Pestano optioned to make room for McAllister

Vinnie Pestano has been optioned to make room for Zach McAllister. Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

Tribe starter Zach McAllister has been recalled from AAA Columbus to start this afternoon against the Chicago White Sox.  To make room on the roster the Indians have optioned relief pitcher Vinnie Pestano back to Columbus.  McAllister is taking the start of the injured Justin Masterson, a move that was announced earlier in the week by the Tribe and discussed here as well.  The only part of the decision that wasn’t known was who would get sent down to make room for McAllister.  The most likely candidates seemed to be Nick Hagadone (recalled when Masterson went on DL) and Austin Adams (recalled yesterday for T.J. House), but the Indians instead decided to send Vinnie Pestano back down.  This is somewhat of a surprising mocve given that Pestano has pitched rather well in his return to the big league club.

Since being recalled in late June, Pestano had made 10 appearances while throwing 6.1 IP with a 1.42 ERA, 9 K, 0 BB, 0.79 WHIP, and a .217 BAA.  He also only allwed 1 of 9 inherited runners to score.  However, underneath these numbers was a guy whose fastball was only topping out at 90 mph.  In his glory days he sat 91-92 topping out even higher.  He’s still a tick off and not fully back to his dominant way; however, the results of this last stint in the bigs was very encouraging.  Expect to see him back at some point this summer.

Zach McAllister faces off against White Sox starter Scott Carroll today in a rare 3:05 start time.  McAllister looks to pick up where he left off in Columbus and put his injury concerns behind him.  With Masterson on the DL and House in AAA, McAllister would appear to have a hold on the 4th rotation spot for the time being though things can certainly change after the All-Star break.  The big league roster now consists of 12 positions players, 4 starting pitchers, and 9 relief pitchers.