Cleveland Indians: 3 reasons why the future is bright for Cleveland baseball

Cleveland Indians Young Pitching Core

With the inevitable addition of Cal Quantrill to the starting rotation in 2022 as the fourth starter, the Cleveland Indians will have a starting rotation with four of the five starters being members of the 2016 MLB Draft class. It’s already been well documented that Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale and Zach Plesac were members of the same class, but Quantrill was selected before all of them, going with the eighth pick.

The good news in this is the youth of the Tribe’s rotation. Not only are all four of them under team control through the 2024 season, but they are all 26-years old or younger. That means if the team would be willing to spend money (a big if), they could easily sign all four to extensions that would carry through the prime of their careers.

The bullpen is in a similar boat. While the pen doesn’t have as much upside as the rotation, it’s not too far off. Both James Karinchak, 25, and Emmanuel Clase, 23, have shown tremendous potential this season and the club just added Alex Young off waivers, all of whom are under team contract through 2025.

That doesn’t include Nick Sandlin (24) or Trevor Stephan (25) who have undefined roles this season, but could blossom into solid relievers. Oh, and the club just added 21 pitchers to the future roster through the draft and trade deadline. Needless to say, the youth movement is in full force for pitching in Cleveland.