May 3: The Indians announced today that Kluber has been placed on the 10-day injured list. Right-hander Jon Edwards is up from Triple-A Columbus in his place.
At the moment, it’s not believed that Kluber’s arm will require surgical repair. While that’s surely a sigh of relief for Cleveland fans, Kluber still looks to be facing a sizable absence. He’ll be reevaluated after three to four weeks without throwing (Twitter link via Tom Withers of the Associated Press). There’s no guarantee he’ll be ready to resume throwing at that point, though, and even if that were the case, he’d surely require a rehab assignment to build arm strength.
May 1: The Indians have suffered another injury in the rotation, as two-time AL Cy Young winner Corey Kluber was diagnosed with a non-displaced fracture in his right ulna tonight, per a team announcement. The injury occurred when Kluber was struck on the right arm by a 102 mph comeback line-drive off the bat of the Marlins’ Brian Anderson. Kluber will be reevaluated Thursday when the team returns to Cleveland, at which point a timetable for his return will become clear.
Kluber, 33, was off to one of the worst starts of his excellent career in 2019, having posted a dismal 5.80 ERA with 9.6 K/9, 3.8 BB/9 and a 40 percent ground-ball rate in 35 2/3 innings of work (including tonight’s truncated outing). Those struggles notwithstanding, the injury is a devastating blow to an Indians rotation that is already without Mike Clevinger for what figures to be more than two months due to a rather significant teres major strain. Kluber had been haunted by a .380 average on balls in play and an abnormally low 64.5 percent strand rate so far in 2019, and fielding-independent metrics pegged him as a rebound candidate moving forward.
Now that Kluber is sidelined, the once-formidable Indians rotation suddenly looks quite top-heavy. Trevor Bauer and Carlos Carrasco remain premium rotation horses (despite one disastrous outing from the latter earlier this year), and young righty Shane Bieber carries plenty of promise. But the fourth and fifth spots in the rotation will likely be entrusted to inexperienced righties Jefry Rodriguez and Adam Plutko — neither of whom has enjoyed sustained success at the MLB level to this point in his career.
Cleveland already trails the Twins by two games in the American League Central (2.5 games if the Minnesota bullpen can hold its current 5-0 lead over Houston for one more inning). While there’s certainly plenty of season left, the pitching staff — and the rotation, in particular — was supposed to be the lifeblood of a roster that currently ranks 25th in the Majors in runs scored and 28th in wRC+.
Good thing the Indians have depth
Adam Plutko ain’t much
Jefry Rodriguez will come before Plutko.
Sarcasm…..
who knew they had an ulna?
Idk man. Is this division just up for grabs? Who ever rookies produce has a shot..could be.
Minnesota is kind of playing as good as anyone in baseball…
Good thing all the simpletons said Indians were crazy about thinking of trading Kluber at his peak value. Best thing you can do if you want to be a smart intelligent fan is support management when they slash payroll it’s always smart team usually wins more anyways.
Wow. Just wow.
Crap
Indians must NOW sign BIG SEXY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No thanks on Big Sloppi
Keuchel?
Not going to happen.
Never in a million years. I can see them MAYBE trading for a rental SP – ideally MadBum – but for what they’d be willing to give up it would most likely be somebody like Jason Vargas or Homer Bailey.
or James Shields
Ugh.
Or James Shields?
This changes the AL Central. Shame on Cleveland for taking the regular season for granted. That thin bullpen can’t be hidden without big starters.
Took it for granted by not trading a starter as everyone expected, and then suffered injuries to the rotation? Brilliant!
What did they add in the off-season to win a championship???
They could’ve added $100mil to the payroll and still not get to that level. Look at Boston and the Yanks, they could combine for half a billion dollar payroll and still not be sure of even making the playoffs.
That “thin” bullpen has the second best ERA in the AL.
and Tim Anderson has the third highest average in the league. Neither is going to last. Its been a month.
He called the bullpen thin, not bad. Not sure how ERA disproves that the bullpen is thin.
