Cleveland Indians: 5 disappointing players through the first six weeks

5. Corey Kluber

Corey Kluber is an ace. He is not pitching like one.

In his career, Kluber has only had one true shutdown year. In 2014, he pitched to an 18-9 record with a 2.44 ERA, on his way to winning the AL Cy Young Award. He’s still been very reliable in other years.

In the past three years, he has started no less than 32 games, while pitching to no worse than a 3.49 ERA.

He makes his starts, he eats innings and, most importantly, he consistently gives his team a chance to win. That has not been the case this year.

On April 21, his fourth start of the season, he threw a complete game shutout. Despite that, in only six starts overall, he has managed to get his ERA above five, at 5.06. His last start was abysmal: five runs on seven hits in just three innings.

He gets a bit of a pass for now, as he has gone on the DL with back issues. Maybe those have caused the struggles and he will take two or three weeks off and come back and be Corey Kluber. Maybe they haven’t affected him at all and some back pain is a means of getting him on the DL and off the field for a short period of time to clear his head.

We’ll see when he comes back, but one thing’s for sure, if these back issues are serious, don’t count on Kluber being the same innings eater he has been in the past.