Cleveland Indians: Carlos Carrasco Out for Season
Carlos Carrasco of the Cleveland Indians broke his finger and will miss the rest of the season.
The Cleveland Indians World Series aspirations took a major hit yesterday when Carlos Carrasco left the game after a line drive hit and broke his right pinkie finger. The incident happened on the second pitch of yesterday’s victory over the Tigers. Manager Terry Francona told the media after the game that Carrasco will not return this season.
This now marks the second time this season that Carrasco has sustained an injury against the Detroit Tigers. The last time happened earlier this season when he strained his left hamstring, causing him to miss six weeks of action. While the first one hampered the Tribe’s ability to obtain and hold the division lead, the current injury could have serious ramifications for their playoff ambitions.
With Carrasco now on the shelf, the Cleveland Indians have seen injuries rattle their team. Michael Brantley has missed nearly the entire season with a variety of shoulder and bicep injuries, and Yan Gomes will now miss the remainder of the season with another injury during a rehab stint.
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The starting rotation has its fair share of problems, too, with both Danny Salazar and now Carrasco out through the postseason. Salazar got off to a great start to the season before heavily scuffling after the All-Star break. Still, his seasonal earned run average of 3.87 is quite respectable.
Carlos Carrasco has had an even better season than his teammate. The 29-year-old righty owns a 3.32 earned run average with excellent strikeout figures through 24 starts. His strikeout to walk ratio of 4.41 underlines his greatness, and he has also done a good job of inducing groundballs and weak contact.
With just a few weeks left in the season, the Cleveland Indians should still manage to hold on to the American League Central crown. They hold a commanding, eight-game lead over the Detroit Tigers and could clinch the division by the end of next week. FanGraphs has the odds of the Tribe winning the division at 99.7 percent, and our own Matt Veasey has written about manager Terry Francona’s role in establishing the Indians’ dominant position.
Perhaps most concerning is how this latest injury will affect any potential postseason matches. The Indians have relied on a combination of superb pitching and batting to take control of the AL Central, but their starting rotation now has quite a few holes. Corey Kluber is still pitching in Cy Young Award-winning form, but Trevor Bauer has struggled in his past few starts. Josh Tomlin pitched well in the first half but collapsed in August, and rookie Mike Clevinger has been nothing special so far.
For the Cleveland Indians to make it deep into October, they will need to have their starting pitchers keep them in the game while relying more on their offense. This may be a little risky, especially since their starting rotation was supposed to be their strength, but the offense has played well this year. When sorting by weighted runs created plus, Tribe batters rank third in the American League, and traditional metrics also rate them as a top-three team. They also have outstanding base running and defense.
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At the end of the day, the Indians’ offense may lack many big names, but Francisco Lindor, Jason Kipnis, and Jose Ramirez have had superb seasons. Furthermore, the Indians are a pretty well-rounded team. These injuries could create problems down the line, but there is no reason to suspect a late-season collapse.