Cleveland Indians: 5 biggest disappointments of 2021 at quarter pole

2. Cleveland Indians back end of rotation

The White Sox became the popular pick in the offseason, and the way things are going on the South Side, prognosticators look to be correct.

However, the reason the Indians were picked to hang around was their rotation. They have three great pitchers in Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale, and Zach Plesac.

The back-end of the rotation was filled with potential at the beginning of spring training, but once the games started to co until, the young arms provided a cold, hard slap to the face of the viewing audience: Young, unproven starters don’t always work out.

We’re spoiled by Bieber, Civale and Plesac, all plucked from the 2016 draft. Sure, there have been some growing pains with the later two, but for the most part, they’re very good.

The Indians entered camp with a glut of contenders for the back-end of the rotation. Triston McKenzie wowed us all last season, but you can see he’s still developing, while being asked to pitch at the major league level. He seems to struggle to get through five innings and at times.

He leans on his four-seam fastball way too much, throwing 66.5 percent of the time. Trying to constantly run fastballs by big league hitters usually isn’t a recipe for longevity, a least when it comes to being a starter.

McKenzie is in the first percentile of exit velocity, so when batters connect, they really connect.

Despite, his 1-2 mark (5.79 ERA), McKenzie has 40 strike outs, which ranks in the 83 percentile.

Logan Allen was probably the biggest disappointment of the rotation. He had supposedly spent the offseason making adjustments and looked good in Spring Training. However, it became clear after his first few starts of the season that he was a liability, Every time he’d pitch, the Tribe would find them in a 5-0 hole heading into the second inning.

The Tribe’s trying out Sam Hentges in the fifth spot, and while his potential is also evident, he’s going to come with growing pains.