Cleveland Indians: The Athletic mock has Tribe drafting pitching

The Cleveland Indians have been excellent at developing pitching, starting with Corey Kluber, who went from relative unknown to Cy Young Award winner in 2013.

The Tribe hit the jackpot in 2016, when it found Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale and Zach Plesac in the third round and beyond.

Now, with the terrific trio injured, the Tribe is looking for the next wave of starters in the form of J.C. Mejia, Cal Quantrill, Sam Hentges and Logan Allen.

The Indians have the best record in the AL since 2013 (when Terry Francona took over) and that success has largely been built on starting pitching. Tito lives by the mantra that if you think you have enough starting pitching, go get more, and that applies to what Cleveland might do in the draft.

In The Athletic’s most recent mock draft, Mike McGreevy, a right-handed pitcher from UC-Santa Barbara was selected for the Tribe, with writer Keith Law scribbling the following:

"“Cleveland’s shift away from traditional scouting and towards a more model-based approach will favor high performers like McGreevy and very young players like Joshua Baez; they might be the only team in the first round that would gamble on Florida outfielder Jud Fabian, whose miserable year left him third in the SEC in strikeouts.”"

McGreevy, 19, was 2-0 with 0.99 ERA, according to the Baseball Cube. He struck out 26 in 27.1 innings, while only walking seven.

For what it’s worth, the 6-foot-4 right-hander pitches at the alma mater of current Cleveland Indians pitchers Bieber and Kyle Nelson.

Law threw some other names out there as well, listing Joshua Baez and Jud Fabian as players the Tribe might be interested in.

Baez is a 6-foot-4, 220-pound outfielder outfielder of the Boston area. He’s the second-ranked outfielder in the country coming out of high school, according to Perfect Game.

As for Fabian, Law mentioned how much he struck out. Fabian fanned 76 times in 221 at bats, while hitting .251. Thats said, Fabian was tied for 9th in all of college baseball with 20 bombs, which was second in his conference.

I’m not going to try and be MLB draft whisperer, however, the point here is to take a look at what direction the experts see the Tribe going in with their latest pick.

They certainly need outfield help in the pipeline, but Tito’s mantra of needing starting pitching remains a mantra for a reason.