Just because he called it thin doesn’t make it so. After all the negative talk about it in the off-season, the pen has been a strong point, and even has reserves in AAA Columbus. That’s not thin to anyone who possesses intelligence.
The bullpen has gotten good results so far. But Otero is due to regress. His k numbers are absolutely pitiful. Nobody who is getting that few swings and misses will continue to be that effective. I’ll bet my life on that. You have to hope Nick Wittgren is dominant. The peripherals would support that but he has no track record of elite success either. Hand is a great closer though. Those 3’s results have greatly influenced those early season BP numbers.
I predict Cleveland will need a legitimate set up man by the deadline but probably not as much as they’ll need 2 outfielders or an OF and a DH. The lineup is a mess. And that’s not bad luck. That’s just a very very bad lineup outside of Lindor, Jose Ramirez, and Carlos Santana. If you told me the rest of that lot posted worse than league average offensive numbers it wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
This is pretty spot on but the question is what road do they take to get to those players. The outfield takes a lot of hate because they are not established players but there are bright spots there too. Bauers had a bad first 2 weeks but has gone .298/.370 since and has looked more confident in left as he has played more. Plus he is hitting .308 against other left handers which is something this team needs. The Question with him is can he sustain it or will it be like last year when he fell off a cliff after a good month.
Martin might be the best feel good story this year but they have to figure out something else for center against left handers. His numbers don’t look great on the surface but you look at his splits and he has a .821 ops against right and .390 against left. He is better suited as a platoon or 4th outfielder than everyday starter.
Oscar Mercado has been doing well in the minors and I would not be surprised to see him called up by June to replace either Luplow or Cargo. It gives him time to show if he is ready or not.
The way I expect them to go is If Mercado is ready and Bauers continues to do well enough to keep left you can move Martin to the 4th outfielder and either trade for a guy to play right or platoon Naquin and Luplow (I assume Cargo will be the odd man out) and open the search for a hitter to any one for the DH and dropping one of the light hitting utility guys. You can get away with this without too much worrying since you always have the option to slide Mercado to the infield for a few innings in an emergency since he was a shortstop until recently. And we all know Francona loves his versatile players.
Too wordy for a subject as pithy as the Injun OF
Those who use phrases like “due to regress” irritate me. Why is it when someone improves their game that people think it’s an anomaly that won’t last?
Otero is not a swing and miss strikeout pitcher, he’s a ground ball pitcher.
People irritate me when they believe in blind luck. You don’t have a statistical leg to stand on if you’re trying to defend that Otero will continue. If you don’t like the lack of swinging strikes as a reason then how about the fact that he’s left 90% of runners on base. Or why don’t we talk about his 4.08 FIP OR 4.58 xFIP? Not an advanced metrics guy? You can sit there and hope it’s for real but I’m not a blind luck guy. Dan Otero will regress.
Or when they cherry pick stats and know when some will regress because it lines up with what they want to say.
Lmao. Please explain to me how I cherrypicked anything pal. Otero has a sub 2 ERA and all the metrics say he deserves an ERA somewhere in the low-mid 4’s. That’s a factually accurate statement. If it upsets you as an Indians fan I’m terribly sorry. It’s nothing but numbers. If you notice I said Witgren’s peripherals support his performance. I’m all for players improving if the numbers actually support the fact.
And you don’t have an ability to predict the future.
Lmao. This is just a nonsense comment. You are hoping blind luck will continue while ignoring all the warning signs. No I cannot predict the future but you can make a very educated guess based on the numbers we have. You know how Vegas sets their odds and end up on top? It isn’t because of blind luck and hope.
You’re making a guess based off of last seasons stats completing overlooking Oetro’s previous two seasons where he put up good numbers in the pen.To ignore the complete scenario makes that guess less then educated.
