Cleveland Indians Recall Mike Clevinger and Ryan Merritt

Cleveland Indians Recall RHP Mike Clevinger and LHP Ryan Merritt

As expected, the Cleveland Indians have called up right-handed pitcher Mike Clevinger to start this afternoon’s finale against the Minnesota Twins. The team has also recalled left-handed pitcher Ryan Merritt to give them some more bullpen depth. To make room for the pair, the Tribe has optioned Shawn Armstrong and Cody Anderson to Triple-A Columbus.

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The Clevinger move was announced a couple days ago though only became official after last night’s game. Clevinger will be taking the spot of injured starter

in the Tribe’s rotation. Clevinger figures to get at least two to three starts while Salazar is out. He’s been electric in Triple-A this year before being named a

top 100 prospect by Baseball America

this summer. He has a 3.00 ERA and 3.30 FIP while striking out over a batter an inning (9.4 K/9). He’ll look to improve at the big league level where he owns a 7.71 ERA in four appearances (three starts).

Ryan Merritt will be joining the Tribe’s bullpen for now. He appeared exclusively as a starter at Columbus but did pitch out of the big league pen earlier in the year when he threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings of relief in his lone appearance. On the year with the Clippers Merritt has made 18 starts, throwing 106 1/3 innings. He was 7-7 with a 4.06 ERA and 3.93 FIP. He’s not a big strikeout guy – just 5.6 K/9 – but he’s shown very good control walking less than 1.5 per nine innings this year. His addition gives the Indians three lefties in the bullpen as he joins

and

.

As expected, Armstrong was up for just one day having been recalled before yesterday’s game. He pitched well, though, retiring all six batters he faced and striking out a pair. Joining Armstong on the trip down to Triple-A Columbus is Cody Anderson who had been working out of the bullpen. He made four appearances since his last recall and after initially looking good, allowed four runs over his last two outings (4 2/3 innings), two of which came in last night’s game. No word on if he’ll return to the Triple-A rotation or join the pen, though best guess is he’ll be back in the Clippers’ starting rotation.

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The move drops the Tribe’s bullpen from eight back down to seven. The club will hope to finally get some length out of their starters and give that pen some rest. Over the past three games, no Tribe starter has made it to the to the 5th inning and only once did the starter get anyone out in the 4th inning (Carlos Carrasco Tuesday night). The Tribe will try to salvage at least one game in their four-game set against the Twins as well this afternoon. Here’s their starting lineup as the try and avoid the sweep: