The Indians on Monday claimed lefty Alex Young off waivers from the Diamondbacks and opened a spot on the 40-man roster by transferring right-hander Aaron Civale from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list, according to a club announcement. Young was optioned to Triple-A Columbus.
Young, 27, was designated for assignment in Arizona last week after struggling over the past two seasons. The former second-round pick (No. 43 overall) had a solid rookie season back in 2019 when he tossed 83 1/3 innings of 3.56 ERA ball over the life of 17 appearances (15 starts). Young’s 20.3 percent strikeout rate that season wasn’t especially impressive, but he had strong control (7.7 percent walk rate), kept the ball on the ground at an above-average 48.1 percent clip and was generally stingy when it came to allowing hard contact. It was a generally promising debut for a 25-year-old with a strong draft pedigree.
Things haven’t panned out as hoped since that time. Young has pitched 88 innings since that time, mostly out of the bullpen (36 relief appearances, nine starts). His strikeout rate and walk rate have each gone in the wrong direction, but only by about one percent. However, Young has begun yielding hard contact in droves while surrendering more fly balls; as one might expect, he’s been immensely homer-prone since those trends began. Over his past 88 frames, Young has served up 22 home runs en route to a 5.83 ERA.
While Young’s time with the D-backs didn’t go as the organization (or the player himself) hoped, he’ll get a fresh start with a new club that has a reputation for pitching development. Young can be optioned both in 2022 and 2023, so he gives Cleveland a potential depth arm for the foreseeable future — or a potential piece to the big league pitching staff if he can indeed right the ship following his change in environs.
The move to shift Civale from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day now means that he won’t return until at least late August. We’re just over one month past Civale’s initial placement on the 10-day injured list due to a finger sprain. He was initially projected to miss four to five weeks, so the fact that he’s now shelved for a minimum of two months suggests that his rehab from that injury has not been as swift as initially expected.
With Civale and reigning Cy Young winner Shane Bieber on the shelf, the Indians have been relying on Zach Plesac, Triston McKenzie, Cal Quantrill, J.C. Mejia, Eli Morgan and Sam Hentges to start. Despite the team’s aforementioned knack for churning out quality young pitchers, this particular group has struggled for the most part. Plesac only just returned from a broken thumb and hasn’t been as sharp as usual. Quantrill has a solid enough 3.84 ERA on the season, but he has a 5.11 ERA as a starter and a 1.88 mark as a reliever. Young could give Cleveland another option to add to that carousel, depending on how he’s used.
partyatnapplis: Alex Young: A 27 yr old rp (long reliever). Not very good (MLB standards) but a lot better than I would be (w my bad back, artificial knee and shoulder tendinitis).
Ouch shoulder tendinitis
Sucks for Cleveland, he was having a great year
So I guess Civale’s bullpen Friday didn’t go well? I hope he’s not Adam Miller 2.0.
Who???
He was a great prospect with chronic finger issues that derailed his career.
Wasn’t his issue blisters though?
“I got blisters on my fingers!”
I thought it was connective tissues, but I could be wrong.
I think it has more to do with the season coming off the rails than Civale having a bad bullpen. This team isn’t worth risking Civale or Bieber over. I really hope they sell aggressively this week.
I don’t believe in karma, but if I did, I’d say that all the SP injuries, along with the unpopular name change, are a result of trading Cookie.
Add the Curse of Cookie Carrasco to the Curse of Rocky Colavito.
You’re right, it’s not Karma but it’s a chain effect
what’s there to sell aggressively? Rosario is hurt. Hernandez, sure. Maybe Perez or Hedges, but I doubt either brings a big return. If you mean trading any of the 35 middling players on the 40 man roster to make room for the 35 other players they have to fit on the 40 man before the Rule 5 draft, then I agree
Shaw, Parker, Hernandez.
Probably the 3 guys that go. But they’re absolutely not bringing much back in return. Wittgren also if someone wants him because he’s a sure fire non tender this off-season from Cleveland
yea, I can see that. I guess I was more confused on how he said “aggressively”. the only aggressive move is Bieber or Ramirez. can’t do Bieber right now. I just don’t see Ramirez.
The frustrating thing for me is that while Morgan has looked good, xFIP suggests that Jean Carlos Mejia is our second best starter this year, but his ERA is above 7
to me, morgan has shown promise. mejia is a train wreck
A train wreck that never made it out of the station.
By all rights he pretty much is a AA pitcher that missed all of last season. This is exactly why you don’t rush prospects, you run the risk of permanent damage, but with so many injuries they had no choice.
sadly that is very true
Don’t we have like 35 can’t miss SS we could trade for something resembling a starter??
This! Or a competent F**** outfielder..
Yes but they say on their hands too late and now that trade would be a waste. Take 4 middle infielders and swap them for a suitable starter or OF.
Why are there only four asterisks?
Mejia is clearly a reliever long term. Morgan started out horribly, but he’s shown a lot of improvement over his last few starts.
If two of McKenzie, Quantrill, and Morgan can use the rest of this season to cement themselves behind Bieber/Civale/Plesac in their future rotation, it can still be a successful year.
Cal’s a reliever. And I doubt Morgan is anymore than that—if that.
Mckenzie can be electric if he ever can reign in his control. But Cleveland is finally facing what every other organization has to deal with. Struggling to develop arms. They’ve had a. Unreal streak of success.
Cal might have turned the corner as a starter. He’s now strung together I think 4 straight good starts.
And another great start by Cal. Now that he’s all stretched out the guy now looks like a legit solid starter.
I wouldn’t rush to judgment on JC. He should have been starting at AA this year and has a lot of work to do. He could still be a very solid backend rotation guy, just give him time. The only issue is that if they call him up next year he will be out of options. Not ideal.
Yes, in 2019 he was in A ball, should’ve been in AA last year and maybe to start this year with a Gallup to AAA. Instead he had no 2020 season, went right to AAA and got torched and then called up to the majors and got torched again. They had little choice in bringing him up as the injuries mounted and 40 man roster issues.
Moving Civale to the 60 day eliminates any reasonable hope that Cleveland can contend for a WC.
They will have a few months to work with Young before the 40 man needs to be set for the Rule Five. He had some promise earlier in his career.
Actually, CATS, according to Fangraphs Young has three options, one of which I believe the Diamondbacks used this year. That means he will likely be sent to Columbus as some point where our pitching gurus will work on him, and they’ll have a couple years to fix him.
Yes, it would mean they would have one less slot for the Rule Five, but the Indians’/Guardians’ MO is to pick up guys who have options left and hope they can do something with them.
By moving him to the 60, he will only lose two more weeks. Who says he can’t come back mid-august?
He can, but by then the team is long done and will hopefully shut him down.
Contention, while still a statistical possibility, is realistically out of the question. Time to start seeing what/who can contribute going forward. Maybe they found a useful piece in Young, but I doubt it. The short term/expensive contracts like Eddie, Cesar, Shaw, and Wittgren I expect to see moved. I expect little in return.
Did y’all see the news today about the name change? I mentioned it here a couple days ago, and now it’s coming out nationally.
I didn’t, did they go with the overwhelming favorite of Spiders? Or did the owner decide go with a wildcard not really in the discussions?
Guardians
Who? What? Say it ain’t so…
Yeah, they chose Guardians, but that’s not the news I’m talking about. What I mentioned a couple days ago is that there was already a professional sports team in Cleveland named the Guardians. It’s a men’s roller derby team, established in 2014.
Cleveland.com had an article about it.