That’s a negative buddy. I’m looking at 4 FIP and 4.5 xFIP to tell me he’s not truly throwing that well. The ERA means nothing to me after 12 innings.
thin Bullpen dont u mean thin AAA lineup with 3 guys hitting under .200 that’s the problem no offense
As an Orioles fan at least the Indian season isn’t already over
This is terrible news. He is such a good pitcher. I hope comes back. He was fun to watch pitch against my Braves. The dude is good for baseball. Again get well asap!
That hurts my fantasy team
More like helps it the way he was pitching
LOL
Even without Kluber the Tribe could win 88 games with position players pitching against Royals Tigers Chisox. He’ll be fresh for the the ALDS.
The Indians chances of reaching the postseason aren’t looking so good anymore and 88 wins likely isn’t good enough to get there
If the twins win 90 games I will be shocked. That is just me though not being optimistic on a team that flat out failed last season.
It’s a much better team. Except the bullpen. They really need another starter and a closer but the offense is legitimate. And the Indians offense is legitimately bad. They could easily take the division.
Well that was last year, this year they have the best record in the AL.
Another closer? Do you even pay attention anymore? Brad Hand has done fine in that role.
I’m talking about the twins. Which is painfully obvious if you read the chain of posts instead of trying to take a shot at me. You’re talking even more nonsense now. This one was actually funny though. What part of having a much better team with a legitimate offense and needing a closer sounds anything like Cleveland? That sounds like the exact opposite.
My bad, but you don’t need to be snitty about it.
Can’t win games if you cant score runs. 6th-7th worst offense in baseball. Players are going to need to start stepping up if they’re going to win this crappy division.
What’s funny is they and boston are having trouble scoring which neither were predicted to. both have excellent starters struggling and have had troubles there early on and the BP’s for both should have been the weak link, yet that has been the strongest point for them both.
What it says is the season is only 20% done and it’s early. teams and some players doing well will revert back to normal and vice versa.
Yeah I’ve cleaveland can just get jose Ramirez and (maybe) kipnis going they could be back where their offense was, and an injury to lindor I think earlier this year. They should get better, not nessecarilly better but it seems most of the teams playing in the Cold (Boston Cleveland Pittsburgh cincinatti Cubs) have been off to slow starts offensively as a group, which always picks up as it gets warmer. Not nessecarilly playoff level but still.
Agreed. It’s still early and should improve, but is this lineup top 15 even if Lindor, Ramirez, and Santana stay healthy and put up their expected numbers? The approach this winter was “We’ll beat you with only 3 hitters, because our pitchers are that good.” If Clev and Kluber miss the next few months it’s going to be one hell of a hole to climb out of.
The curse of a cheap owner…..
What do the Mets have to do with Kluber?
Gotta hate those injuries
I hate when these injuries occur to anyone on any team. Breaks my heart, guys like Kershaw, Hicks, Judge, Pedroia, Tatis Jr and company you wanna see them thrive. Best of luck!
This is such a good attitude. I wish more baseball fans thought this way.
Twins are taking the central. Even though he hasn’t helped much this year that was the Indians biggest strength. Bieber, Carrasco, and Bauer is still good but I don’t think that’s enough w their offense.
These are the wages of doing too little in the off season to improve the team and address needs. Having to depend on players like Martin, Luplow, Plawecki, and Kipnis heavily to get this team into the playoffs is a problem. I can’t see Dolan green lighting the FO to make any significant additions to this team. In his heart of hearts I believe Dolan would rather be rebuilding right now, and the evidence of that will be their continued practice of filling holes with retreads and castaways nobody else wants.
Kluber handled this scary situation like the champ he is. Get well soon.
His ability to hide emotion amazes me.
Klubot ever the stoic…
I’m glad I came here before anyone suggested that they sign Kuechel, because that’s not happening. I could see them making a move to get more cheap rotation depth though, so maybe someone like Andrew Moore is an option since he’s in DFA limbo.
