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Aaron Civale

Indians Set Rotation

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The Indians have set their rotation to open the 2020 season, manager Terry Francona told reporters including MLB.com’s Mandy Bell (Twitter link). Aaron Civale and Zach Plesac have made the five-man unit.

That decision leaves righty Adam Plutko on the outside looking in. He’ll jump into the relief unit to begin the season. With the short run-up to the season, there ought to be plenty of frames to go around.

The 28-year-old Plutko made twenty starts for the Indians last year, working to a 4.86 ERA with 6.4 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9. He had a lot of ground to make up to catch the other two hurlers.

Both Civale and Plesac are 25-year-old righties who debuted with aplomb in 2019. The former limited opponents to 2.34 earned per nine in his first ten starts. The latter posted a 3.81 ERA in 115 2/3 frames.

In both cases, there’s some cause to question the repeatability of the output. Civale benefited from a .250 BABIP-against, though Statcast suggests he has a real skill for inducing soft contact — related, no doubt, to his exceptional spin rates. Plesac’s own .255 BABIP-against doesn’t seem quite as sustainable. Opposing hitters produced a .315 wOBA against him last year, but Statcast spit out a far-less-promising .343 xwOBA based upon the quality of contact.

Indians Option Zach Plesac, Aaron Civale, James Karinchak, Brad Zimmer To Triple-A

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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.

Carlos Carrasco Questionable For Opening Day

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Indians right-hander Carlos Carrasco has been slowed by inflammation in his right elbow (and, earlier, a hip flexor strain) this spring. And while an MRI confirmed that Carrasco is not dealing with any structural damage, president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti told reporters today that it could be a “stretch” for Carrasco to be ready for Opening Day (Twitter thread via Mandy Bell of MLB.com). Carrasco will be held back from throwing for a few more days.

It’s mixed news for Indians fans, as nothing from Antonetti’s comments suggested that Carrasco is expected to require a significant absence. But the Cleveland organization already has Mike Clevinger on the shelf as he recovers from surgery to repair a partial meniscus tear, and this winter’s slate of rule changes upped the minimum IL stint for pitchers from 10 days back to 15 days. If Carrasco is indeed placed on the injured list, that stint can still be backdated up to three days, but he’d be looking at missing at least the first dozen days of the 2020 campaign.

With Clevinger and Carrasco perhaps both sitting on the IL to begin the season, the Indians will likely give 2019 breakout righty Shane Bieber the Opening Day nod. He’d be followed by a quartet of relatively inexperienced arms: Aaron Civale, Zach Plesac, Adam Plutko and Logan Allen. (Civale has been bothered by a groin issue himself, though Antonetti indicated today that he’s expected to be ready for the opener.)

The Indians’ rotation is in somewhat of a transitional state — at least as pertains to the final couple of slots. Each of Bieber (controlled through 2024), Clevinger (controlled through 2022) and Carrasco (signed through 2023) should be locks for the next few years, health permitting. However, two of Civale, Plesac, Allen, Plutko and prospects Triston McKenzie and Scott Moss will likely be counted on to eventually seize permanent starting jobs. Viewed through that lens, even brief absences for the club’s top arms early in the season could serve as a continued audition for many arms the organization hopes will emerge as core pieces.

Health Notes: Suarez, Piscotty, Archer, Clase/Civale

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Fortunately, there hasn’t been much in the way of negative health news to this point of Spring Training. Let’s check in on a few issues that have arisen …

  • Reds third baseman Eugenio Suarez is feeling both excitement and some trepidation as he nears readiness to test his recently tweaked shoulder, as Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Indication remains that Suarez could conceivably be ready to roll on Opening Day. He says he’s getting his timing down even as he avoids throwing or swinging full-bore. But there are also some nerves as he prepares to ramp up. “Just a little bit because I know I have something there,” Suarez said when asked whether he’s nervous. “I don’t want to get hurt again. I have to be careful. We’ll see what happens.”
  • After a disappointing 2019 season, the last thing Athletics outfielder Stephen Piscotty wants to deal with is another injury issue. Right now, the hope is that his oblique/rib cage problem isn’t going to represent a major limitation, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. But Piscotty might be down for another week and it’s beginning to look like Opening Day readiness could be in doubt. That’d be a disappointment, of course, but it’s surely better than rushing back and ending up with a bigger problem.
  • Neck tightness kept Pirates righty Chris Archer from making a scheduled outing today, as Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic was among those to report on Twitter. There hasn’t been a substantial update just yet, but there’s no reason to believe that this is more than a minor blip.
  • It’s a similar situation in Indians’ camp, where righties Emmanuel Clase and Aaron Civale have been limited. As MLB.com’s Mandy Bell tweets, the former is dealing with lat discomfort and the latter a sore groin. While Clase is going to slow his build-up to let things calm down, Civale is preparing to throw a sim game.

Indians Designate Leonys Martin For Assignment

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The Indians designated centerfielder Leonys Martin for assignment today, tweets The Athletic’s Zack Meisel. The move makes room for Aaron Civale, who is set to make his major league debut. This might be just the first of a number of moves coming for the Indians in the next couple of days, tweets Meisel.

The Indians somewhat surprisingly entered the season with Martin, 31, as their everyday centerfielder, and through the end of April he managed a 91 wRC+. That kind of offense from a plus defensive centerfielder would be palatable, but Martin’s defensive metrics have taken a dip this season (-1 DRS, -3.3 UZR).

Making matters worse, his offense has fallen off to where he now owns a .199/.276/.343 slash line and an abysmal 62 wRC+. It’s pretty shocking that a team’s valuation of a player can shift so suddenly from starting 65 of the team’s first 75 games to designation for assignment – but such is the state of affairs for the Indians in 2019. June has been particularly tough on Martin, as he has hit just .125/.192/.333 this month.

Indians Expected To Promote Aaron Civale

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Right-hander Aaron Civale is expected to start for the Indians on Saturday against the Tigers, Zack Meisel of The Athletic tweets. Civale is not yet on the Indians’ 40-man roster, which is currently at capacity.

This will be the first major league promotion for the 24-year-old Civale, who joined the Tribe as a third-round pick out of Northeastern University in the 2016 draft. FanGraphs (No. 22) and MLB.com (No. 24) each regard Civale as one of the Indians’ top 30 prospects. Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs wrote in April that “Civale does not miss many bats because he has limited fastball velocity, but he’s a high-volume strike thrower with excellent secondary stuff, including one of the best curveball spin rates in the minors.”

So far in 2019, Civale has used what FanGraphs calls a “spacious bag of tricks” to record a 2.85 ERA with 8.8 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 in seven starts and 41 innings divided between the Double-A and Triple-A levels. He’ll now temporarily take over in the Indians’ rotation for Mike Clevinger, whom they placed on the injured list Friday. Clevinger may only miss one start, so Civale’s first stint in Cleveland’s starting staff could be a short one.

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