Mike Clevinger to injured list with back injury

After what was initially thought to be a minor injury, Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Mike Clevinger is being placed on the injured list.

The Cleveland Indians got same bad news. Mike Clevinger is being placed on the injured list with a back injury. Nick Wittgren is taking his spot on the roster.

Mike Clevinger thought he would make his next start. Although that is no longer in the cards. Clevinger will be missing a significant amount of time with this injury. Any and all positive outlooks in the short-term are no longer relevant. Clevinger is going to miss a lot of time and a replacement will take his place. Cleveland did bring up Nick Wittgren, but he is only a bullpen arm. Wittgren’s time with Cleveland may be short lived due to the need of a starter. It is unlikely that the Indians would copy the new opener/bullpenning approach due to their limitations with bullpen arms.

While Mike Clevinger is only being placed on the 10-day injured list this is a bit deceiving. Per Terry Francona Clevinger will not pick up a baseball for six to eight weeks. This sets a potential return being much farther away than initially thought.

The injury is a Teres major muscle strain. This is an injury that requires a lengthy rehabilitation process and there is no guarantee a return that this season is possible.

Losing Mike Clevinger hurts, there is no way around it. The team is already without Francisco Lindor and Jason Kipnis. Now losing one of their best arms on the team is not a good sign. This is far from a death sentence for this season, but things are not coming up the Tribe’s way as of this moment. It is a long season and Cleveland still has four additional excellent starting pitchers, but this offense will need to pick things up rather quickly.