This is definitely a big issue though. Clev is doing well and could be back in a little over a month and I don’t think Jefry or Plutko (when he’s back) are terrible options to fill in, but the offense really needs to step it up now. I think the Indians felt less urgency to upgrade the offense because the pitching staff could basically just shut teams down every night, but I really don’t like that they seemed to admit that they planned on just coasting to another division title. I still think they’ll end up taking the Central, but they’re not doing themselves any favors.
Willy Adames, Daniel Robertson, Stanek, Yarborough, Franklin, Choi and Kolarak for Lindor, Kluber, and ten million over three years.
Well there’s a lot to unpack there. It makes no sense on so many fronts. The Rays are going to trade all of that talent for Kluber with a broken arm and Lindor, when they have Wander Franco on the way? Even with the cash thrown in, the Rays would never take on Kluber’s contract, for both the high cost and diminished production on the field. I guess this is attempted revenge by the Indians for getting robbed in the Yandy Diaz / Jake Bauers deal but….nah
So you get both of their top players and don’t have to give up Franco, Honeywell, or McKay? I don’t think so.
offensively that’s the biggest issue! Dolans let all the good hitters go in the offseason!
Okay, as a Jays fan (and premier mlbtr armchair gm) here’s my sales pitch to Chernoff:
To Cleveland: Marcus Stroman
To Toronto: Mejia, Sandlin and 1 top 30 OF prospect
Deal??
Mejia is long gone
The pitcher…
Not a friggin’ chance. If I recall correctly Mejia just recently got put on the 40-man, and is pitching really well, and Sandlin has a shot at being in the pen this season. Plus, as thin as they are in the outfield, they need to sit on all their OF prospects.
The team to deal with regarding Stroman is San Diego. They have 2 things the Blue Jays need: Outfield and Pitching.
Josh Naylor is a Canadian kid stuck behind 4 OF, at least. Maybe him and two arms for Stroman and hope one of the pitchers becomes Stroman down the road.
Naylor, bad defense, questions about his long term abilities. And Canadian.
You just helped prove my point. Think about it. Besides, Stroman won’t command more than that.
Honestly, as an Indians fan, that’s not a bad deal for either side. I’d just be reluctant to give up a young rising starter and a guy who could impact the bullpen as soon this season, and although Stroman is good enough (and not a rental), they don’t need a long-term replacement as much as they just need a short-term stopgap. It’s possible the Jays could get a little more too, but of course his value isn’t quite where it used to be.
In short, I think the value for both sides is actually pretty decent. But logistically, I don’t see it happening.
You just proposed the Indians trade their #16 and 17 prospect plus one of their T30 outfielders for Marcus Stroman. The Indians don’t need a long term starter so I don’t see the fit. But if you don’t like that value wise as an Indians fan you’re a prospect hoarding fool. That’s a very light return for a non rental #2. The guy has a 2.20 ERA/2.38 FIP. That’s ludicrously light for him. They’ll be easily getting a top 100 prospect + for stro if they send him away.
Ervin Santana is available, but then I’m a Twins fan.
No…..just no.
The great Ivan Nova can be had for scraps since WSox took Alonso’s salary off your hands! Solid batting practice pitcher.
He didnt even grimace. Not once. Reminiscent of Matheny spitting out a huge mouth fool of blood after getting hit in the face with a pitch and cruising to 1B like it was simply nothing at all.
I saw it live and thought the same thing. No wonder they call him Klu-bot. When he had to slap at the ball with his glove since he couldn’t do anything with his right arm and then didn’t even move his mouth or show any emotion on his face, even when the trainers were squeezing and pushing on his forearm… WOW! He’s so tough! A quiet but very classy guy and great player
The Indians should not have been so staunch about their asking price for an aging ace, with a big contract, with poor playoff stats. Had they been more flexible, they probably have half of his contract relieved of half of his salary while acquiring a nice prospect package…
As the saying goes…it is better to trade a player a year to early than a year to late.
Pretty ironic that a Yankees fan somehow lives with crystal ball and can predict the future and would’ve traded any of those injured Yankees prior to their injuries?
