Cleveland Indians: Three potential free agents to add as the fifth starter

Three potential free agents the Cleveland Indians could add as a fifth starter

The Major League Baseball season is 16 percent complete and the Cleveland Indians remain around the .500 mark in terms of record. Entering the series against Kansas City as the third place team in the AL Central and three games back of the division lead, one month into the season is usually a good first opportunity to assess a team’s performance. But it is also a time for front offices around the league to begin identifying glaring needs to address.

For the Cleveland Indians, some of those needs were self-evident before the team broke camp in Spring; namely the weakness of the offense at a variety of positions. But, barring a miracle pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, the Tribe are not likely to acquire any season-changing sluggers. Many of the bats in the lineup are young, and were acquired at the cost of trading away all-star players. Therefore, the Tribe front office will likely remain static on matters relating to the offense.

However, an area where the Indians could dip into their pockets is the backend of the starting rotation. The five-man unit has already suffered a casualty after Logan Allen was sent packing to the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate in Columbus following three disastrous outings in a row. Over that three-start stretch Allen completed just five 2/3 innings, allowing 11 runs and six home runs. That was just not going to cut it.

When you cannot pitch beyond the second inning, you are not putting your team in a position to compete. Allen said as much when he reflected on his struggles this season with Cleveland.com:

"“I’m putting myself in bad counts. Nothing needs to change with the routine, it’s just tweaking some things here and there because the mindset is there, the confidence is there, it’s just I’m doing a disservice to my teammates doing this multiple times in a row.”"

He’ll work on ironing out his issues in Columbus, and hope to rejoin the staff later in the season.

But Allen is not the only starting pitcher to struggle with command and consistency. Young starlet, Triston McKenzie, who has otherwise shown flares of brilliance throwing the baseball, with 28 strikeouts in just 18 2/3 innings, this season, has put himself, and his team, in difficult situations with his propensity to walk a lot of batters (8.7 per 9 innings, to be precise). He is yet to go more than five innings in a start this season, due to high pitch counts caused by allowing free passes to first base. Manager Terry Francona, and pitching coach Carl Willis may decide that McKenzie could also benefit from extra work in Triple-A to hone his craft.

These struggles, and moving pieces, at the rear of the Cleveland Indians rotation could invite fresh blood into the organization via free agency. The options to fill the the fifth starter role, internally, are scarce and not particularly appealing, to put it mildly.

So here’s a look at three potential names who the Indians could call upon in free agency.