Salazar Demoted After Rough Start

After a month of telling you to ignore Spring Training stats, especially the amount of home runs allowed in the offense friendly Goodyear Ballpark, the Indians are telling you the opposite. Less than one day after saying that no one start will make or break a pitcher’s chance at the starting rotation, Danny Salazar has been demoted to AAA, essentially setting the starting rotation with T.J. House and Zach McAllister taking the final two spots, leaving room for the third competitor, Josh Tomlin in the bullpen.

Yesterday, Salazar had a real tough time against the Reds, allowing seven runs (six earned) in 3.1 innings on six hits and two home runs. Despite this, Salazar still struck out six of his ten outs recorded showing off excellent movement when he wasn’t completely missing his locations. On the Spring, Salazar had posted an ERA of 8.18 with 15 strike outs in 11 innings.

Of course, this demotion was not based on stats alone. Both manager Terry Francona and GM Chris Antonetti spoke recently of control issues with Salazar, leading to hard hit fast balls all over the park. In addition to still needing some work, there was another genuine reason for sending down Salazar at this point. This was simply because they could.

Initially this Spring, when the rotation looked like Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, Gavin Floyd and one unknown with Bruce Chen in the bullpen, there appeared to be very limited places for a whole lot of pitchers who were out of options. Now, however, things have changed as Floyd’s injury and Chen’s demotion (as well as that of C.C. Lee) have left openings in both the rotation and the bullpen. When it once seemed that the Indians would only be able to protect one of the pair from waivers, it now seems that McAllister will be slated for the rotation with enough room for Tomlin to tag along as well.

For McAllister, this promotion back to starter appears to be well earned. Unlike Salazar, he does have solid numbers this Spring, posting a team best 3.21 ERA in 14 innings with 15 strike outs. As said before, Goodyear for one and the Cactus League as a whole provides an excellent opportunity for offense, making Zach’s one home run allowed very impressive. The rest of the staff has already allowed 33 home runs including ten from Salazar and Trevor Bauer, four more from Kluber and three from Chen. By getting back to his ground ball style, McAllister has been able to pitch in a way that is not only effective in Arizona, but should be effective all around the country once the regular season gets going in just over a week.

Looking at McAllister’s 2014 numbers may not bring much confidence, but he actually began on this path quite awhile ago. Like Carlos Carrasco, it was a trip to the bullpen that helped settle McAllister down and work on just a couple pitches at a time to get back to normal. After posting a 5.67 ERA as a starter in 15 games, McAllister was pushed back into the bullpen where he didn’t allow a single run over his final 7.2 innings of the season (9 K’s). While this may not be a large sample, three of his final five appearances were for more than one inning and he did show a marked improvement in more ways than simple statistics. Assuming this Spring is a carry over from that, McAllister could be a suitable number five starter indeed.

As far as Salazar is concerned, there should be no concern. He is just 25 years old, still has minor league options and is under team control through the 2020 campaign. Salazar is easily the highest potential pitcher the Indians control including first round pick Bauer and the reigning Cy Young award winning Kluber. He strikes out batters like no one since Herb Score and a quick trip to the minors to get his fast ball where it needs to go isn’t going to change that.

In the meantime, the Indians are happy that, despite now losing two pitchers who they thought would be in the starting rotation, they still have one of the best rotations in baseball. That kind of depth is hard to come by and once Salazar returns later this season, this will become more apparent. Between Salazar in AAA and Tomlin in the bullpen, the Indians will have plenty of options should anything go wrong in 2015.