The Indians are still unsure how they want to proceed with the No. 5 spot in the starting rotation for the rest of September.
On Monday, the Indians pieced together nine innings by using eight different pitchers in a “bullpen game,” with regular No. 5 starter Josh Tomlin pitching the ninth. But with roughly a month left in the regular season, the American League Central leaders are in the middle of a complex balance between finding a long-term solution and trying to win now.
The Indians have four base options of how to handle Tomlin’s spot in the rotation.
The first is that Tomlin, who was skipped for his start on Monday and given some additional time off, slides back into that spot. Indians manager Terry Francona previously had mentioned that Tomlin flip-flopped his fastball-cutter usage. Pitching coach Mickey Callaway added Monday night that the Indians are working with him to “fire” his hips in his delivery.
The club hopes it’s identified Tomlin’s issues that led to an 11.48 ERA in August. Callaway liked what he saw in Tomlin’s inning of work Monday night.
“I thought he was really good,” Callaway said. “[Bullpen coach Jason Bere] said he warmed up really good in the ’pen. I thought he got his pitches where he wanted them. He looked a little more like the old Tomlin. He was really getting the balls in when he went in, and was getting them away when he went away, and up when he went up, and down when he went down. That’s all you can ask.”
To Tomlin, it hasn’t been one mechanical issue. He just hasn’t made the right pitches at the right times.
“Too many mistakes whenever guys were on base,” Tomlin said. “When they put up crooked numbers in an inning, it kind of hurts the team, breaks the momentum a little bit and puts the team in a bad spot moving forward. It’s just minimizing the mistakes when guys are on base is basically the only thing I’ve realized have gone bad from pre-All-Star to post-All-Star.”
A second option is to repeat the “bullpen game” from Monday every fifth game. It’s possible because of roster expansion and the club having additional arms in the bullpen, but not something that seems entirely likely. There’s still plenty of baseball to be played, and if a starter ran into trouble the day before or after, the bullpen could be taxed. That scenario hasn’t been ruled out, though.
The third option is to lengthen out Mike Clevinger so he can throw five to six innings. That would take at least one turn through the rotation to build him up to that point, and Francona has said the club would like to keep him in the bullpen for the rest of this season if possible.
The fourth option is to look to Triple-A for additional pitchers. Calloway mentioned Ryan Merritt and Shawn Morimando, both left-handers, as options who could either give the Indians another starter or additional protection for future games pieced together with the bullpen.
It’s an odd situation for a division leader and legitimate World Series contender to be in this late in the season.
“I think we want to try and figure out where we’re at when each start comes up,” Callaway said. “If we’re going to have to use a guy to win a game before that, and we think we’re going to win a game using him, then we’ll do it again.
“But, if somebody’s available, and we don’t know who that might be, we’ll try and let him start. I think that would be the best approach to go about it, because if we hadn’t used a guy, no matter who it is, maybe they can start. If we have used them, maybe we’ll do a bullpen day or something like that. So, we’re not quite sure.”
The good news for the Indians is that should they make the postseason, they won’t need a fifth starter. It’s all about getting through September with their lead in the division still intact.
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RyanLewisABJ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RyanLewisABJ