The Guardians placed right-handers Carlos Carrasco on Friday on the 15-day injured list with a strained left hip and optional infielder/outfielder Angel Martinez to Triple-A Columbus, according to a team statement. In their place, Cleveland called up outfielder Will Brennan and relief Peter Strzelecki from Columbus. The guards also have left-handed Joey Cantillo as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader against the Twins.
Cantillo will start Game 1 of today’s doubleheader. Zack Meisel of The Athletic tweets that the right-hander Alex Cobbwho was acquired from the Giants at the trade deadline, will start Game 2 for Cleveland. He is on the 60-day injured list, so they will have to make a corresponding 40-man roster change between Games One and Two today.
It’s Carrasco’s second IL appearance this season after starting the year on the 15-day injured list due to neck spasms. He signed a minor league deal to return to Cleveland in the winter, was inserted into the rotation in spring training and is currently the team’s second-leading player in games started, trailing only the right-hander. Tanner Bibee.
While Carrasco has been a consistent part of Cleveland’s rotation this year, his results pale in comparison to his prime. The now 37-year-old right-hander has pitched 103 2/3 innings but has posted a 5.64 ERA. His 19.9% strikeout rate is a few percentage points below league average, while his 7.4% walk rate is better than average. However, Carrasco has a career-low average fastball velocity of 91.8 mph and is extremely home run prone, averaging 1.65 long balls per nine innings. An inflated 17% of the fly balls he throws have left the field. He’s hit a particularly rough patch lately, allowing 17 runs in his last 17 2/3 innings (on five home runs).
Carrasco is obviously not performing well at the moment, but his placement on the IL once again tests the depth of a Guardians club that has lost Shane Bieber for the season (Tommy John Operation) in April and has seen young pitchers Logan Allen And Triston McKenzie are struggling so much that they were sent to Columbus. The guards acquired Cobb before the deadline and signed the experienced left-hander Matthew Boyd to a big league contract while he completes his rehab after Tommy John surgery in 2023. Cobb will make his Guardians debut tonight, and Boyd is expected to be not far behind him.
This could potentially give Cleveland a rotation of Bibee, Cobb, Boyd, Gavin Williams and journeyman Ben Lively in the home stretch. There is the potential for a solid group, but right now, no one can say how Cobb will perform after his hip surgery and how Boyd will perform after his ligament surgery last season. It’s not the dominant Cleveland rotation we’re used to, but the Guardians boast one of the best bullpens in baseball, which helps offset some of the uncertainty.
For Cantillo, today is his third major league start. He has scored six runs in 7 1/3 innings so far and will face a tough task facing a Twins team that has had success against left-handed pitchers this year. Cantillo, a former third-round pick, has been one of the Guardians’ most promising young pitchers since being signed from the Padres in 2020. Michael Clevinger Trade. He had some command issues in the upper minors and missed a significant portion of the current season on the injured list, but Cantillo has a 4.21 ERA and a 27.1% strikeout rate in 124 career Triple-A games — though against a 13.4% walk rate that will need to improve if he wants to maintain his success in the majors.
