Cleveland Indians: Karinchak, Clase, Shaw best bullpen trio in baseball?

The Cleveland Indians have the best bullpen trio in baseball.

Today’s game of baseball has pushed towards have more clearly defined roles, specifically in the bullpen. Whether it be the closer, the long-reliever or the player who pitches the eighth inning as often as possible. However, the 2021 Cleveland Indians are blurring those lines a bit and it’s working out tremendously.

So far this season, Cleveland has used a committee approach to just about every role, including closer. Even with undefined roles at times, the Tribe bullpen enters the series against the Minnesota Twins as the best in baseball. Relievers for the Cleveland Indians are putting up a 2.57 ERA which tops the league. A large portion of that success has come from the trio of James Karinchak, Emmanuel Clase and Bryan Shaw who have been consistently shutting down the late innings for the club.

It wasn’t long ago that Shaw was paired with a different trio in the Tribe’s bullpen, but this edition has the potential to be even better. As stated by Zack Meisel on Twitter, this trio has been electric recently.

Currently, the Cleveland Indians are one of just four teams in all of baseball to have two pitchers with five saves or more already this season. The others are the San Francisco Giants, Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners. Of those four, the Tribe are the only team to have both pitchers with an ERA below 1.00. In fact, there’s only eight pitchers in all of baseball that have an ERA below 1.00 and have five saves this season. Two are on the Tribe’s roster.

Of those eight, Karinchak clocks in at fourth on the list behind on Aroldis Chapman, Kendall Graveman and Alex Reyes while Clase rounds out the list at eighth. And all of these stats don’t even include Shaw yet who hasn’t been that far off statistically, he just doesn’t have the saves that Karinchak and Clase do. So is this really the best bullpen trio in baseball? Let’s take a look individually first.

Emmanuel Clase

Up to this point in the season, Emmanuel Clase has finished up 15 games for the Cleveland Indians, a mark that leads the American League. While only seven have been saves for the 23-year old flame-thrower, his presence on the mound out of the bullpen has been hard to ignore.

Totaling 19 innings for the Tribe so far in 2021, Clase has allowed just two earned runs. Now six runs have touched the plate when he’s been on the mound, but between extra innings runners and errors only two have been earned. He’s also struck out 19 batters, averaging one per inning pitched, while maintaining a 0.95 ERA that is eighth in baseball among pitchers with five or more saves, as previously mentioned.

Where Clase could show improvement is his walks. He’s walked nine batters which may not seem like a lot, but for a closer any walk isn’t great. Those walks, paired with 19 hits allowed, has is WHIP at 1.47, another mark that you would like to see a bit lower.

However in the overall picture, Clase has been rather impressive. Considering he missed the entire 2020 season and only pitched 23.1 major league innings in 2019, this has been quite the season so far for him and one that has his name among some of the best rookies in the game this year.

James Karinchak

While Clase has more saves, James Karinchak is arguably the best pitcher in the Cleveland Indians bullpen currently. Karinchak won’t hit triple digits on the radar gun nearly as often as Clase, but his mix of speed and breaking balls has his stat line looking even more impressive.

Over 19.1 innings this season, one more out than Clase, Karinchak has allowed just one run for a 0.47 ERA, the fourth best mark among pitchers with five or more saves. On top of that, he’s been able to nearly double Clase’s strikeout total having sent down 36 batters on three strikes. For perspective, the Tribe have recorded 58 total outs when Karinchak is on the mound and 36 have been strikeouts. That’s 62 percent.

As for his one run given up, it was a solo home run to Hunter Dozier back on May 3 during the seventh inning of an 8-6 victory for Cleveland. Other than that, he’s been near perfect this season on the bump.

Like Clase, Karinchak could continue to work on his walks, having walked seven so far this season. However, with how he’s been rolling early on this season it’s hard to argue with any of his methods right now. He’s also finished just nine games this season compared to Clase’s 15, so doing that more often if his role grows will be something to track.

Bryan Shaw

Of the three, Bryan Shaw has the most experience and is the oldest of the trio at 33-years old, but he’s keeping pace with the young guns in more ways than one. After being part of the trio that included Cody Allen and Andrew Miller, Shaw has revitalized his career with his return to Cleveland after struggles in Colorado and Seattle.

This season, Shaw has finished off two games for the Tribe while returning to his previous role with the club, consisting of either the seventh inning or spot appearances to get the team out of trouble. In total, he’s logged 16 innings for Cleveland this season.

Over his time on the mound in 2021, Shaw has allowed just three earned runs while striking out 18 and even logging a save while allowing just four total hits. That success has led to a 1.69 ERA and an even more impressive 0.88 WHIP.

Shaw won’t get as much recognition has Karinchak or Clase in the big picture since he doesn’t register saves very often, but his role is just as important. He begins the backend of the game and sets up the opportunities for Karinchak and Clase to log the save when the game goes final.