The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Tribe gets positive news on pitchers
If “General Hospital” weren’t already a television soap opera, the two words would be another way to describe what is going on with the Indians.
As with most hospital dramas, there is a mixture of good news and bad news going on with the Tribe’s injured players. Most of it is good news with the season opener March 26 against the Tigers at Progressive Field drawing closer by the day.
Starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco (strained right hip flexor on Feb. 19) will pitch March 3 against the Angels and starter Aaron Civale (groin discomfort) will pitch a day later against the Diamondbacks in a pair of Cactus League games, manager Terry Francona told reporters covering spring training in Goodyear, Ariz. Each outing will likely be one or two innings. It will be their first action against an opponent since being injured.
Mike Clevinger had arthroscopic knee surgery Feb. 14. Just last week, general manager Mike Chernoff told reporters the projected timetable of Clevinger returning to baseball activity sometime during the first two weeks of April is still the target date, but Clevinger is hoping to beat that and be healthy for the start of the season.
“As we’ve witnessed, Clev is never going to hold back and he seems to be a pretty good healer,” Francona said.
“We’ve seen that last year (back injury). And he’s driven. So that’s always good to see somebody active because that’s a lot better than walking around on crutches.”
Trainers on March 2 had Clevinger standing on the mound, mimicking the follow through of his delivery as he would step forward and downhill from the mound without a ball in his hand so he can get re-accustomed to landing downhill, Francona said.
“They love the idea this kid is going to do whatever they ask him to do and at full speed,” Francona said. “I think they’d rather try to rein somebody in than try to have to kick him in the butt every day.”
So the progress reports on Carrasco, Civale and Clevinger are all positive, but the injuries have set back their normal progression in spring training to the point where being healthy wouldn’t necessarily mean they will be ready to take their normal spot in the rotation early in the season. If they do make starts in March, it might be on a limited pitch count.
“We’re going to run up against how stretched out a few of these guys are,” Francona said. “It will be interesting. If I sat here and said, ‘We’re going to get guys up to 100 pitches,’ that wouldn’t be true.”
The news about relief pitcher Adam Cimber is not as good, although once again the Indians are being cautious. Cimber, who has felt tightness on his left side, has not pitched since the Cactus League opener Feb. 23. But he is scheduled to pitch on the side on March 3, Francona said.
“We just don’t want to push guys,” Francona said. “With all these games, it’s been tough to find enough pitching, but we don’t want to run somebody out there and hurt them because we were trying to fill an inning in a spring training game. That’s why you’ve seen a lot of the Minor League kids coming over and you will continue to see that the next few days.”
There is no new information on relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase. He will be sidelined until late April at the earliest because a strained muscle in his upper back.
Game time
Delino DeShields was 2-for-3 with an RBI double and a run scored in the Indians’ 3-2 loss to the Rangers on March 2 in a Cactus League game.
Franmil Reyes hit a double and walked, Jake Bauers had an RBI single, and Ernie Clement had a single and scored a run for the Tribe.
The Indians next play the Angels on March 3. Carlos Carrasco is expected to start.
The game will be shown on SportsTime Ohio.