The Indians are reinstating right-hander Zach Plesac from the 10-day injured list to start this evening’s game against the Royals, the team informed reporters (including Mandy Bell of MLB.com). Righty J.C. Mejia was optioned to Triple-A Columbus to create active roster space.
Plesac has missed about a month and a half since suffering a non-displaced fracture in his right thumb in late May. Before the injury, the 26-year-old had tossed 58 2/3 innings of 4.14 ERA/4.50 SIERA ball over his first ten starts. That’s a step back from the sterling 2.28 ERA/3.41 SIERA he pitched to over 55 1/3 frames in 2020, but it’s still solid production.
Cleveland hasn’t gotten much decent work from the starting staff in recent weeks. The Indians lost Shane Bieber and Aaron Civale to IL stints of their own after Plesac went down, leaving them relying on an unproven rotation. Over the past month, Indians starters have pitched to a woeful 7.16 ERA that bests only the Orioles rotation (8.40). That’s contributed to a significant drop in the standings, as the Indians are amidst a nine-game losing streak that has knocked them back to .500 (42-42), eight games behind the division-leading White Sox.
Mejia has been a big part of those struggles. Over his seven starts, the 24-year-old has given up 25 runs in 25 1/3 innings. It has also been a difficult season for Triston McKenzie, who has walked 20.6% of opposing hitters en route to a 6.38 ERA. That led the Indians to option McKenzie last month, but he’ll be recalled to start tomorrow evening’s game, relays Zack Meisel of the Athletic (Twitter link).
Mejia and Hentges have shown flashes and I think they can both be solid major leaguers in time (even though I think they’ll both be relievers long-term), but in their defense they really shouldn’t be up in the majors right now. Everyone got injured at the same time and there wasn’t much depth behind them, so these guys are being forced to start when they should realistically be in AAA. Hopefully they learn from it and it doesn’t damage their confidence moving forward.
Hopefully he learned his lesson on aggressively taking his shirt off
Now when they get no hit they’ll only lose by 2 or 3 runs instead of 8…
I wish Plesac well.
I want there to be an exciting battle to the end for the AL Central.
Otherwise, the Sox will get complacent and not be ready for the playoffs.
There is no other competition.
Are you’re begging, so the division doesn’t look so, ‘feeble’?
Finally. Don’t think I could take another start by Mejia or Hentges.
Mejia has the second best xFIP of the Indians’ starters. Better than Civale or Plesac. Mejia deserves a lot more patience. Logan Allen, on the other hand, does not.
Mejia and Hentges will both be eligible to come back in time for starts after the ASB. Mejia will very likely be back.
See the issue with xFIP is the x, great predictor not great in season.
I swear I’ve had this argument so many times. xFIP is a better predictive stat than ERA, FiP, or xERA. But all of those stats are in the range of 4.10-4.72 – he really is showing ability beyond what the surface stats say. And I would personally bet that he’s not going to be giving up nearly 20% of his fly balls as home runs going forward (for reference, that’s the only difference between xFIP and FiP, xFIP predicts what your ERA might be if you had “normal” homerun luck on fly balls).
Given that Civale and Bieber aren’t back yet, i think Mejia deserves a spot in the rotation after the break. It should be Plesac, Morgan, Mejia, Quantrill, and… I guess Hentges or McKenzie. Definitely not Logan Allen, whose advanced stats are somehow worse than his surface ones. When Bieber and Civale get back we’ll have more data to say more certainly who should be staying on.
I don’t even know what xFIP is. Don’t really care, either. I just go with the eye test.
Don’t care about xFip you say? I hear the Colorado Rockies are looking for some front office personnel, maybe put that in your cover letter.
The problem for me with the “eye test” is that my eye is different from yours. I favor Mejia’s body language. And while Morgan & Sticks look like high school kids, their eyes radiate confidence to me. Quantrill looks like a keeper, too. Hentges & Logan S. Allen look they’re in deep water & can’t remember their swimming lessons. Eye test is all this kind of individual opinion, often misleading. Btw, right now they should try a desperation fast one, substituting Logan T. Allen for Logan S. Allen. Bill Veeck would have faked at it. Imagine the news value.
I seem to agree with you. of the 3, Mejia would be the one I keep, but he needs more development.
Good to see PleZach back.
Always interesting to see an Indian pitcher under the “no-sticky” rules. So far, so awful.
Really? Their pitchers being hurt would probably have nothing to do with their lackluster performance since the enforcement went into effect.
And you say 0% to do with sticky? Paaaa’leeze. And I can’t help but notice how quickly their pitching underperforms immediately after trades. I’m watching is all. Not naming any specific names without proof.
If you’re talking about ex Indians pitchers… they’re all hurt or on administrative leave! Bauer is the only one thats thrown close to a full slate this year. Carrasco and Clevinger haven’t thrown a single pitch!
Kluber licks his hands way too much to be a sticky stuff guy. Clevinger I would buy, he was really close with Bauer and we know Bauer did it.
The players traded have underperform due to injury, plus they Indians has been wise on when to swap them. If they were holding back some secret in Cleveland it would’ve been exposed once one of these guys were dealt, especially by some outspoken clown like Bauer. Keep on hatin’…
Not to mention the whole sticky stuff and spin rate was kick started by Bauer when he was in Cleveland. No way he’d have been squeaking and bringing the heat if it was going on in his own clubhouse, and if it was it would’ve been pointed out by those unhappy with what he was doing like the Astros.
whifff do you even watch baseball? if anything the Indians aren’t using enough sticky stuff… we have a rotation full of minor leaguers who aren’t ready for the majors but we threw them in there in the hopes a Civale or Bieber emerged. unshockingly, it didn’t happen
I can’t shake this feeling on Clev wanting to trade him.Owner is 1 of the riches men in the world and he’s shipped players out for lesser acts detrimental to the team.This team only cares about money.Look at the kids they gave up!Sorry Clev
lumber and lighting
This team only cares about money.Look at the kids they gave up!Sorry Clev
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So far, they’ve gotten much the better of the Kluber, Clevinger, and Lindor/Carrasco deals.
“Before the injury, the 26-year-old had tossed 58 2/3 innings of 4.14 ERA/4.50 SIERA ball over his first ten starts. That’s a step back from the sterling 2.28 ERA/3.41 SIERA he pitched to over 55 1/3 frames in 2020, but it’s still solid production.”
Plesac’s ERA is only that high due to two poor starts against Chicago back in April when he gave up 12 runs in six innings.
That’s the same with most pitchers. Pull out B2B starts v TO & Hou, and Perez’s ERA is 2.79. A lot of time, it is less a matter of talent, and more a matter of consistency.