The Indians made a statement over the weekend when they optioned right-handers Mike Clevinger and Zach Plesac to their alternate training site in the wake of the pair’s violation of MLB’s Covid-19 protocols.
Buster Olney and Jeff Passan of ESPN shed further light on the details leading up to the decision to option the two right-handers. Olney reports that multiple teammates considered opting out of the season if Clevinger and Plesac immediately rejoined the club. Passan further reports that veteran lefty Oliver Perez was one of those players, and he adds that Francisco Lindor “was outspoken as well” (though there’s no indication Lindor threatened an opt-out). Plesac took to Instagram last week to lament that the media had overstated his violation of the league’s protocols, but his six-minute rant only further angered teammates, according to both Olney and Passan.
Right-hander Adam Plutko was candid when addressing reporters on the issue last week. That was before Plesac’s video, wherein he stated, “I know how important it is that we must follow these certain procedures,” despite having violated those procedures just 96 hours prior. Asked if he’d seen the video, Indians skipper Terry Francona said that he had and plainly told reporters that he “was disappointed” (Twitter link via Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon-Journal). Plesac has since deleted the video from his Instagram.
Beyond the immediate competitive aspects of the move to option both players, there are also some potentially major service time implications. Passan points out that Clevinger, if he spends 20 or more days at the alternate site, would have his eligibility for free agency pushed back by a year. Because service time is prorated in 2020, each day of the schedule is akin to 2.77 days of big league service time. Clevinger needs to spend at least 48 days of this 67-day season in the Majors to cross into the next service class. That had been considered a given prior to the season but is now a scenario very much worth monitoring. Plesac will graduate to the next service class regardless, but he may no longer be on pace for Super Two status, as he previously was.
The Indians, of course, have a noted high-risk player in Carlos Carrasco, who missed much of the 2019 season following a leukemia diagnosis. Carrasco stunningly was able to return to the mound in September, earning American League Comeback Player of the Year honors in the process. Even looking past any health risks in the locker room, though, both the Marlins and Cardinals have had their schedules blown up by Covid-19 outbreaks within their clubhouses. Violation of the league’s health-and-safety protocols comes with the risk of creating a third such situation. Given that the rest of the team — and the overwhelming majority of big leaguers in general — appear to be following those protocols and remaining at the team hotel when on the road, it’s understandable that teammates were outspoken in their disapproval.
The manner in which the club handles the situation moving forward remains to be seen. Optional assignment rules dictate that both Clevinger and Plesac will need to spend 10 days at the alternate training site unless either is recalled as a replacement for a player who is being placed on the injured list. There will surely be trade speculation leading up to this year’s Aug. 31 deadline, although there’s no indication yet that the organization would take such a drastic action.
For now, the Indians can carry on with a still-strong rotation of Shane Bieber, Carrasco, Aaron Civale and Plutko. Lefty Logan Allen, already on the big league roster, is one option to make a start if needed. Right-hander Jefry Rodriguez, who made eight starts for Cleveland in 2019, is another option down at the team’s alternate site.
Let them play. Not everyone is fearful.
no
The fearful part isn’t the issue. It was breaking protocol that they agreed to when they opted to play this season. If they didn’t want to follow protocols, they should have opted out.
Tell that to Carrasco…
A lot of people aren’t fearful, until it happens to them. Regardless, you don’t have to be fearful to take precautions. If there are people around you who are more concerned than you are, you should make every effort to be considerate of them.
To take personal liberties at the potential cost of other people’s lives is negligent, and that personal greed doesn’t belong in a team sport. Your teammates can’t place trust in you if you break that trust.
Agreed
Your ignorance is unbelievable. It has nothing to do with fear. They agreed to follow certain protocols. Violations of those rules have consequences at a league, team, and teammate level. It is not a complicated concept.
Agreed
Man, the selfishness is wild in this country.
It’s called ignorance
Clueless
This isn’t about fear it’s about putting yourself above your team and union brethren.
Look at what happened to the Marlins; it only takes one stupid mistake to compromise the whole team and, by proxy, the whole league. No one is forcing Plesac or Clevinger to adhere to the rules (or be “fearful”), by opting into the season they made a promise to their team they would voluntarily follow said rules. If they’ve changed their minds, fine, then opt out. But you don’t get to have it both ways.
Doing what they’ve done is disrespectful to all their colleagues doing everything they can to save the season, and it breaks the trust with their team.
COVID denialists are back! And deaths are way up now.
Comment, Fred?
Not sure you are the right person to be lecturing others on truth Terry. This information is based on your thoughtless baseball takes.
terrymesmer
If you are over 70, the risk of Covid is real.
