Salazar activated, will face Astros in series finale

Pitcher Danny Salazar was activated from the 60day disabled list May 31 and will start Aug. 1 in the series finale at Progressive Field, the Indians announced.

Salazar fills the spot on the 25-man roster vacated when Trevor Bauer was traded to Cincinnati. Eric Stamets was designated for assignment.

Salazar last pitched at the end of the 2017 season. He missed all of 2018 and underwent shoulder surgery July 2, 2018 after originally experiencing shoulder tightness in the 2018 spring training.

Salazar began a rehab assignment June 30, making six starts in the Arizona Rookie League, AA Akron and AAA Columbus. He posted an ERA of 2.60 during his rehab over 17.1 innings. He allowed 16 hits and five earned runs. He struck out 28 batters and walked five.

The Indians are trying to determine whether Salazar would be better as a starter or out of the bullpen the rest of the season.

“He’s not throwing the velocity with which he did two years ago, but he’s had a good breaking ball and a good split-change and I think he sat at 92-ish,” manager Terry Francona said. “The reports were generally pretty good. I think the biggest thing was that Danny felt really good and felt that he was ready to pitch. That’s probably the biggest thing.

“Everybody grinds it out to get to this point. It was hard because we missed Danny. He kept getting to points where he didn’t feel like he could push through and he was finally able to. So hopefully he comes back and really helps us because our medical people have spent a lot of sweat and work with Danny to try and get him back to help us.”

The start Aug. 1 will be Salazar’s first since Sept. 27, 2017.

The plan is to let him go as long as he can then turn the game over to the bullpen, Francona said.

TIM PHILLIS — FOR THE NEWS-HERALD Danny Salazar delivers during his first start with Double-A Akron on July 11.