The Cleveland Indians’ struggle all season long has been a lack of rotation depth.
When healthy, the team has a strong trio at the top in Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale, and Zach Plesac, but three arms are rarely enough to carry a rotation when the No. 4 and No. 5 spots are glaring weaknesses.
And now, disaster has struck, as every single arm in the aforementioned trio is currently on the injured list.
This became official when Civale left his start Monday with a finger injury, and it was later announced that he would join Bieber and Plesac on the IL.
Aaron Civale will meet with a hand specialist tomorrow morning. Terry Francona: "I think we're prepared that he's gonna miss some time."
— Zack Meisel (@ZackMeisel) June 22, 2021
It goes without saying that it’s a fair time to panic in Cleveland, as the rotation situation will likely be in absolute shambles until the staff gets healthy.
How Has The Team Dealt With The Situation So Far?
The team started the season by giving starts to Triston McKenzie and Logan Allen out of the No. 4 and No. 5 spots in the rotation.
Both of those experiments failed miserably.
Over 11 appearances (10 starts), McKenzie got shelled to the tune of a 6.38 ERA, 5.60 FIP, and 1.58 WHIP.
The Indians went 3-8 in his outings.
Allen, on the other hand, lasted just five starts in the rotation before Cleveland pulled the plug.
He failed to make it out of the third inning in three of his five starts, and pitched to a miserable 9.19 ERA, 9.17 FIP, and 1.72 WHIP.
The Indians went 1-4 in his outings.
The Indians started the season with a rotation of Biebs, Plesac, Civale, McKenzie and Allen. As of today none of them are slated to make their start day
— Alex Kaufman (@Chikaufski) June 22, 2021
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and lately, the team has resorted to giving starts to relievers Cal Quantrill, J.C. Mejia, and Sam Hentges.
They’ve also given rookie Eli Morgan a stab at a rotation spot.
Most of those moves were initially made to try to fix the issues in the back of the rotation, but with the injury bug hitting hard, the purpose of those moves is now two-fold, as the team also needs to find temporary replacements for its three staff aces.
Let’s take a look at how the results have been so far.
For the most part, Quantrill has been quite good in his new role.
He has made four starts so far.
He got rocked in one of them, allowing seven runs over 1.1 innings, but has posted a 1.42 ERA in his other three.
The Indians can certainly work with that.
Unfortunately, none of the other experiments have worked out.
Mejia has an 8.53 ERA over four starts, Hentges has a 6.27 ERA over five starts, and Morgan has a 9.53 ERA over three starts.
That’s tough to stomach.
How Can The Indians Survive This?
The Indians need to hit the trade market hard.
There is no reason not to.
Even when the rotation returns to full health, depth will still be a major issue.
Trading for starting pitching would address that problem.
Let’s toss some names around.
Max Scherzer (2.19 ERA) and Jon Lester (3.96 ERA) could be a package deal.
They are both free agents after the season, and the Washington Nationals will have no need for either of them for the rest of the year.
Danny Duffy of the Kansas City Royals (1.94 ERA ) could come at a low price as he is still recovering from a forearm flexor strain.
The same could be said about the asking price for the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Madison Bumgarner, who is having a poor season (5.73 ERA) and is currently dealing with a shoulder injury.
There are plenty of options out there—the Indians just need to get busy.
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