If you are under 40. and in good health, the risk is minor at best. However, they can and do spread it to people who do die.
Now what’s not real about what I said. I never see a lot of balance on the subject.
Don’t expect a response Halo. Terry likes to throw a patty-cake slap and run. In other words, a subpar Blue Jays fan.
Care to explain your subpar Blue Jays fan comment teabag?
Halo i doubt the parents who had kids with no underlying conditions die of it would say the risk is minor.
Self-explanatory. You still need us to dumb things down for you to understand? Rhetorical question, you can look that up yourself.
Easy to be a big man behind a keyboard slinging insults isn’t it teabag, Let me guess a ra ra rangers cowboy who can’t get over choking 5 yrs ago. Glad we got into your head so much these past 5 yrs .
Guess you are the type of “man” to throw a punch when the other guy isn’t looking .
Still love that bat flip.
Um…you called me a teabag. Hypocrite-much?
The bat flip was 5 years ago. Maybe look to the present and the future.
I am a Blue Jays fan. You just pretend to be one. You had zero facts suggesting I was a Rangers fan. That is your problem; you work on ideas with no fact or rational thought. You and Terry are the same – subpar fans enjoying the idea of finishing 3rd and 4th behind the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays every year. You guessed poorly and you are stuck in 2015. It’s 2020. Time to figure things out (if you’re capable).
Dummy
Rules are rules. If they can’t follow them, they can’t play.
*not everyone is immunocompromised and could die is what you really mean right? Sacrificing Carrasco for the good of the rotation is what you mean.
I haven’t read the protocols they agreed to, but are they allowed to go to the grocery store?
Why does this titbag have 6 thumbs up?
While I can agree with that statement, rules are rules. They broke them.
Their teammate is a leukemia survivor. They may not be fearful of COVID, but they are definitely reckless and dangering a teammate. They’re jerks.
Did anyone come out and say what they did, and what was the rules violation? Because listening to Plesac’s video it seemed the violation was staying out past curfew. To me, staying out past curfew would mean you get a slap on the wrist and maybe a small fine.
Are players allowed to go out and get a sit down dinner at a restaurant? Can they hang out with friends? Are they only allowed to hang out with or interact with non team members before 10pm? I’ve been watching Trevor Bauers vlog and he went to a grocery store, this was before the rules changed post Marlins / Cardinals incidents. .
Go actually look into the situation, the answers are easy to find and you can even trace back through the links in this very article. Super lazy to ask commenters to clarify for you.
Let’s be honest for a minute here. If your playing in your teams home city you can go to a grocery store, but on the road you can’t leave the hotel? Does MLB really think that’s the solution?
If Cleveland brass was really concerned about COVID implications of what they did, they would have been sent to their real homes and not to minor league camp.
This is all a show and unfortunately these two guys are paying the price for the bad PR of the outbreaks with Miami and St Louis.
And you can’t say the punishment is a result of lying to the team outside of any COVID implications because there isn’t another instance of an established MLB guy (Clev) being optioned to the minors for lying to his team.
The best case you can give for Clevinger and Plesac is they are liars and they dishonored themselves and betrayed their team.
They agreed to the protocols, they broke protocols and they lied about it.
If I’m Carrasco and Francona, who are at serious risk, I make my decision to opt-out or opt-in basee on the protocols and trust that players, my friends, will be honest and truthful and keep their agreements.
You can’t underplay the level of deceit. Lives are literally at stake.
“If your playing in your teams home city you can go to a grocery store, but on the road you can’t leave the hotel? Does MLB really think that’s the solution?”
Yes? I don’t understand why you seem to be implying there’s some sort of disconnect, here. One is leaving the house for an essential reason, the other is not. MLB is telling players “only break social distancing if you have to.” It’s the same message we’ve all been told since March. No one is pretending you can eliminate the risk, but you absolutely can reduce it.
Agreed
Beside the fact that they voluntarily took the (admittedly tiny in most respects) chance to risk everything, they lied to their teammates about it. For that alone, they deserve the criticism
This is kinda like a married man cheating on his wife with prostitutes. Sure he promised that he wouldn’t but hey, he wanted to! He doesn’t want to admit that he did wrong, so he keeps sleeping with his wife without telling her. It’s okay because hey, he’s PROBABLY not infected! Even if he is, his wife is young and strong. Take some penicillin and you will be fine babe, stop complaining!
Leaving the hotel was the rules violation. The rules were set and voted on by the players.
The violation was they left the team hotel. The team voted on the rules prior to the start of play.
I found it interesting that Plesac’s posting was talking into the camera while driving while also not wearing his seatbelt. His decisions leave a lot to be desired.
