Indians Option James Karinchak To Triple-A
The Indians have optioned reliever James Karinchak to Triple-A, per The Athletic’s Zack Meisel (via Twitter). Bobby Bradley will be activated from the injured list to take Karinchak’s roster spot.
Karinchak was a popular breakout candidate this season because of his gaudy strikeout numbers, and for awhile, Karinchak made good on that promise. But it’s been a different story in the second half. After recording an absurd 42.5 percent strikeout rate in the first half, that number has fallen to 12.5 percent in the second half. His FIP has tumbled from 3.12 to 7.64.
Karinchak’s spin rates have plummeted all season long on both his fastball and his curve. His In Zone Swing & Miss Percentages have fallen as well, from 26% on his four-seamer in June to just 9% on that same pitch in August.
As for Bradley, the powerful first baseman slashed .213/.316/.480 over 174 plate appearances, his first real crack at regular playing time in the bigs. He’s been out since August 7 with a knee sprain.
Dominic Leone, Mike Freeman, Cam Hill Make Indians’ Opening Day Roster
The Indians have informed several players, including three who aren’t currently on the 40-man roster, that they’ve made the Opening Day club, Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon-Journal tweets. Right-handers Dominic Leone, Cam Hill, James Karinchak and Phil Maton; infielders Mike Freeman, Yu Chang and Christian Arroyo; and outfielders Greg Allen and Bradley Zimmer have all made the roster to begin the year. Leone, Hill and Freeman will each need to be added to the 40-man roster.
The team has also informed a quartet of players that they won’t open the year on the 30-man roster. That includes first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers and righties Jefry Rodriguez, James Hoyt and Hunter Wood. That Wood won’t be on the Opening Day roster is of particular note, as he is out of minor league options and thus cannot be sent down to alternate camp without first being run through outright waivers.
It seems likely, then, that some form of 40-man move involving Wood will help to pave the way for the three non-roster players who’ve made the squad. Cleveland currently has 39 players on the 40-man roster, and Delino DeShields isn’t counting against the group either while on the Covid-19 injured list.
The 28-year-old Leone has the most big league experience of the bunch, having logged 243 1/3 innings of relief dating back to his MLB debut with the Mariners in 2014. Leone’s past two seasons with the Cardinals went poorly, as he worked to a combined 5.15 ERA and 4.77 FIP in 64 2/3 frames, but the righty was excellent for the Jays as recently as 2017, when he pitched 70 2/3 innings with a 2.56 ERA and better than 10 punchouts per nine frames. In all, Leone joins the Indians’ bullpen with a career 3.92 ERA, 9.4 K/9, 3.7 BB/9, 1.15 HR/9 and a 43.6 percent grounder rate.
Freeman, who’ll turn 33 early next month, should be a familiar face for Cleveland fans after suiting up for 75 games there in 2019. Last year with the Indians, Freeman played second base, shortstop, third base, left field and even pitched two innings. Along the way, Freeman hit .272/.362/.390 with four homers and eight doubles — good for a 97 OPS+. That’s a solid showing from a part-time player, and although he had to work his way back on another minor league deal, Freeman clearly impressed the club enough to stick around as a depth piece.
Hill, meanwhile, has never pitched in the Majors, so this’ll mark the 26-year-old’s debut season. A 17th-round pick by the Indians back in 2014, Hill has just a 4.81 ERA in 43 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level but impressed the club with a strong effort this spring (five innings, one run) and summer. He ranked near the back of the organization’s top prospect list at FanGraphs this year, where Eric Longenhagen wrote that Hill has “nasty” stuff but sub-par control that causes some concern.
Wood, 26, has plenty of success with the Rays in his first season-plus at the MLB level before being traded to Cleveland alongside Arroyo last summer. He posted decent numbers with the Indians following the trade and carries a career 3.32 ERA and 4.04 FIP in 86 2/3 MLB frames, so it’s a bit of a surprise to see him on the outside looking in. It’s quite possible that another club with more questionable bullpen depth would have interest in swinging a deal for Wood, who has high-end spin and above-average velocity on his four-seamer. Barring that, he could generate interest on the waiver wire.
Indians Option Zach Plesac, Aaron Civale, James Karinchak, Brad Zimmer To Triple-A
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.
Indians To Promote James Karinchak
The Indians are calling up right-hander James Karinchak, ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link). Cleveland has a full 40-man roster, so a move will have to be made to accommodate Karinchak prior to tomorrow’s game.
A ninth-round pick for the Tribe in the 2017 draft, Karinchak made his Triple-A debut in 2019 and posted a 4.67 ERA over 17 1/3 relief innings. Beyond that fairly unimpressive mark, however, stands an eyebrow-raising strikeout total — Karinchak struck out 42 batters in his brief time at Triple-A Columbus, continuing an incredible season of missing bats for the 23-year-old. Over 30 1/3 total minor league innings in a year shortened by hamstring injuries, Karinchak has 74 strikeouts.
MLB.com ranks Karinchak as the 21st-best prospect in Cleveland’s farm system, giving high grades on the 20-80 scouting scale to his 95-98mph fastball (a 70 grade) and a “12-to-6 curveball that he can get them to chase out of the bottom of the zone” (60 grade). Between a high arm slot and a tendency to overthrow, however, Karinchak has also had problems limiting free passes. He has a 5.5 BB/9 over his 102 1/3 career minor league innings, and a 6.8 BB/9 at Columbus this season.
The Tribe will hope that Karinchak’s live arm can help reinforce a bullpen that has fallen on hard times recently. Closer Brad Hand‘s recent struggles are the largest concern, though Cleveland relievers as a whole have a cumulative 5.20 ERA over the last 30 days, the fifth-highest mark of any team’s relief corps over that span. While Indians relievers have been pretty good as a whole all season, they rank near the middle of the pack in K/9, so Karinchak promises a particular boost in that department.