Indians: The Tribe’s pitching pipeline is overextended, not overrated

The Indians have been known for their pitching prowess.

The Cleveland Indians are one of the best pitching talent developers in the game today, despite the starting rotation being a mess in 2021, mostly due to injuries. The back end of the rotation wasn’t helping much if any, but they were still good. Headed by Shane Bieber, Zach Plesac, and Aaron Civale the rotation was pretty good and was effective enough to limit the usage of the bullpen. A bullpen unit themselves among the league’s best.

They’re backed by James Karinchack, Emmanuel Clase, Bryan Shaw, and a few others. They’ve been one of the very best and most reliable bullpens in the Majors, adding to the notion that the Indians are one of the best pitching development teams in the game today.

Yet it would be unfair to say their pitching pipeline is somehow overrated.

The Indians pitching pipeline is not overrated

A man named Patrick wrote to Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com and asked if the pitching pipeline was overrated or overextended. Hoynes, rightfully, pointed out that it was likely overextended and that no major league club has 10 starting pitchers.

A fair point. The Indians have been besieged by injuries and lackluster play from their young stars. Triston McKenzie was supposed to come out of the gate but instead spent time in Triple-A trying to get right. McKenzie did have his best outing of the season against the Royals on Friday night, so things might be turning around for him after all.

He’s not the only player who’s struggled, Plesac himself saw his ERA nearly double from 2020 to 2021, while Logan Allen and Cal Quantrill have not been able to be reliable fill-ins for the Indians.

This is part of the reason the Tribe went out and signed Zack Godley and Brad Peacock, to help the back end of the rotation. This isn’t an uncommon thing to happen though for pitchers like Allen and Quantrill. Some guys aren’t ready until later in their careers, like Corey Kluber, who came up in his late-20s, or R.A. Dickey, who didn’t find his Cy Young years until his 30s.

The Tribe wasn’t expecting to rely on so many Triple-A guys this year and when you call up guys who aren’t ready just yet, this is the kind of thing that happens. Things will settle down and the next crop of pitchers will be given the proper time to develop. This team is too good to not keep creating future franchise icons.