Off with their heads!
They broke trust with their teammates – shouldn’t that be the biggest issue, even bigger than breaking the rules?
I’d love to see CLE keep them off the roster and cost them both the year’s status…the grievance would be a fun fight!!
I watched Plesac’s IG video on YouTube. Instead of saying I eff’d up, he was trying to minimize himself going out and how he was at small risk of being potentially exposed. Your opinions don’t really matter and you don’t get to tell others how they should feel when you violated team and MLB rules and breach the trust of your teammates and support staff. You’re an entertainer so don’t blame the media in this instance for truthfully reporting the news. If you want to hang out, opt out. If you want to regain the trust of your team and play baseball again, apologize sincerely reassuring everyone you won’t make the same mistake again and keep your mouth shut. Plesac has some growing up to do.
Exactly. The video just made the situation worse. Whether he loved the rules or not he agreed to them, then he broke his word,his commitment to his team. He added a level or risk to their lives and careers that he’d promised not to bring.
Apologize, get back on the mound, and let’s go.
His video shows him talking into the camera while drive while also not wearing his seatbelt. He is exposing how poorly he makes decisions.
Maybe he shouldnt have recorded his opinions while driving and without a seatbelt.
They broke the team rules and obviously violated their teammates’ trust. That’s all need be said. If the players themselves don’t want them there, at least for a period of time, what else is there to say?
I’ve also read that Clev played dumb while Plesac was being disciplined and separated from the team. Traveled with the team on a team flight. All the while having done the same thing as Plesac had done.
They screwed up. They will be held accountable and today the only way it seems to make someone receive a message is by hurting them in the pocket book.
Taking bets on how long until one or both are traded to the Astros.
Plesac comes across as kind of a d-bag so he’d fit right in with Houston!
release them!
Vizionaire needs an eye exam. Terrible take. They were dealt with harshly, there is absolutely no way you just outright release them. Every team in baseball would be licking their chops for that to happen.
If you aren’t going to inflict meaningful punishment, then why have rules in the first place? I’m a Tiger fan (thanks for your sympathy), but Cleveland set a very good example here.
Exactly….pretty simple, Wanna play? Follow Rules.. Don’t want to follow rules, leave.
Where’s the players Association? Shouldn’t they be trying to protect their union brothers?
The team optioned two players, the team decides who is on the active roster not the union. Nothing the union can do.
I’d imagine there will be a grievance filed, but Bryant proved those are hard to win. Bryant was ready, and there was no reason he shouldn’t have been up. He still lost. Cleveland can easily say why roster 2 guys we can’t use while they’re in quarantine? Slam dunk win for the Indians.
Yeah, the outcome of the Bryant matter spoke volumes. The Indians organization can definitely take advantage of this situation and manipulate service time. And, with the level of disgust shown towards Plesac and Clevinger by fellow players, who will come to their defense in a service time dispute? This could prove to be a seven- or eight-figure mistake by those two players.
They were outnumbered in their clubhouse by their “union brothers” who decided their fate. The protection and well being of the rest of the union is more important than 2 guys that made a poor decision.
They are protecting the other 898 instead of these two jagoffs.
Trade them to the Astros, they don’t care.
Trade Plutko, instead. That steady diet of batting practice fastballs he throws to opponents is killing the team.
+1
certainly makes a bit more sense now. will no rescinded my assumption that the ability to manipulate service time made CLE’s decision easier, but it makes more sense to send them down given this situation.
It’s hard to see how that situation remains tenable in Cleveland if they take a year of service time from both those guys. There will be bad blood on both sides.
Cleveland options Plesac and Clevinger
They lose service time and delay free agency by a year.
Plesac and Clevinger demand a trade this year or in the off season pulling a Trevor Bauer to force their way out.
Cleveland fans wonder why and are mad they’re disgruntled.
Cleveland fans demand high end prospects and a kings ransom for them…..after spending weeks or months devaluing them and their importance to the team.
Everybody ragging on them lines up to beg their team to trade for them for scraps…..after spending weeks and months arguing they should be banned for life.
Going to be a lot of fun watching this saga.
Luis Perdomo and a used washer and dryer for Plesac and Clevinger. Final offer.
Promise Perdomo won’t break team rules.
Probably one of the most ridiculous statements on here made so far. Wow, the internet makes people…. nope, gonna stay on the high road.
Truth hurts man.
Except Trevor didn’t force his way out of Cleveland, he asked multiple times not to be traded that year. They didn’t get less value for Bauer. No one will trade either one of these two for less than they received for Bauer. I doubt they keep Clevinger down the 20 days it takes to “manipulate” service time, if they did it would only add to his trade value gaining an extra year of controll.
