As Corey Kluber heads out for a rehab start, the Cleveland Indians should finally be getting some good news about their starting rotation that had the worst ERA in baseball most of May. Danny Salazar seems to be working through his issues, slowly but surely, Josh Tomlin is still Josh Tomlin, Trevor Bauer has been improving, Carlos Carrasco avoided an injury scare and a rough start coming off of it. But the biggest question the Indians must answer when Kluber finds his way back to Cleveland is what to do with Mike Clevinger.
Clevinger has given the Indians three starts (four appearances overall) with a 1.56 ERA and 2.74 FIP. In those appearances, he’s racked up a 12.2% swinging strike rate that would tie him for seventh best among starting pitchers in all of baseball if he had the innings to qualify.
So what do the Indians do when Kluber makes his return?
Neither Tomlin or Bauer have any minor league options left. So sending either to Triple-A seems to be out of the question. Salazar does have one option left but do the Indians trust Clevinger enough to take a rotation spot long term while Salazar rebuilds his confidence and figures out a way to limit home runs in Triple-A? Seems unlikely but both Terry Francona and Mickey Callaway have mentioned the word “effort” in regards to Salazar at times, so it’s worth wondering if they might.
Bauer has already been sent to the bullpen once but finding work for him there seems unlikely. Tomlin doesn’t have the velocity that would likely play up in the bullpen. Salazar does and the Indians could try to get him to straighten things out the way Carrasco did in 2014, but, what most people forget is that Carrasco was a special circumstance.
Carrasco didn’t have any options, the Indians weren’t ready to give up on him and they also didn’t have the kind of dominant and defined bullpen in 2014 that they currently have. Shoving a starter like Salazar (or Bauer) in the bullpen and working him infrequently in mop-up innings all while trying to win and help them fix their issues is not a great formula.
The likelier option is that Clevinger is optioned back to AAA, because his start lines up with Kluber’s rehab start but would the Indians benefit from a 6-man rotation at least in short term?
It’s an idea worth discussing given the Indians predicament. Clevinger has pitched too well to deserve to be sent back to AAA, but there’s absolutely no way they will move on from either Bauer or Tomlin and, as I said, moving either to the bullpen is really unproductive and a waste of a roster spot.
However, with Kluber having thrown 249 innings last year and coming off of a back injury, Carrasco coming up with a recent injury as well as Bauer and Salazar’s struggles, the Indians could build in a little extra protection for Kluber as he comes back, as well as Carrasco and maybe give them more time to help figure out how to get Salazar back on track all the way. This wouldn’t be a long term solution, but giving Kluber a chance to ease back in and unburden him from some of the workload wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
Six man rotations can be a little rough on bullpens and forces a different roster construction, which is why it’s not a great long term solution. To further that point, there’s no evidence to suggest that a six man rotation prevents injuries or improves performance. The problem with that is that nobody in the MLB is conditioned to pitch on five days rest. Pitchers are creatures of habit and work on a routine designed to pitch every fifth day. To change that, it would have to start in the minors.
This chart is from a Fox Sports piece studying the potential of a six man rotation from 2014 studying results from 2010-14 on performance with different days of rest.
There’s enough evidence to suggest this probably wouldn’t work long term, but while Kluber works back from an injury along with trying to protect from his heavy 2016 workload and other rotation issues, it could give the Indians more time to make a more permanent decision. It’s a long season and the Indians have high, high expectations. If a six man rotation can help them long term even if they only use it in the short term, what could it hurt?
If the Indians don’t want to take the risk of a six man rotation, Clevinger has proven he’s capable of pitching out of the bullpen. Last week Callaway convinced Francona to use Clevinger out of the bullpen on his side session day in a real game. He struck out Evan Longoria using three breaking pitches.
They could use him in the way the Astros use Chris Devenski. He has nine multi-inning appearances including two-four inning outings and five-two inning outings. Devenski has a more devastating breaking ball and higher swinging strikeout and strikeout rates, but Clevinger’s uptick in velocity in the pen last year and recent confidence and success in his curveball and slider might allow him to thrive in two or three inning outings. It might make the roles in the bullpen shift, but could ease the workload on starters as well as on guys like Andrew Miller or Bryan Shaw. On a night where a starter struggles, he can save the bullpen while keeping the team in the game and not have to force a roster move where a reliever with options has to be sent out to get a fresh arm.
The bottom line is, Clevinger is an arm too valuable to send down at this point and there are a few ways the Indians could leverage him whether it’s in the rotation and helping to ease the burden there or in the bullpen as another weapon there.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
