Cleveland Indians: Activating Jason Kipnis will solidify the roster

The Cleveland Indians have officially activated Jason Kipnis. That will get the roster where the team wants it and set them up heading into the summer.

Jason Kipnis has officially been activated and is joining the Cleveland Indians in Chicago.

This will be the last move the Indians make, barring injury, for the next few months.

Kipnis’ arrival gives the Indians their projected Opening Day lineup. He will join Francisco Lindor, Carlos Santana and Edwin Encarnacion to try to help the Indians offense. That offense is already third in the majors with 4.93 runs per game, only trailing the Washington Nationals and New York Yankees.

Kipnis will be a solid addition over the man he’s replacing, Yandy Diaz. The Indians still have high hopes for Diaz, but the 25-year-old just seemed a little overmatched at the plate. In 15 games, he hit just .236 with only two RBI and 14 strikeouts.

He could return to the majors by the end of the year, but that’s a couple of months away.

The offense will be solidified by Kipnis’ arrival, but the bullpen is already solidified. The Indians bullpen ranks eighth in the majors in bullpen ERA, according to ESPN. Their sterling backend guys, Andrew Miller and Cody Allen, have combined for 15 innings, while allowing just one run.

That bullpen also features some strong guys at the front end as well. Dan Otero and Bryan Shaw have proven themselves to be reliable bullpen arms in the past, so their early struggles don’t give too much reason to panic. Plus, the addition of Boone Logan gives Francona a reliable lefty he can bring out of the pen in situations that he doesn’t want to use Miller in.

So the bullpen and the lineup are squared away. They have versatile players who can fill multiple roles on the bench, backing up an infield that could be the best offensive infield in baseball, to go along with a strong group of outfielders.

The problem, at least early on, has been the starting rotation.

Cleveland starters have the highest ERA on baseball at 5.63. Nobody else is even over 4.71.

Carlos Carraso has been the only good starter for the first three times through the rotation. Danny Salazar has been okay, racking up 27 strikeouts through three starts, but he clearly has stuff he still needs to work on. Corey Kluber has struggled in his first three starts, but he’s shown enough in the past that he knows what he’s doing and that there’s no reason to worry yet.

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Trevor Bauer and Josh Tomlin are different cases, though. Bauer has posted an ERA of 6.35, while Tomlin’s has ballooned to 11.68. It’s highly unlikely the team would make a move to remove the young Bauer from the rotation anytime soon. However, if both men continue the struggle, that could intensify the need to make a move that removes Tomlin from the starting five.

That’s why the one move the Indians could make soon is to add Mike Clevinger. Clevinger has pitched 19 innings this year for Triple-A Columbus, yielding just one run.

However, Clevinger did not pitch well in the majors in 2016. He made 17 appearances (10 starts) and had a 5.26 ERA. He allowed eight home runs and 29 walks in just 53 innings.

Those stats are going to give the Indians brass pause at calling him up again this soon. Add that with the fact that Bauer and Tomlin are both coming off wins in a rain-shortened series sweep in Minnesota, and this move to add Kipnis could be the last move for a while.

Next: Who could be left out of the outfield?

With Kipnis joining the team and the last win against the Twins pushing the Indians back over .500, it’s probably time for the AL to get ready for Cleveland to start heating up.