Cleveland Indians Season Review: Right-Handed Pitcher Corey Kluber

Reviewing Corey Kluber’s 2015 Performance

The 2015 Major League Baseball season was one that Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Corey Kluber should definitely try to forget. After a spectacular 2014 season in which he not only won 18 games, but also the Cy Young Award, 2015 was the complete opposite. Kluber finished with a 9-16 and a 3.49 ERA.

Despite a bad 2015 season, Kluber will continue to be the Tribe’s ace. Yes, Kluber had a few rough starts, but overall his record should not have been as bad as it was. The Indians’ offense could not consistently provide run support for the pitching staff and, more often than not, the worse offensive games seemed to occur when Kluber was on the mound.

Was the 2015 season a fluke? Evaluating the statistics on Kluber’s pitching since being called up to the majors, yes it is. However, that is again not just based off how Kluber pitches, but again it is also due to what kind of offensive production is given when he is in the game.

Coming into this season, Kluber had improved his record, ERA, games started, innings pitched, WHIP, FIP, and SO/W ratio.

The good part of his season this year is that there was still progress and achievements being made– most notably a career high in complete games with four. On the negative side, his 16 losses also were also a career high.

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It would be great to see him get back to the 18 wins he earned in 2015, or as close to that amount as possible, in 2016. Since the offense is not a lineup that one can confidently say the team can score x amount of runs on a regular basis, it is going to be tough to keep the organization in the game and win. That being said, if there is any improvement on offense, predicting 15 wins for Kluber is very realistic.

So what is in store for him next season? Well, the obvious is that he is going to keep leading the pitching staff. However, he must also at least get back to the pitcher he was in 2013. Ideally, he would repeat the success he had in 2014, but that’s a tall order given how successful he was in his Cy Young season.

Since the type of season Kluber just finished was the first full season of his career in which he did not perform well, there is not as much concern over his pitching as there would be with others in similar situations. However, the offense can only be blamed for his lack of success so much.

If 2016 turns out to be a repeat of this season, then the Indians will need to evaluate Kluber more extensively – but that seems unlikely. Kluber is a very talented starting pitcher, and in 2016 he seems poised to get back to his winning ways and hopefully lead Cleveland into the playoffs.

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