The Indians announced today that four players have been optioned to Triple-A (Twitter link), as outfielder Bradley Zimmer and right-handers Aaron Civale, Zach Plesac, and James Karinchak were all cut from the 26-man roster.
Of all the roster assignments we’ve seen in recent days as teams make procedural tweaks well in advance of when the 2020 season could actually begin, the Tribe’s moves may have been the ones least likely to happen had the season begun today as scheduled. Optioning this quartet of players gives the Indians a bit more flexibility in determining tougher roster decisions, and obviously any can (and likely will) be recalled prior to the beginning of official games.
Due to injuries to Mike Clevinger and Carlos Carrasco, Civale and Plesac were both penciled into Cleveland’s Opening Day rotation, and it’s a fair bet that both pitchers could have remained in the starting five throughout the year. Adam Plutko was also in the mix for a starting job and, since he is out of options, perhaps had some advantage over Civale and Plesac in that regard, though the Indians could also have kept Plutko on the 26-man roster as a reliever.
Likewise, the hard-throwing Karinchak was expected to play an important role in the Tribe’s bullpen in the wake of a solid Spring Training and an impressive brief cameo (5 1/3 innings) during the 2019 regular season. Karinchak has dealt with some control issues through his three pro seasons, though the righty’s minor league strikeout totals are nothing short of outstanding, with a whopping 186 strikeouts over 102 1/3 innings in the Cleveland farm system.
Civale and Plesac? theyre really banking on their guys being healthy by opening day
Who cares
The season isn’t going to start in 15 days so these guys could be called up before the regular season even starts. Not sure if the Indians are thinking this potentially saves them service time on Civale, Plesac etc. clock. I really don’t know how this shakes out
Clearly you, or you wouldn’t have read and bothered to post
Not banking on them being healthy. Banking that this saves them some money perhaps?
Um… The Indians’ opening day rotation (whenever that is) is now Shane Bieber, ???, ???, ???, and finally ??? (assuming that Carrasco and Clevinger can’t recover in time for Opening Day).
to be fair, its probably not a bad bet that those two are back by then. Given OD probably wolnt be until early June at the latest at this point, Carrasco and Clev should be good by then. however, idve thought Plesac and Civale would be the 4 and 5 regardless.
There go the god damn brownies
No one cares
You keep a horse in the basement?
Who cares what you think
No one.
Bieber, Clevinger, Carrasco, who and who?
Plutko and Jefry Rodriguez, according to Roster Resource speculation.
which to me suggests Plutko and an opener. i doubt they start Rodriguez over Civale or Plesac after the spring he had.
So I guess that means this is for service time and Civale, Plesac, and Carinchak will be up in short order.
I’m guessing this is service time manipulation. If they don’t spend the whole year on the roster, their service time might not be pro-rated, so this could theoretically give them an extra year of control or take them past the Super 2 cutoff.
Karinchak might be their second best reliever, behind Hand. But he has 17 days service time. By calling him up, let’s say a week into the season, they push him from being on track for arbitration in 2022-23 offseason to a full year later.
That and/or the Indians would not have to pay as much in salary for guys who they option to AAA during this time. Really don’t know how this checks out. But the Indians must be (or at least believe they will) getting something out of it.
Interesting tweet by Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter Scott Lauber: “Worth noting: Players optioned during MLB shutdown aren’t subject to 10-day wait (15 for pitchers) before they can be recalled from minors. Better, then, for chances of making team and/or getting called up early in season to get optioned now vs. whenever spring training resumes.”
Guess that means if you are thinking about optioning a player, it’s better to do it now than later. But doesn’t explain why they would option someone like Karinchak at all, unless there maybe are service time considerations.