1996 Cleveland Indians season

The 1996 Cleveland Indians season was the 96th season for the franchise and the third season at Jacobs Field. For the second consecutive season, the Indians had the best record in Major League Baseball. This was the first time in franchise history that the Indians had accomplished that feat. Between May 30 and August 19, the Indians hit at least one double in each of 75 games, the longest such streak in MLB since 1901.

Offseason

November 9, 1995: Rubén Amaro Jr. was released by the Cleveland Indians.
December 6, 1995: Casey Candaele was signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Indians.
December 7, 1995: Julio Franco was signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Indians.
December 14, 1995: Jack McDowell signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Indians.
January 4, 1996: Mario Díaz was signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Indians.
March 31, 1996: Mark Clark was traded by the Cleveland Indians to the New York Mets for Reid Cornelius and Ryan Thompson.

Regular season

Once again, the Indians had a formidable offensive lineup. They led the Majors in hits, batting average, on-base percentage. They also struck out an MLB-low 844 times.

Detailed records

Month	Games	Won	Lost	Win %
April	24	16	8		152	118
May	28	19	9		154	126
June	28	14	14		165	149
July	27	16	11		152	128
August	28	15	13		167	135
September	26	19	7		162	113
Total	161	99	62		952	769

Notable transactions

May 14, 1996: Greg Cadaret was signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Indians.
June 15, 1996: Greg Swindell signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Indians.

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Sandy Alomar Jr.	127	418	110	.263	11	50
1B	Julio Franco	112	432	139	.322	14	76
2B	Carlos Baerga	100	424	113	.267	10	55
SS	Omar Vizquel	151	542	161	.297	9	64
3B	Jim Thome	151	505	157	.311	38	116
LF	Albert Belle	158	602	187	.311	48	148
CF	Kenny Lofton	154	662	210	.317	14	67
RF	Manny Ramirez	152	550	170	.309	33	112
DH	Eddie Murray	88	336	88	.262	12	45

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
José Vizcaíno	48	179	51	.285	0	13
Tony Peña	67	174	34	.195	1	27
Mark Carreon	38	142	46	.324	2	14
Jeromy Burnitz	71	128	36	.281	7	26
Brian Giles	51	121	43	.355	5	27
Álvaro Espinoza	59	112	25	.223	4	11
Jeff Kent	39	102	27	.265	3	16
Kevin Seitzer	22	83	32	.386	1	16
Casey Candaele	24	44	11	.250	1	4
Scott Leius	27	43	6	.140	1	3
Ryan Thompson	8	22	7	.318	1	5
Wayne Kirby	27	16	4	.250	0	1
Nigel Wilson	10	12	3	.250	2	5
Herbert Perry	7	12	1	.083	0	0
Damian Jackson	5	10	3	.300	0	1
Gerónimo Peña	5	9	1	.111	1	2
Einar Díaz	4	1	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Charles Nagy	32	222.0	17	5	3.41	167
Orel Hershiser	33	206.0	15	9	4.24	125
Jack McDowell	30	192.0	13	9	5.11	141
Chad Ogea	29	146.2	10	6	4.79	101
Dennis Martínez	20	112.0	9	6	4.50	48
Brian Anderson	10	51.1	3	1	4.91	21

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Albie Lopez	13	62.0	5	4	6.39	45
Greg Swindell	13	28.2	1	1	6.59	21

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
José Mesa	69	2	7	39	3.73	64
Paul Assenmacher	63	4	2	1	3.09	44
Eric Plunk	56	3	2	2	2.43	85
Julián Tavárez	51	4	7	0	5.36	46
Paul Shuey	42	5	2	4	2.85	44
Jim Poole	32	4	0	0	3.04	19
Alan Embree	24	1	1	0	6.39	33
Danny Graves	15	2	0	0	4.55	22
Kent Mercker	10	1	0	0	3.09	7
Joe Roa	1	0	0	0	10.80	0

Award winners

Omar Vizquel, Hutch Award

'''All-Star Game'''