May 28: Plesac has been called up for his Major League debut, the Indians announced. Lefty Josh Smith was optioned to Triple-A Columbus in his place.
May 25: The Indians will select right-hander Zach Plesac’s contract from Triple-A Columbus, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. The 24-year-old will make his major league debut Tuesday with a start in Boston, according to Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com. Plesac is not on the Indians’ 40-man roster yet, but they do have an opening.
The nephew of former major league pitcher Dan Plesac, Zach Plesac has been with the Cleveland organization since it chose him in Round 12 of the 2016 draft. Plesac does not rank among the Indians’ top 30 prospects at either MLB.com or FanGraphs, with Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel of the latter outlet describing him as a changeup artist with questionable command. He also underwent Tommy John surgery during his draft year, though he’s not showing any ill effects from the procedure these days.
Prior to his major league promotion, Plesac began the season in dominant fashion at the minors’ two highest levels. Plesac stymied Double-A hitters before moving on to Triple-A, where he has recorded a sterling 2.25 ERA and 9.9 K/9 against 0.45 BB/9 over 20 innings and three starts. He offers a 94 to 96 mph fastball and an offspeed mix that includes a curveball, changeup and slider, per Hoynes.
Injuries in the Indians’ rotation, where they’ve gone without Corey Kluber and Mike Clevinger for a large portion of 2019, helped pave the way for Plesac’s call-up. Both pitchers are progressing in their recoveries, though. Kluber, who has been out since May 1 with a fractured forearm, no longer requires a cast, manager Terry Francona announced (via Mandy Bell of MLB.com). The Indians will re-evaluate Kluber in two weeks. Meantime, Clevinger may only be a week to 10 days from starting a minor league rehab assignment, Ryan Lewis of Ohio.com tweets. Clevinger went to the shelf April 9 with a back injury.
Why isn’t he on their top 30 prospect list?
If only there was a link you could click on to find out
This could explain the omission:
“When the Indians drafted him, Plesac was coming off Tommy John surgery on his right elbow and he did not pitch in 2016. Last season was his first healthy year as a pro and this year he’s raised his game.”
I saw him at AA, and he’s the classic “crafty” LHP, only from the right side. There just isn’t a whole lot of stuff there; I’d question that 96mph. But he knows what he’s doing, probably because of his lineage.
He likely feasted at AAA because with the super-ball being used there now, it’s an upper-cut parade, and control guys, even with soft stuff, can get outs.
I wouldn’t disregard him as a prospect at all. Those types can survive in the homer-happy environment.
Yes, quite the lineage indeed! I’ve always been a fan of house Plesac! Their allegiance with house Molitor is still strong to this day!
Since when is 94-96mph “soft stuff” you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. Other than that, love the comment.
Regarding his pitch speeds, here’s a report from his debut:
“His pitch breakdown, according to baseball savant.com, went like this: 47 four-seam fastballs (93.9 mph average); 17 sliders (85.2), one two-seam fastball (93.5), 14 changeups (85.3) and seven curveballs (77.6). He topped out at 95.8 mph and threw 66 percent (57-for-86) of his pitches for strikes.”
Questionable command seems like an odd scouting report for a guy who has never averaged more than 2.5 BB/9 in the minors. Don’t know a thing about this kid or anything the numbers just don’t seem to back that report.
Could have questionable command when it comes to pitch location rather than being wild.
He may have command issues that lead to him leaving balls over the plate, or missing catchers set ups which leads to easy hits given up.
The other thing is that it’s typical for people coming back from TJS to need to refine command. So it literally makes sense that his command has gotten better year over year. But still people want to dismiss his results this season.
Unspectacular but successful.
Let’s see Dan Plesac talk about him on MLB Tonight.
He and Eli Morgan have both been terrific their entire minor league careers. He throws a lot harder than Morgan, but I still never understood why neither of them got much prospect love. They can both flat out pitch.
Morgan will start to get more if he continues to pitch well in AA. The scouting reports on him when he was drafted is that, having an advanced changeup, he would probably dominate A ball and then struggle when he got to AA and above. As 95% of the pitchers in the various A leagues are barely developing their change ups, it makes you look better than you are. So in a lot of ways his dominance at Lynchburg and Lake County was discounted ahead of time.
Yeah I agree. His changeup has been nasty for a while, but I think he was one of those guys that people thought could pitch well in the lower levels with limited velocity but would plateau at higher levels. But he’s been terrific in Akron too (he’s been tough to square up and still strikes out a lot), and I think he’s a lot better than he’s probably gotten credit for.
I see why his profile could be a concern (Aaron Civale killed it in the lower minors but isn’t striking out anyone in Akron these days), but I like Morgan a lot more than most people do.
Interesting (and glad) to see the Indians going for a prospect rather than calling up some random older starter that has MLB experience.
BIG SEXY is still recovering from his Memorial Day cook-out.
Plesac had a very good debut considering it was in Fenway against the reigning World Champs and sat through a long rain delay in the second inning (Most home teams with Accuweather and 1/2 a brain delay the start until after the storm passes so the don’t jam up the starters).
Please check your statement, Connor Byrne concerning the demotion of Cleveland pitcher JD Smith. He is a lefty, not a righty.