Cleveland Indians: Three players that could become the Tribe’s closer

The Cleveland Indians could decline Brad Hand’s option for next season to save $10 million, but who would become the Tribe’s closer?

One of the free agent decisions that the Cleveland Indians will have to make this offseason will be whether or not to pick up closer Brad Hand‘s option for the 2021 season, a contract that would cost the club $10 million. For a team that is stuck on saving money, this seems like a no-brainer.

Hand was more than reliable during the 2020 season, being perfect on save opportunities, but his season ended in a way that will make fans think negatively about him all offseason. Unfortunately, that could be the last memory of Hand in an Indians’ uniform.

Hand will be 31-years old when the 2021 season begins, an age that is older than any of the recent Indians closers have made it to. Despite still being effective, his age and contract might be just enough for him to play somewhere else next season.

So this begs the question, who could become the closer for the Cleveland Indians in 2021? Well, we’ve already been given a glimpse of two candidates and have heard good things about a third.

Overall, the Indians bullpen pitched rather well over the course of the 2020 season, with the exception of a few hiccups, which all teams go through. However, throughout the season there were certain names that were consistently called on in clutch situations that could emerge as candidates to control the ninth inning.

While the Indians could technically bring in a free agent for the role, that seems to go against the idea of saving money. For that reason, the next closer is likely to come from within the organization. There’s a chance of a closer by committee for a bit to find the right guy, but there’s a good chance that the front office or coaching staff already has someone in mind. Here are three players that could be in the mix.

James Karinchak

Any player who has a triple-digit fastball paired with a nasty breaking ball has a shot at closing if they can control it and James Karinchak can do all those things. He doesn’t have a ton of big league experience yet, but the overall thought surrounding Karinchak is that he is the ideal closer of the future in Cleveland.

Karinchak was the Indians’ most used reliever during the 2020 season, making 27 appearances and totaling 27 innings. At the age of 25, he seems like he has all the tools a team looks for in a closer.

During the 2020 season, Karinchak logged a low 2.67 ERA with a 1.11 WHIP while striking out 53 batters, averaging almost two strikeouts an inning. He was also able to log one save, one of four that weren’t clinched by Hand. The others belonged to Oliver Perez, Adam Plutko and Cam Hill.

However, unlike Wittgren, Karinchak doesn’t have as much of a resume when it comes to closing in the minors. Karinchak had a total of 22 saves over his entire minor league career, a number that Wittgren eclipsed in a single season more than once. That isn’t to say that Karinchak couldn’t become the closer, but it might just be a harder transition for him.

Emmanuel Clase

This is a shot in the dark because we haven’t seen Emmanuel Clase pitch for the Indians yet following his suspension during the 2020 season, but he checks all the same boxes that Karinchak does. He has a blazing fast fastball and it is more than proven that that can be enough to lock down the ninth inning.

Clase only has 23.1 innings of major league experience over 21 games with the Texas Rangers in 2019. That isn’t a large sample size, but he did log one save over that span. Should Clase be put into the mix, he likely wouldn’t take over until deeper into the season to get him back in the swing of things.

Clase’s minor league resume is also similar to Karinchak in the way that he didn’t close out many games. Over 92 games pitched in the minors, Clase had just 24 saves.

Given his skill set, Clase is more of a setup man at this point, but he has the potential to eventually become the closer, it just might not be in 2021. He’s only 22-years old, so he has a lot of time to blossom into whatever role he is assigned in the bullpen.