The Cleveland Indians have an injury problem

Over the past few seasons the Cleveland Indians have shown a disturbing trend of publicly underselling the extent of their players’ injuries. Is the trend just noise, or the sign of a bigger issue?

The Cleveland Indians have an injury problem.

In fact, they have two different injury problems. One is that a couple of their best players, Michael Brantley and Jason Kipnis, likely won’t be ready for opening day. Brantley because of his continuing rehab from multiple shoulder surgeries, Kipnis because of a strained right rotator cuff.

But the Indians have another injury problem: for whatever reason, they just can’t seem to be honest publicly regarding injuries.

For outsiders, there’s no way to know why this is the case. One reason may be that there are deeper issues with the training staff’s ability to diagnose and treat injuries. Another reason could be that the team’s internal diagnoses and rehab timelines are realistic, but they feel the need to project a more optimistic outlook to media and fans. Perhaps the team has just been unlucky when it comes to their players hitting setbacks during rehab.

But whatever the reason, the issue exists. Jason Kipnis’s minor rotator cuff strain leads to a two-week shutdown and DL stint. Michael Brantley’s lingering shoulder soreness turns into a second season-ending surgery.

Or how about Trevor Bauer’s drone finger? You know, the one that originally would only push him back from Game 2 to Game 3 of the ALCS but would eventually force him out of Game 3 when it was obvious to anyone with eyes that the finger was going to open right up as soon as he started throwing?

Related: Trying not to worry about Jason Kipnis

This is apples and oranges or course. There was little risk in gambling the finger would hold up. But in no way did what the Indians say publicly about the injury line up with what Bauer’s finger looked like.

How about Danny Salazar, who missed time last August with elbow soreness before returning in September, only to hit the DL again a handful of starts later?

Going back a little further, how about when Nick Swisher’s lingering knee soreness turned into surgery on both knees?

At this point it’s fair to wonder what the issue is, if there even is an issue at all. Cleveland.com’s Zack Meisel notes as much in a recent column. Per Meisel:

"“At times, it seems as though injury news is some sort of trade secret. It could be that the pain simply develops or the wound worsens or the situation takes an unforeseen turn. Life doesn’t always move linearly, after all. Kipnis did play in a couple of Cactus League games last week. Brantley felt great every step along the way last year until he appeared in consecutive games.Even if the team doesn’t want to tip its full hand — and there’s no way to know if that’s the case with the Kipnis ordeal — it still comes off (fairly or not) as disingenuous or unprepared when things unfold this way.”"

So are the Indians’ public comments about injuries an issue? If the underlying reason is that the team is just putting positive public spin on their more realistic internal timelines, then probably not. As much as fans want to know anything and everything going on with their favorite ballclub, the team has no real obligation to make public every nitty and gritty detail about player health.

While fans may not be thrilled with the vagueness-bordering-on-dishonesty, it only matters that the team is properly evaluating these injuries and putting players in the best position to return to full strength. The Indians wouldn’t be the first organization—in sports or elsewhere—to put a positive public spin on a less-than-positive situation.

On the other hand, if the Indians really are making critical mistakes in diagnosing and treating injuries, that’s a huge issue. Here’s Meisel again on the Kipnis injury:

"“A few weeks ago, manager Terry Francona explained that the team wouldn’t have worried about Kipnis’ shoulder if the injury popped up during the season. He cited the extended spring training — a byproduct of the World Baseball Classic — as a reason to bring along the second baseman at a more deliberate pace.Well, that pace has now ground to a halt. The original logic seems silly or misguided at this juncture. That’s easy to say, thanks to crystal-clear hindsight, but there’s no other way to evaluate these circumstances, given the information the Indians opt to reveal.”"

Words are one thing. Putting rehabbing players into games only to pull them back and shut them down for multiple weeks is something else.

I’m not a doctor, and I don’t even pretend to be one on the Internet. All I have are the thoughts and opinions I’ve developed throughout my baseball-watching lifetime.

Sometimes baseball teams say one thing to the media when they really mean another. Sometimes athletes hit setbacks when they attempt to come back from serious injuries. Sometimes things just happen in baseball and there’s no rhyme or reason as to why. Sometimes baseball teams screw up.

Baseball fans are well versed in the dangers of using small sample sizes to make declarative statements of fact. A hitter going a few games without a hit doesn’t mean he’s a bad player, just as a hitter swatting four over the span of a few games doesn’t automatically make him a superstar.

Next: Breaking down the 25-man roster

The Indians recent track record with injuries is still in that small sample size stage. There isn’t enough data to know for sure if the team’s inconsistency with injuries is just noise or a bigger issue with the training staff. But that doesn’t mean we can’t ask the question.