Monday, Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Mike Clevinger was punished after breaking team protocols regarding the Coronavirus. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported the news on Twitter.
Cleveland Indians pitcher Mike Clevinger went out with teammate Zach Plesac in Chicago on Saturday night in violation of team protocol, sources tell ESPN. Clevinger was scratched from his scheduled start Tuesday against the Cubs and will quarantine. He flew with the team Sunday.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 10, 2020
Sunday, the team also sent Zach Plesac home for breaking protocol. That came on the heels of a report that he went out on the town in Chicago Saturday night. Furthermore, the Indians provided Plesac with a rental car to drive back and ensure that his exposure to the team was as limited as possible.
As with anything that is related to the Coronavirus, teams and the MLB are taking it seriously. The last thing the Indians want is for a breakout to occur among their own team following the breakouts that have occurred for both the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals.
According to a team statement, Clevinger will now go into quarantine. Plesac has already been quarantined. Additionally, both will undergo testing away from their fellow teammates and must test negative two separate times over a 72-hour window before being allowed to rejoin the team.
State of the Indians Starting Rotation
The Cleveland Indians starting rotation was very impressive at the start of this season. At the conclusion of play Monday, the team owns the best ERA in all of baseball – 2.24 over 108 and one-third innings of work. A lot of that came from the contributions of Clevinger. Additionally, the innings provided by Plesac in the number four hole added to the success of the rotation.
Now, the Indians have two-fifths of their starting rotation on the sidelines for at least the next 10 days. For a team that currently sits one game back of first place in the American League Central, having that starting pitching is going to be valuable down the stretch. Cleveland has always had a tremendous amount of starting pitching depth. However, with Clevinger and Pleaac out of the fold, that depth obviously takes a big hit.
Adam Plutko, who was the team’s number six starter, will likely fill one of the spots for now. In addition, it would not be a surprise to see the Indians potentially fill one of those starts with a bullpen day. Cleveland has a deep enough bullpen that they could piece together one start following “The Opener” methodology.
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