If there’s one thing that has become increasingly tiring about the past few years of Cleveland Indians baseball, it’s how frustratingly predictable the team has become.

In every season since 2013, the Tribe has stumbled a bit out of the gate. However, the team eventually picks itself up and makes the second half of the year dramatic. Unfortunately, the exciting final months always end up resulting in a dud of a finish. The 2013 Indians were only in the playoffs for a couple hours, while the 2014 and 2015 seasons resulted in the team falling just short of the postseason.

The front office has treated these shortcomings the same way in each following offseason. Seeing this as a club which only needs a tweak or two to become a contender, the higher-ups simply make small additions, refusing to do anything of significance to improve the team.

The result has been the same every single time – the minor acquisitions make minimal impact while Cleveland as a whole falls short of expectations. Unfortunately, this situation certainly seems like it’s playing itself out in front of us all over again. As we saw in years past, the front office avoided major offseason moves, and it’s once again backfiring on the team.

Granted, this year’s iteration of the Indians doesn’t look as bad as the springtime disaster we watched last season. However, at the moment it’s impossible to take the 2016 Tribe seriously. Sure, it seemed like you could at this time last week, after the team had stunningly taken five of six games against the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals. However, when this is followed by the Indians losing two straight series to two straight last place teams, it’s tough to see them as a contender.

Cleveland ran into the same problem in each one of their respective losses to the Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins – minimal contributions on offense. In the past two days, the Indians were only able to muster a combined four runs against a Twins team with a -57 run differential. Only the hapless Atlanta Braves are worse in that statistic.

It’s days like this when you’re painfully reminded that the front office felt this team was just fine on its own. That, despite struggling on offense for the past two seasons, no real power needed to be added to the roster.

Instead, guys like Juan Uribe and Rajai Davis were acquired. Both of them are in their late 30s, and currently neither is batting above .215. Mike Napoli leads the team in home runs (7) and RBIs (22), but also has the fourth most strikeouts in the MLB (49). Marlon Byrd has his moments here and there, but that’s about it.

These were the four major offensive signings the front office made this past winter. The youngest of them, Napoli, is 34. It’d be a stunner if any of them were still on the roster next year.

Honestly, I understand why the Indians are gun-shy about making a splash in free agency. The teams which spend tons of money in the offseason are rarely the ones who win the World Series the following year. Additionally, when Cleveland did try and throw out big contracts to guys like Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher, it flopped.

At the same time, this is the third year in a row where the team bet on itself, assuming there was enough firepower on offense to make an impact on the field. And, for the third year in a row, there just aren’t enough returns from the guys Cleveland brought in to help.

This is what happens when you assume you were just unlucky. When, once again, you chalk up an unfortunate end to the season as the result of some bad bounces. The same thing happened the last two years. While there’s a lot of time left this season, the situation sure looks like it’s playing itself out once again in Cleveland.