Salazar ends trade worries for the Tribe

A sense of panic has surrounded the Indians’ lack of participation in deals as the Major League baseball trading deadline looms in less than 10 days.

With Jose Quintana’s trade across town from the Chicago White Sox to the Chicago Cubs, with every rumor of Oakland’s Sonny Gray being dealt and with fellow American League contenders Minnesota, Boston and the New York Yankees in search of arms comes another bead of sweat or two on the foreheads of Indians fans begging for an answer to their question.

When will the Indians get some help for their starting rotation?

The answer very well could have been given on July 22, and it didn’t even cost the Indians a prospect in return. The help? Danny Salazar. Granted, one return start doesn’t qualify for a ticker tape

parade down Carnegie and Ontario, but if the Salazar the Indians saw on July 22 can be even just a smidgen of the Salazar the Indians will see from here on out, there is no reason to mortgage any more of the farm system for another starting pitcher as the trade deadline nears.

Making his first start since June 3, Salazar sparkled against the visiting Toronto Blue Jays, leading the Tribe to a 2-1 win.

In seven shutout innings, Salazar faced the minimum 21 batters, walking none and striking out eight. Of the 86 pitches he threw, 61 were strikes.

The only batter to reach base on Salazar — Kevin Pillar with a leadoff single in the third inning — was erased one batter later on a double-play grounder.

Even though Salazar did not figure into a decision, thanks to Andrew Miller giving up a gametying home run to Justin Smoak on his first pitch after relieving Salazar, the performance was just what the Indians wanted and needed to see.

Salazar exited the game

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to a round of applause — and maybe even a little bit of a sigh of relief.

No knee-jerk trade for starting pitching should be needed.

Salazar was anything but the starting pitcher he was before hitting the disabled list in early June with a sore shoulder. After 12 appearances (10 starts) to begin the season, Salazar was 3-5 with a 5.40 ERA.

Looking nothing like the starting pitcher who was an all-star a year earlier, Salazar’s early performances made Indians fan gasp, “Who the heck is this guy, and what did he do with Danny Salazar?”

In his return trip, Salazar’s first three pitches of the game were 95, 96 and 97 MPH, mowing down Jose Bautista with ease.

After striking out the side in the first inning, the consensus at Progressive Field was something like, “Oh yeah, that’s the Danny Salazar I remember.”

Salazar exited after retiring Josh Donaldson on a 97-MPH heater down the heart of the plate that Donaldson stood and watched.

It would be unreasonable for the Indians to expect Salazar to be as sharp as he was on July 22 in every one of his starts from here on out.

He joins a starting rotation that has registered a 3.34 ERA in the month of July, second in the American League and tied for fourth in the majors behind Washington (2.71), Boston (2.73) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (2.97).

Slot Salazar into a Cleveland rotation that includes Corey Kluber (7-3, 2.86), Carlos Carrasco (104, 3.62) and Mike Clevinger (5-3, 2.73), and it doesn’t matter as much how un-aromatic the stench might be when Josh Tomlin (6-9, 5.74) or Trevor Bauer (8-8, 5.58) take the mound.

Eventually, the Indians are going to have to decide what to do with the fifth spot in the rotation. Neither Tomlin nor Bauer has performed well enough to deserve the spot, but Salazar’s return — and more importantly his return as his former self — makes it easier to make a decision on them as a No. 5 starter and not as a No. 4 starter.

Prior to the game, Indians manager Terry Francona said he is going with a six-man rotation this week, but doesn’t expect that to be a long-term option.

Especially with a backend bullpen of Miller (33, 1.53), Cody Allen (17-for18 in save situations, 2.16) and, yes, even Bryan Shaw (2-4, 2.78), whom Indians fans love to hate.

“We’ll see. We’ll kind of play it by ear,” Francona said.

“There’s no reason that we have to make a decision today, so we’ll kind of let it play itself out and we’ll see what we think is in our team’s best interest.”

As of right now, the team’s best interest is this - slot Salazar into an already formidable starting rotation and don’t sweat trading for another starting pitcher.

If the Indians can’t/ don’t make a run at the 2017 World Series, it won’t be because of their pitching staff.

Kampf can be reached at jkampf@news-herald. com; @jkbuckeyes on Twitter.

John Kampf