The Indians have placed southpaw Boone Logan on the 10-day DL, according to a club announcement. That move was largely expected after he departed his most recent appearance with what is being labeled a lat strain.
Logan is expected to miss “significant time,” per skipper Terry Francona, via Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal (Twitter link). While it’s not clear just how long that will be, and Logan is still set for a second opinion, it seems reasonable to expect that the club won’t be able to count upon him to be a major contributor down the stretch.
For the time being, at least, lefty Tyler Olson will come up to take the open roster spot. The 27-year-old has only brief MLB experience, but has been throwing well this year at Triple-A. Through 40 2/3 innings there, he owns a 3.32 ERA with 11.5 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9.
The strikeout rate, in particular, represents a huge leap forward for Olson. But he’ll have fairly large shoes to fill. While Logan actually hasn’t been as effective against lefties (.711 OPS) as righties (.638) this year and owns a 4.71 ERA, he has dominated same-handed hitters historically and is humming along with 12.0 K/9, 3.9 BB/9, and a fifty percent groundball rate.
While Olson’s intriguing run at Columbus makes him worthy of a shot at the majors, there isn’t much time to assess him before the trade deadline. The Indians do have one of the game’s very best left-handed relievers in Andrew Miller, of course, but he’s not utilized as a lefty specialist. In addition to Olson, Ryan Merritt currently occupies a pen slot, but he’s more of a swingman than a matchup option from the pen.
With Cleveland looking to hold off several competitors in the division while also preparing for a hopeful postseason bid, it’ll have to at least consider looking at the trade market. There are quite a few southpaws available on this year’s market, though the best among them figure to be in high demand.
the.sophisticant
hope you a speedy recovery booney boy
Polish Hammer
Boone has been a huge waste of salary IMO. If they didn’t have Miller back there I could see it, but as it is, he gets paid a ton to face one lefty every other night.
the.sophisticant
agreed…he should change his name to boone’s farm, then he would be cost effective.
sufferforsnakes
I was pushing for Blevins during the last off-season.
frankthetank1985
U want him now? Top 10 prospect for him and I would pull the trigger if I was sandy.
sufferforsnakes
Sure you would, except that won’t happen. Maybe someone in the 20-25 range.
frankthetank1985
He has one more year on a decent contract. He is definitely worth a top ten prospect
partyatnapolis
sometimes i forgot this dude was even on the team
the.sophisticant
hey, they should serve boone’s farm at games
crazy4cleveland
I like this guy but let’s be real. He’s making $6.5m this year and has only pitched 20 innings to date.
Polish Hammer
Twenty innings…one hitter at a time. Definitely not worth anything close to that kind of coin.
DonKieballs
I mean, if he had an ERA in the low 2’s and was getting lefties out in high leverage situations he definitely would be worth $6.5 mil.