IndianJoe.
This will die down. A couple 20 something year olds made a stupid, selfish mistake. It was a huge mistake, but people have short memories.
Clevinger is a Free Agent in 2023. Two and a half years from now, people wont even remember.
1. I didn’t say Trevor Bauer forced his way out. I did say Clevinger and Plesac will do something along the lines of Trevor Bauer throwing the ball over the fence to force THIER way out.
2. I said nothing about what the Cleveland front office will and won’t take for them. I did say clrveland FANS will over value them and other teams FANS will offer scraps in proposed trades on these threads.
3. Just walk away with your ridiculous takes. Go float your dumb Padres trades somewhere else.
We get the dumb attempt at sarcasm, it’s the utterly idiotic follow up comments that weren’t attempts at sarcasm. No need to make inappropriate and offensive comments.
He is right on one thing, other team’s fans always offer scraps. How many times have we seen Yankee fans on here suggesting trades of Andujar and either Garcia or Florial for Lindor or Clevinger?
I expect young guys to make mistakes, this shouldn’t define them for life. However, the way Plesac is handling it shows a completely lack of accountability and maturity.
Stick to the deal you signed before the season. Set your own level of risk tolerance afterwards. This is about the team, not you.
Yeah, that’s the thing- they made a mistake, and we all do. I wouldn’t be opposed to my team trading for either one at this juncture. How they proceed moving forward may change my view, though. Part of making mistakes is learning from them.
To bad they don’t have Bauer anymore… he can pitch every 4th day.
really looked like that last year…
If they still had Bauer, they wouldn’t have Reyes. For a team with zero offense and the best era in baseball; Reyes is more valuable to them.
I’m not one of those “woke” fellas, or whatever.
But, I agree with the Indians here.
This doesn’t have anything to do with being “woke.”
The video is pretty cringeworthy. Talking about safety protocols while driving and not wearing a seatbelt. Needs to read the room a lot better.
I’m glad I didn’t watch the video. It’s amazing how some of these guys can be so baseball smart and so real-life dumb at the same time.
On top of the fact his family has been around baseball and his uncle is a former pro and analyst. With all those in his immediate circle one would probably assume they spoke with him and he must have brought up these thoughts with them. A simple “take your punishment, keep your head down and work to be better” could have saved him from all this. Shifting blame to make yourself the victim only makes you look like more of a t urd. Different situation but same approach Ryan Braun used and he has never lived that down
First thing I noticed. The video was on mute and the lack of seatbelt told me all I needed to know
Manfred’s lack of disciplinary action towards players is the bigger issue here. Clevenger, Plesac, they’re just two punk kids. He’s in charge of the league.
It’s always Manfred’s fault… Got it.
The team disciplined them rather dramatically. No need to blame anyone for a lack of discipline in this case.
Poor widdle Zach. The “media” is evil because, uh, they did their job, unlike Zach. Just watch the video of this self-absorbed, clueless, entitled punk, and tell me how you’d welcome him to your team. And all the while in the video he recorded on his phone while driving, he’s not wearing a seatbelt. The rules don’t apply to him. He’s Zach freaking Plesac, dammit!
I don’t really care if he wore his seatbelt or not. It’s his choice so long as he understands the consequences.
Driving while making the video, though? That’s idiotic. Worse yet, his message is tone deaf. He seems to want to blame everyone but himself.
It’s not if you violated CDC protocols. That’s not the point. He agreed to abide by MLB protocols, and he did not.
> I don’t really care if he wore his seatbelt or not. It’s his choice
No. Not a choice. It’s against the law.
You’ve never driven 41 km/h in a 40 zone? Never went 105 in 100? Bet you have Terry. Going over speed limits is against the law. Hypocrite.
Sure it’s a choice. He can click it, or he can risk a ticket. It’s still a choice. People make choices every day, some good and some bad.
The distracted driving bothers me because that’s endangering someone else.
Again though the seatbelt, that’s his call. It doesn’t alter my view of him in any way.
Lighten up a little.
Yes, everyone has gone over the speed limit at least once in their life. The difference is we all know it is wrong and if we get caught we will get punished. Take your ticket and leave. We don’t tell the officer or the judge “It’s my right to do whatever the hell I want!” If you do, you will probably be spending the night in jail.
Absolutely agree, Jav. I am not condoning not wearing one either. I pointed out to the maladroit baseball thinker in terrymesmer he should probably stop casting judgement.
You do realize that people choose to break the law, right?
youtube.com/watch?v=v6EFiCbxcPA
Guess the Indians have their heart set on drifting off into mediocrity sunset. You have 2 potential cracks at the postseason left with Lindor. Holding down 2 great starters destroys whatever chance you had at winning. Once they are confirmed clear of COVID the players need to accept their apology and get over it.
