The Guardians positioned right-hander Carlos Carrasco on the 15-day injured listing Friday with a left hip pressure and optioned infielder/outfielder Angel Martinez to Triple-A Columbus, per a staff announcement. Of their locations, Cleveland recalled outfielder Will Brennan and reliever Peter Strzelecki from Columbus. The Guards additionally known as up left-hander Joey Cantillo because the twenty seventh man for at present’s doubleheader in opposition to the Twins.
Cantillo will begin Recreation 1 of at present’s twin invoice. Zack Meisel of The Athletic tweets that righty Alex Cobb, acquired from the Giants on the commerce deadline, will begin Recreation 2 for Cleveland. He’s on the 60-day injured listing, in order that they’ll must make a corresponding 40-man roster transfer between video games one and two at present.
It’s the second IL stint of the season for Carrasco, who opened the yr on the 15-day injured listing as a consequence of neck spasms. He signed a minor league deal to return to Cleveland over the winter, made the rotation in spring coaching, and is presently second on the staff in video games began, trailing solely right-hander Tanner Bibee.
Whereas Carrasco has been a constant presence in Cleveland’s rotation this yr, his outcomes have paled compared to his peak years. The now-37-year-old righty has eaten up 103 2/3 innings however been clobbered for a 5.64 ERA. His 19.9% strikeout fee is a pair proportion factors shy of league-average, whereas his 7.4% stroll fee is healthier than common. Nevertheless, Carrasco is working with a career-worst 91.8 mph common fastball velocity and has been extraordinarily homer susceptible, yielding a median of 1.65 lengthy balls per 9 frames. A bloated 17% of the fly-balls he yields have left the park. He’s hit a very tough patch of late, surrendering 17 runs (on the energy of 5 homers) in his previous 17 2/3 innings.
Carrasco clearly isn’t performing properly in the mean time, however his placement on the IL additional checks the depth for a Guardians membership that misplaced Shane Bieber for the season (Tommy John surgical procedure) again in April and has seen younger pitchers Logan Allen and Triston McKenzie battle to the purpose that they’ve been optioned to Columbus. The Guards acquired Cobb previous to the deadline and signed veteran left-hander Matthew Boyd to a giant league deal as he wrapped up his rehab from 2023 Tommy John surgical procedure. Cobb will make his Guardians debut tonight, and Boyd isn’t anticipated to be too far behind him.
That would probably give Cleveland a rotation of Bibee, Cobb, Boyd, Gavin Williams and journeyman Ben Energetic down the stretch. There’s potential for a stable group there, nevertheless it’s anybody’s guess proper now how Cobb will carry out coming off hip surgical procedure and the way Boyd will carry out on the again of final season’s ligament alternative process. It’s not the dominant Cleveland rotation we’re used to seeing, however the Guardians boast among the finest bullpens in baseball, which helps to offset a number of the uncertainty.
As for Cantillo, at present will mark his third large league begin. He’s been tagged for six runs in 7 1/3 innings up to now and can face a troublesome job in squaring off in opposition to a Twins staff that has thrived in opposition to left-handed pitching this yr. A former third-round choose, Cantillo has ranked among the many Guardians’ extra promising younger arms since being acquired from the Padres again within the 2020 Mike Clevinger commerce. He’s had some command troubles within the higher minors and missed a good portion of the present season on the injured listing, however Cantillo has a 4.21 ERA and 27.1% strikeout fee in 124 profession Triple-A frames — albeit in opposition to a 13.4% stroll fee that’ll want to enhance if he’s to maintain success within the majors.
