Cleveland Indians: Smart to Pull Danny Salazar Early

Cleveland Indians starting pitcher had a short outing in his return to the active roster Thursday night.

Danny Salazar has had a rough month of August.

He began the month with a two-inning outing against the Minnesota Twins, and ended up on the disabled list a day later.

The Cleveland Indians welcomed him back last night as he looked to get back to his regular form. That was not the case.

Salazar only pitched one inning, giving up three runs, before he was pulled from the game. The 34-pitch outing may have seemed alarming to fans, but it does not seem like Salazar is injured once again.

The seemingly concrete proof of him not being injured was the sight of Salazar pitching in the bullpen following being taken out of the game.

It was odd to see Salazar in the bullpen, but it made sense considering he needed to get his pitches in last night, even if they came after being pulled from the game.

He may have been able to figure things out if left in, but pulling him was smart for two reasons.

The first reason has to do with Salazar just coming off the disabled list and pitching for the first time in nearly three weeks. It was clear his pitch location was off, so it was smarter to take him out and let him figure it out in the bullpen, where he will not be overworking and potentially tweaking something in his arm.

There is also the fact the Indians are in a pennant race and need to treat every game with extreme importance. A 3-0 deficit in the first inning was not insurmountable, as the Indians proved with a 5-4, but if his command wasn’t there, the deficit could have gotten out of hand.

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The Indians have had some issues with rushing players back from injury this year, starting with Michael Brantley, so hopefully Salazar can bounce back in his next start. Losing him in September would be a devastating blow, but his work in the bullpen seems to signal he just needed to work on a few things.