But if 18 of their players ended up out for Covid for 2 weeks, it would really decrease their chances.
There’s no circumstance where I’d EVER forgive them. Were I their team mate, I’d keep my disdain off the field for the sake of the team, I’d play the game with them, just as before. Outside the lines, I’d ignore their existence. I’d consider them non entities. Gross negligence when it comes to human life and human health isn’t never acceptable and always unforgivable.
If society has come to the point where going out to dinner is unforgivable we are done for. They messed up but acting like they should be hung is ridiculous.
It’s not breaking protocol and going out to dinner that is the problem here.
It’s about breaking rules you agreed to and then lying to your teammates about it and potentially compromising the health of a leukemia survivor in the process.
Then posting incendiary social media messages in a lame attempt to garner favor .
No one says they should hang,but as a teammate could you ever trust them again?
That’s the issue.
People make mistakes and can grow from them. Obviously, Plesac hasn’t thus far by playing the victim card. They both deserve all the criticism and punishment right now, If they realize the gravity of their mistakes and are truly contrite, I wouldn’t cast them aside.
Blaming the Evil Mainstream Media. I always watch the news at some point everyday. I haven’t seen anything about story besides what I read on here.
If they didn’t want to follow the protocols they could’ve opted out. This isn’t difficult and it’s not complicated, and there’s exactly ZERO room for grey area. I applaud the team mates who’re making a stand to hold them accountable. Plesac in particular deserves to be put in the position where his career is in existential jeopardy.
I agree that Plesac made a big mistake and he felt that CDC rules took president over MLB protocols. I fell the discipline is justified. I do want to add one thing though, I watched the video where everyone said he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and I saw that he was indeed wearing his seatbelt but was incorrectly using the shoulder strap.
I didn’t hear a turn signal either
So the possibility of 1 or both getting traded may have just raised some due to this information. If the team is speaking out about them then they may not be welcomed back this season…
AA are you on the phone to Cleveland yet? What would it take to get Clevinger?
Also, take into consideration that one of their teammates is immuno-compromised after recovering from freaking LEUKEMIA, and their manager has several known health scares over the past few years. The pair deserve every punishment the team can think of. If I were Carrasco I’d have punched them both in the nose.
With a six-feet toy punch extender coz you know…
T-shirt cannon maybe
I would like to see Clevenger and Plesac defend their actions to Carrasco’s wife and kids.
Carrasco’s wife and kids should be asking Carlos why he didn’t opt out of the 2020 season before listening to those jobbers.
Zach Plesac should have consulted with his uncle Dan Plesac before releasing that video statement. Most Baseball fans should know that Zach’s Uncle Dan played 18 seasons in MLB.
We got some real Saints in here….piling on a guy for ” Not wearing a seatbelt”?
If Im a Gm Im calling Cle on both today while the value is (semi) down-
While I 100% agree with how Cle the org has dealt with this some of the takes in here are just vomit worthy – Leave the kids alone, part of growing up is making mistakes and they have obv payed for this one already
Kids? These are full-grown men.
Sure at 24 with new-found millions in your bank account you’d have been a Saint; got it
Tell that to the old lady he kills while he’s not looking at the road while taping this. It indicates how he doesn’t feel that he needs to play by anyone’s rules but his own. That usually gets a person in trouble. He doesn’t live on an island, none of us do. “Leave the kids alone” is seriously one of the funniest things I’ve read on here. Yeah, let’s leave the multi-millionaire 25 1/2 year old alone. Give me a break.
Hyperbole much Mr 10 and 2
Tellit You nailed it. Both act like entitled little boys rather then mature men . Both have shown that they feel rules don’t apply to them . I guess Clevinger and his ” no need to run to daddy comment'” has come to haunt him since daddy took him behind the woodshed. Alternate site looks good on both these weasels.
Pleasc’s video is amazing. Apparently it’s everyone else’s fault but his and the disgusting media is just spinning the truth for clicks. Sometimes these guys just can’t get out of their own ways. Where is his agent to tell him what to say and what not to say?
Hilarious. You criticize the two players for placing the blame elsewhere, yet blame the media for doing their job by reporting the facts of the story. Think before you type.
i don’t quite follow your comment but perhaps what I wrote wasn’t super clear so you misunderstood. I meant that, from his video, Plesac apparently thinks nothing he did was wrong and it’s everyone else’s fault. Also, he seems to believe the media is disgusting, blew what he did out of proportion, is just out to get him, and intentionally does things this way to get views.