How about some type of an estimate on how long he’s out MLBTR? I’d imagine most people want to hear about prior examples of how long other pitchers have been out with a similar injury, and a rough timeline of when Kluber may be back. Heck, it’s the only reason I even opened this article was to hear a guesstimate on Kluber’s return, and that piece wasn’t discussed once. Come on…..
Please tell me that was some form of sarcasm.
Wanting to know literally any Info about when he may return must be a form of sarcasm? Ok sure, why would anyone want to know that??? Reading the article one wouldn’t know if it’s a 3 week injury or a full year injury. There’s literally no speculation on time missed at all, and I think it’s a very valid question. Yes, I realize that Indiana’s haven’t announce it, but literally anything is better than nothing and it’s a very fair question that has zero sarcasm.
I’m actually hoping your comment was sarcasm.
*Indians haven’t announced
It was, in fact, an actual question. To expect the writing staff to make a “guess” with so little info divulged about a rather rare occurrence seemed as though it may be sarcastic. Maybe playing off a silly post another may have made that i missed.
It just seemed far fetched that one would say “How about some type of an estimate on how long he’s out MLBTR?.”
Even the team doctors don’t have a clue and to seriously expect Steve to offer a timeline would be asking a bit much….like asking for Powerball numbers and being disappoint when they don’t come through. Sarcasm seemed like an option.
Yeah I’m sure Kluber’s estimated timeframe missed is EXACTLY like your silly Powerball analogy. SMH… I’ve actually heard all morning on speculation on return dates and it looks like August is the consensus. Maybe it’s wrong, but at least it’s something… I guess I should play the lottery because it’s the same thing. Ridiculous….
Asking “How about some type of an estimate on how long he’s out MLBTR?” when there was nothing to base a time frame on and acting a bit peeved was the ridiculous part….as in “Heck, it’s the only reason I even opened this article was to hear a guesstimate on Kluber’s return, and that piece wasn’t discussed once. Come on…..”
You asked for something no one, not even the Indians medical staff, could answer, so yeah…liking asking for Powerball numbers and then saying in a huff “well thanks a lot, you just wasted my time.” If you can’t see that then there is nothing else to be said except have a nice day.
The Powerball thing is completely ridiculous because literally there’s no chance to get that right and win. With this injury all it does is take looking up past baseball players who have had similar injuries and that puts the estimated date at mid to late August. The Powerball thing is the worst analogy ever, and if you can’t see that then I wish you eternal happiness in your Future of Powerball winnings.
The Indians haven’t even announced a timetable yet, so how are the writers supposed to know?
Fully healed, an ulna fracture will require three to six months. The nature of the fracture described, non-displaced, takes less time.. Bone density, remodeling and recovery vary with each individual. Expediting healing through nutrition is also helpful..
I see little point in speculating on the length of time he’ll miss when the Indians themselves haven’t even released a timeline and are still conducting evaluations.
It’d be one thing if this were a common injury for right-handed pitchers. When a hitter suffers a Grade 1 oblique strain, for instance, it’s easy to say that such an injury could sideline him four to five weeks, because there’s tons of precedent. A hamate excision procedure? Six weeks is reasonable.
The number of pitchers who suffer non-displaced fractures in the ulna of their pitching arm — be it after getting hit by a comebacker or for any other reason — is minute. Nate Pearson had a similar injury last year, but we know nothing about how the size and placement of the fractures on the actual ulna bone relate to one another, and the Blue Jays had every reason to be as cautious as possible with Pearson, whereas the Indians might be a bit more aggressive with a two-time Cy Young winner while they’re in a division race.
Putting a sheer guess at Kluber’s recovery based on one recent similar case is more misleading than it is informative.
If it was his left arm he’d probably be back in about 60 days. But being his pitching arm it will have to be completely healed before he can even resume throwing. I’m gonna predict that they’ll be lucky to have him back by late August.
I agree.
That they are going to reevaluate in 3-4 weeks means it’s not a hairline fracture so the healing time is at least 2 months,then rehab.for a month.September may even be more realistic..
