Cleveland Indians Place Emmanuel Clase on the Injured List
Earlier today, the Cleveland Indians announced this morning that they lost reliever Emmanuel Clase to the Injured List. The news was first reported by Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal on Twitter.
Indians reliever Emmanuel Clase, who recently underwent imaging, has been diagnosed with a moderate strain of the teres major muscle in his upper back. It's the same spot that Mike Clevinger had trouble with last season.
He's expected to miss 8-to-12 weeks of game activity.
— Ryan Lewis (@ByRyanLewis) February 27, 2020
With the news that Clase was headed to the Injured List, it was a bit of a blow for the Cleveland Indians bullpen. Clase was the primary piece that the Indians acquired from the Texas Rangers in their trade involving starting pitcher Corey Kluber. The other piece that went back to Cleveland was centerfielder Delino DeShields.
DeShields was viewed as more of an outfield depth piece, but Clase was expected to play an integral role in the Indians bullpen this coming season. In many ways, Clase fit exactly what the Indians look for in a relief pitcher because he was young and inexpensive, has high-upside, and stuff to make him a late-inning weapon.
Emmanuel Clase the Reliever
Last year during the 2019 regular season at the age of 21, Clase pitched in 21 games for the Texas Rangers big league squad. Over that span, Clase posted a 2.31 ERA over 23.1 innings of work with a 8.1 K/9 Rate and an ERA+ of 226. For a rookie pitcher as young as Clase was, it was a very good season overall.
Furthermore, last season in High-A and Double A, Clase posted a 2.82 ERA over 44.2 innings pitched. In that span, Clase faced a total of 178 batters, while recording 50 strikeouts and a 10.1 K/9 rate. Something that really stuck out about Clase over that sample size was his ability to keep the baseball inside the ballpark.
Over the span of those 44.2 innings of work in the minors, Clase had a home runs-per-9 rate of 0.2. In addition, Clase did well with limiting the amount of batters that he walked as well. In that sample size, Clase issued a total of 9 walks to the opposing team. When you combine all of those things together, it’s easy to see why this could be a significant loss for the Cleveland Indians bullpen.
Mike Clevinger’s Back Strain from Last Season
During the 2019 regular season, Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Mike Clevinger dealt with a similar injury to the one that has sidelined Emmanuel Clase. During the middle part of April, Clevinger joined the 60-Day Injured List with a right upper back and Teres major muscle strain. In all, Clevinger didn’t pitch on a big league mound again until the latter part of June.
If everything goes according to plan, Clase may very well follow the same timetable. In fact, there is a chance that if things go really well, Clase could be back sooner than expected. However, with any pitcher, back strains can be a significant issue if not treated properly. Therefore, the entire Cleveland Indians medical staff needs to be sure that Clase is fully healthy before he steps back out on the mound.
Assuming that Clase ends up missing two months like Clevinger, that would mean that he could rejoin the Indians big league squad around the middle-to-end of May. If that is indeed the case, it could be like a great mid-season acquisition for the Indians bullpen. For an Indians team that has it’s eyes set on winning the American League Central this year, that could provide their roster with a significant boost.
Final Thoughts
In the end, there was no guarantee that Emmanuel Clase was going to be a member of the Cleveland Indians major league bullpen. However, the organization obviously viewed Clase in high regard given how they targeted him in trade talks with the Texas Rangers. As such, there was a very good chance that Clase was going to occupy a late-inning role in the Indians bullpen. For now, the Indians will have to move forward without Clase as part of the puzzle.
