It turns out there was a quite a surprising finish in the battle for the back end of the Cleveland Indians rotation. Cody Anderson was named the fourth starter on March 30th and Josh Tomlin was named the fifth starter while Trevor Bauer starts the season in the bullpen.
With this, the rotation shapes out with Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Danny Salazar, Anderson and Tomlin. Bauer likely is available for long-relief, middle relief and spot starts when necessary.
This news involving the fourth and fifth spots is a bit of a surprise because headed into the 2016 campaign. It was thought heading in that Bauer would be the fourth starter with Anderson and Tomlin battling it out for the fifth spot. Many were giving the early edge to Tomlin who had signed a new 2-year contract and Anderson having an option available to start in Columbus.
Anderson had been throwing the ball well in Arizona and impressed early when he won the Indians early season conditioning test. However, his pitching results weren’t spectacular in 18 innings with a 1-2 record and 5.50 ERA. He was throwing in the mid 90’s and had struck out 15 with a 1.22 WHIP. Undoubtedly, how he finished the 2015 played a big role into the decision.
Tomlin hadn’t been overly remarkable this spring until he struck out 10 during his appearance on March 29th. He finished the preseason with a 4.67 ERA and 1-0 record with an impressive 19 strikeouts in 17.1 innings. But Tomlin now has an improved curve ball and change-up that should help him against lefty hitters and the Indians love how he battles to keep his team in the game.
It remains to be seen how Bauer will react to working out of the bullpen. After all, if stats mattered in Spring Training, he would have been the winner in this competition. Bauer finished the Spring with a 1-0 record, 2.25 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 19 Ks in 20 innings of work.
The Indians obviously felt that sending Anderson to Triple-A Columbus wasn’t the best decision and he wasn’t going to be working out of the bullpen in Cleveland, so the battle really came down to Bauer and Tomlin for the last spot in the rotation.
With Tomlin, the Indians have a better idea of what to expect when he pitches – good control, throwing strikes and giving up some home runs, but ultimately working out of jams and limiting damage when he gives up hits. This allows him to work deeper into games when he’s pitching well.
On the other hand, Bauer still hasn’t mastered his control and continues his work to refine his game and develop as a pitcher. During the spring he told reporters he was working on increasing his velocity. Perhaps the team management felt that his control development was more important especially after he led the league in walks in 2015.
The fear and worry with Bauer is he tends to march to the beat of his own drum sometimes although he seems to have been a good at working with the Tribe on his development since he was acquired in a trade a few years ago. Hopefully, Bauer will take this decision in stride and make improvements to his game.
Bauer should take a cue from teammate Carrasco, who was a mediocre, struggling pitcher with an uncertain career in the Major Leagues. When Carrasco was moved to the bullpen during the 2014 mid-season in a last-ditch attempt to find a role for him in Cleveland, he flourished and found the changes he needed to make. Now, Carrasco is essentially one of the top pitchers in baseball and I’m certain that thinking has to be a factor when it comes to the decision regarding Bauer.
If Anderson and/or Tomlin struggles to start the season, it won’t be too difficult to move Bauer out of the bullpen to move into the rotation or make a spot start when needed, assuming that he’s going to be pitching in a long-relief role for now.
The Indians have four off-days in April once the season starts April 4th with Kluber pitching Opening Day at home against the Boston Red Sox. After a day off, Carrasco will pitch April 6 against Boston with Salazar wrapping up the series on April 7.
These days off are April 5th, 11th, 18th and 28th. Because of the spacing, it’s possible the Indians could avoid needing a fifth starter until April 23, if they wanted to keep the other four starters on their regularly scheduled rest.
That’s where the bullpen flexibility of having Tomlin as the fifth starter slot comes into play as he has experience in that role, where Anderson does not. Tomlin has been able to move in and out of the bullpen and starting rotation and that’s a plus for the Indians.
Bauer has only a tiny bit of experience in relief so I would think he’ll be eased into the role in non-crucial situations to start the season and he can continue his development with increased certainty of what his initial role to start the season will be. He won’t need to worry about exclusively continuing a routine as a starter because there would have been a good chance he might have pitched very little in April.
This way, he knows that he will still see game action against Major League hitters and hopefully he will flourish and find a way to be a good teammate and an asset to the team.
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