Should’ve gone on the 60 day IL
The twins aren’t great imo but in that division thy don’t need to be. With this injury their chances of wining the division increase. Their key is beating the Indians head to head
The Indians gamble that they could back into a division title due to weak competition is looking dubious today.
The agents for Keuchel and Kimbrel are probably calling them and the Twins constantly trying to drum up some competition.
I can’t see anyway they go after Keuchel instead of internal options. Kimbrel might be a different story but it would have to be a perfect storm of events. First he would have to stay unsigned until after the draft to lose the draft pick compensation attached to him. Cleveland isn’t giving up a pick for just about anyone. Then they would need to start getting more consistent offensive production so they don’t have to spend alot of money they have to work with on the offense which is currently a bigger issue. If all that works out Kimbrel would have to be willing to take a 1 year prorated deal in the price range that ownership is willing to give the front office to work with which is unlikely to be enough. And of course this all assumes the Indians can stay in the race to begin with that long.
Those agents can call the Indians and every other MLB team all they won’t, nobody is budging until after the draft. And Hand has been lights out as a closer so Kimbrel won’t be on their radar, nor should he at his asking price.
Fair enough, thank you for your response.
Kluber’s injury really throws the spotlight on CLE in terms of their weaknesses. If they fall 10 games back of MIN by early July (and given their meager offensive output and holes in their lineup, that’s not far fetched), does anyone see them becoming sellers? They could legitimately rebuild by selling off assets like Lindor, Hand, Bauer, Carrasco, and Ramirez. I know nobody wants to hear that, but it’s a legit possibility.
Lindor, Carrasco, and Ramirez are going nowhere. If we actually fall too far back to catch up I could see them selling off bauer and Leonys, maybe Kip is they can dupe some team into taking him.
I think a full rebuild is unlikely. If they end up falling far behind in the race and/or Kluber/Clev have setbacks in their recovery, I could see them cashing in a trade chip like Bauer with the goal of competing in 2020.. but I thought they were going to trade Bauer this off-season – so what do I know? Hopefully Kluber and Clevinger are back healthy soon.
Uh oh spaghetti o
The Indians could try AAA SP Michael Peoples. He’s a mixed bag. He struggles at first then eventually adjusts. AA SP Zach Plesac will soon be a MLB star but, likely not this year.
What about, maybe…… Eli Morgan?
But Danny Salazar will be off the IL any day now. Ha…
You think they’d pull Morgan onto the 40-man from A+ ball? He’s got some great numbers this year but I would think that Hu, Anderson, Hentges, and Mejia all have the upper hand until Plutko comes of the IL – simply by being in the 40 man already.
Just looking for similar injuries to base the projection return on. It’s not brain surgery, and it’s looking like mid August at this point. That’s a little better than the somewhere between 2 weeks and 2 years projection that saying nothing indicates. Maybe that’s just me…
Great, so they should look at banking on somebody that struggles in he minors to take over Klubers spot. Brilliant!
The Central is a wide-open race now. Look out for the Tigers!
Their gonna take the division for sure
Stroman
Keuchel, Stroman or Sanchez
Uh no, no and no, unless you’re talking about Peter Keuchel, Tony Stroman and Ralphie Sanchez…
I can’t remember a time frame when there have been this many league-wide injuries.
I wonder (yet seriously doubt) whether Boras acknowledges injuries are one of the biggest counterarguments to his “snuff contract” diatribe?
It is astonishing to me that a guy can take a 100+ MPH drive off his arm and not need surgery! Hope that is the case in the long run, hope he’s healthy and pitching again ASAP.
Should of cashed in on him during offseason
You are right, sir. Every player who gets injured should have been traded for a “haul”. What were they thinking?
Another guy living his life looking in the mirror…would’ve could’ve should’ve ….
*Indian fans complaining about their injury problems*Yankees fans; hold my beer!
I don’t see any Indians fans complaining…just fans of other teams that think they ought to be their GM.