In 2005, the Indians used six starters to get through the entire season with Jake Westbrook, Cliff Lee, Scott Elarton, CC Sabathia and Kevin Millwood making 158 of 162 starts (Jason Davis made the other four) or 98% of the team’s game in a full season. What chumps!
In 2016, the Indians used nine starters during the regular season and, including the post-season, every single regular starter missed at least a start with injury. Here’s an extended breakdown:
April 24th: Carrasco’s Hamstring
The Indians actually started the season pretty healthy with a rotation of Corey Kluber, Danny Salazar, Carlos Carrasco, Josh Tomlin and Cody Anderson. On April 25th, the first change had to be made as Trevor Bauer replaced Carrasco when he hurt his leg covering first base on a play the game before. Carrasco missed between six and seven starts, although once he returned on June 2nd, he was at full strength and complete health, even if he was a little rusty.
June 6th: Salazar’s Shoulder
While the Indians were dealing with Anderson getting replaced in the rotation by Mike Clevinger and general struggles in ability, right after Carrasco returned from the DL, Salazar missed a start with a sore shoulder. While the team considered this to be a separate, unrelated injury to his later problems, it wasn’t necessarily so as pain in one area can force a person to use other muscles differently. Either way, he missed one start and Anderson was brought back for a spot.
July 10th: Salazar’s Elbow
For most of June, the Indians staff wasn’t just healthy, but was pitching really well and it isn’t surprising that this was the period of their greatest success, including a 14 game winning streak. After Salazar’s start against New York on July 9th, he complained of elbow soreness and was held out of the All-Star Game despite being one of the Indians three selections. While he technically didn’t miss any starts this time, he was pushed from the front to the back of the rotation as Carrasco pitched the last game before the break and the first game after the break.
August 2nd: Salazar’s Elbow DL Stint
Salazar’s time back in the rotation was short lived and after he was decimated by the Twins on August 1st he was sent to the disabled list for the first time. Again it was due to elbow pain or discomfort and this time he did miss starts. Give his performance in his five previous starts, this could have been done quite a bit earlier. The Indians survived by going to a four man rotation when possible and with Clevinger filling in when necessary. He missed about three starts this time and once he came back, pitched poorly, possibly because he wasn’t given a minor league rehab assignment.
August 31st: Tomlin Hits the Wall
While it wasn’t technically an injury, Tomlin has been used at an extreme amount this year considering the fact that he lost much of 2015 to shoulder surgery. He hit an obvious innings wall from August 5th through August 30th and was pulled from the rotation after rosters expanded. After skipping about two starts, Tomlin rejoined the rotation and was as good as ever. In the post-season, he was better than ever.
September 9th: Salazar’s Forearm
Facing the Twins again on the 9th, Salazar was pulled early with forearm pain/discomfort/tightness and the next day he was shut down for the season. The initial plan was for Salazar to pitch in Goodyear, Arizona and possibly return as a reliever in the ALDS. This didn’t work out and he wasn’t ready for the ALCS as well. He has since returned to the team and has continued pitching, so there is still some hope that he could return for the World Series.
September 17th: Carrasco’s Hand
This has been very Salazar heavy to this point, but everyone caught a bit of the injury bug. Carrasco had tremendous starts on August 22nd against Oakland in a 1-0 win and against Miami on September 2nd in a 6-2 victory and was in a great place looking forward for the post-season when a come-backer off the bat of Ian Kinsler on the second pitch of the game hit him in the hand, breaking it and ending his season. It was this incident that spurred the Paul Hoynes declaration of the end of the season more than anything else.
September 26th: Kluber’s Groin
Again against Detroit, Kluber was pulled from a start after just four innings with tightness in the right side of his groin. A day later, he was announced out for the regular season with a right quad strain and this strain also cost him the start in game one of the ALDS against Boston. Of course, the Indians still won game one behind Bauer (showing the Indians extreme starting pitching depth in the fact that he started the season in the bullpen and ended as the game one starter in the ALDS) and Kluber returned in time for game two as well as games one and four of the ALCS.
October 13th: Bauer’s Drone
With so much free time after sweeping Boston, Bauer was able to get some work in on one of his drones just prior to the start of the ALCS. This lead to a slice in his right pinky that was severe enough to require stitches. He was originally scheduled to pitch game two against Toronto, but was pushed back to game three on Monday and that obviously wasn’t enough recovery time. Bauer’s bloody finger lasted only two outs in the first as the Indians went with a bullpen game one day earlier than originally planned.
“Luckily” Kluber was healthy enough to be able to pitch on short rest in game four to fill the gap as the Indians essentially went into the ALCS without Carrasco, Salazar and Bauer, looking to just Tomlin and Kluber to finish things out. In the World Series, there would be a chance that Bauer and Salazar could return, but after all that starting pitching depth to start the year, only Kluber and Tomlin have truly gone the distance and both of them missed at least a couple starts as well. Despite all that, they have gotten further than any Indians team in the past 19 years.
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