align:center; background:#bfb;"| 10 || April 19 || @ Tigers || 8-6 || Bailes (2-1) || Petry (1-2) || Camacho (3) || 19,216 || 5-5|- style="text-align:center; background:#bbb;"| - || April 20 || @ Tigers || colspan=6| Postponed|- style="text-align:center; background:#bfb;"| 11 || April 21 || Orioles || 7-0 || Candiotti (1-1) || Flanagan (1-2) || || 3,012 || 6-5|- style="text-align:center; background:#fbb;"| 12 || April 22 || Orioles || 5-2 || Dixon (2-0) || Niekro (1-2) || Aase (4) || 3,004 || 6-6|- style="text-align:center; background:#bfb;"| 13 || April 23 || Orioles || 5-1 || Schrom (3-1) || McGregor (1-2) || Bailes (2) || 3,788 || 7-6|- style="text-align:center; background:#fbb;"| 14 || April 24 || @ Yankees || 2-1 || Guidry (3-0) || Heaton (0-1) || || 17,299 || 7-7|-

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball.

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Waterloo^[14]

References

• 1986 Cleveland Indians team at Baseball-Reference
• 1986 Cleveland Indians team page at www.baseball-almanac.com

Notes and References

1. Web site: Kevin OBrien . The Plain Dealer . 2009-06-06 . Richard Jacobs, Cleveland builder and Indians team owner, remembered . 2024-08-19 . cleveland . en.
2. https://www.baseball-reference.com/v/vukovge01.shtml George Vukovich
3. https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/smithro01.shtml Roy Smith
4. https://www.baseball-reference.com/n/neeltr01.shtml Troy Neel
5. https://www.baseball-reference.com/m/mullifr01.shtml Fran Mullins
6. https://www.baseball-reference.com/n/nolesdi01.shtml Dickie Noles
7. https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/bentobu01.shtml Butch Benton
8. https://www.baseball-reference.com/k/kernji01.shtml Jim Kern
9. https://www.baseball-reference.com/v/vonohda01.shtml Dave Von Ohlen
10. https://www.baseball-reference.com/w/willaje01.shtml Jerry Willard
11. https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/swindgr01.shtml Greg Swindell
12. https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/butchjo01.shtml John Butcher
13. https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL198604070.shtml 1986 Opening Day Lineup
14. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007