Cleveland Indians: Previewing the 2018 starting rotation

With six or seven potential starters, here is a glimpse at what the Cleveland Indians starting rotation may look like in 2018.

Starting pitching may have been the strongest component of the 2017 Cleveland Indians team. Five of the starters for the Tribe had 10 wins or more. Three of those five had 17+ wins. Simply put, it was the best starting rotation in baseball.

The Indians have the benefit of not losing any of their starters this offseason. This gives them an embarrassment of riches with starting pitching.

Now with 2017 in the rear-view mirror, it is time to look at who among these pitchers will be in the five-man rotation in 2018.

1. Corey Kluber

There really is no question with this one. Corey Kluber was the 2017 AL Cy Young winner for the second time in his career. He was at the top of almost every major pitching category last season. Any questions people may have about him after his rough playoff starts shouldn’t be a factor here.

In case we need to reiterate his numbers from 2017, his 2.25 ERA was the best in the MLB, as was his 8.0 WAR for pitchers. He pitched 203.2 innings, despite missing an entire month. Kluber also averaged 11.71 strikeouts per nine innings. Two bad postseason games, including one where he was on short rest, doesn’t change that.

Kluber is unquestionably one of the best pitchers in baseball, and even the other top pitchers (Scherzer, Kershaw, Sale) have bad days. As deep as the Indians pitching staff is, Kluber is at the top as this team’s ace.

2. Carlos Carrasco

Carlos Carrasco’s impressive season was seemingly overshadowed by Kluber’s dominance. But Indians fans know just how vital he was to the team’s success.

When Kluber went down in the month of May, Carrasco became the team’s ace. He took on that role by going undefeated in May. In the games he won in that month he allowed only four earned runs combined.

Cookie’s fastball is a great change of pace from Kluber’s sinker, slider, cutter attack. Utilizing the two of them back-to-back is part of what makes the Indians rotation so dominant.

Carrasco was perhaps the most consistent pitcher for the Indians in 2017. The Indians need consistency in order to make another postseason run this year.

3. Trevor Bauer

Nobody expected Trevor Bauer to win 17 games last season. Especially not after how his season started with an ERA of 6.26 in April. But it’s a long season and Bauer knows that. He turned things around with ERAs below 3.00 in August and September.

Bauer’s curveball was devastating and it only got better as the season went on. According to Brooks Baseball, teams were batting .192 and .189 in the last two months of the year against his curve.

Bauer certainly wasn’t the most consistent pitcher for the Tribe, but when he gets settled in he can hang with the best of them. He is also an elite trash talker, something we shouldn’t forget.

Bauer is sure to stay in the third spot of the rotation, barring any drone-related injuries. If we see the same Bauer from 2016 and 2017, fans should feel pretty good about having him around.

4. Mike Clevinger

This is where things get a little tricky, but it shouldn’t really be a question. Mike Clevinger has earned a spot in this rotation. His 12 wins in 2017 proved that.

Mike Clevinger was the wild card for this rotation at the start of the season. He was brought in when Kluber went to the DL. He answered that call with a win against the White Sox in his first start, going 5.2 scoreless innings.

Clevinger’s 121.2 innings and 1.25 WHIP in 2017 was extremely impressive in what was his second year in the majors. An even more impressive feat was his 0.99 ERA in the month of September. That was behind only Jimmy Nelson of the Brewers, Stephen Strasburg of the Nationals, and Kluber, among pitchers with multiple starts that month.

The only complaint that can be made about Clevinger is his 60 walks last season. But his 21.94 whiff percentage on breaking balls shows that if he has control and command he can be tough to hit.

I’ve always been open in my admiration of Mike Clevinger. I think he played a key role in the 22-game winning streak and winning the AL Central. His numbers and performance are enough to earn him a spot in this rotation in 2018.

5. Josh Tomlin

Making the decision between Josh Tomlin and Danny Salazar may not be an easy one. But when you have five pitchers with 10 or more wins, you use all five of them. Tomlin was one of those five.

It was anything but an easy season for Tomlin. He spent all of August on the DL and had a horrific stretch from April through June. But good pitchers fight adversity and he did just that.

After the month of June, Tomlin didn’t lose another game in the regular season. He we also the winning pitcher in that wild 13-inning game against the Yankees in the playoffs. Tomlin is a pitcher that creates a lot of fly balls. While it is his specialty, it can also be his downfall at times.

Despite his struggles early on, he proved he can win big games in critical months. His stretch down the end of the season may be enough to net him a spot in the rotation over Salazar. The Indians also just used the option to keep him, showing that they would like to have him in the rotation for another year.

Next: A good season or a great season in 2017?

This is a strong rotation for the Tribe, arguably as strong as it’s been in years. With this rotation and the duo of Salazar and Ryan Merritt hanging around, the Indians truly have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball.