Cleveland Indians: Danny Salazar struggles in Double-A rehab start

Cleveland Indians fans are waiting for Danny Salazar to return to his old form, but his rehab start with Akron didn’t go so well.

The Cleveland Indians remain in first place heading into play today, but the need for a third starter remains as the team approaches the halfway point of the season.

Corey Kluber is the ace and Carlos Carrasco is right behind him as one of the better pitchers in the league. But after that there is a serious drop. Trevor Bauer hasn’t been all that bad, but he is nowhere near the level of the two in front of him, and still a wild card when it comes to fans being confident in his abilities in a high-leverage matchup.

But Bauer was never expected to be that third guy. That player was supposed to be Danny Salazar, who hasn’t started a game for the Indians since May 27. He was moved to the bullpen after that start and then hit the disabled list.

Salazar made a rehab start Saturday night with the Akron RubberDucks, but things didn’t go so well.

The final line isn’t too great, even though the 1.2 innings of work isn’t important as he was never supposed to go deep into the game.

The point of rehab starts is to work on specific pitches and get back into the groove of live game action. So those first three batters aren’t too alarming, yet his velocity could be an issue moving forward.

If Salazar comes back and continues to top out at 92 mph, his time as a key piece in the rotation may be over. For a guy with a history of arm problems, this could be a turning point in his career.

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But it is too early to look at one rehab start and declare Salazar to be done. He may have been taking it easy in order to see how everything felt and to not overwork himself in what was still a rehab outing. Not a game he went out to win.

The difficult thing is that when Salazar does return, the team isn’t in a position to keep putting him on the mound if he continues to struggle. However, there isn’t exactly a great deal of competition waiting to take his spot in the rotation.

The only solution, if Salazar continues to struggle, is making a trade for a proven starter. Even if Salazar does seem to turn things around, getting more help wouldn’t hurt. Fans saw just how important starting pitching depth was a year ago when the Corey Kluber eventually ran out of gas in the World Series.

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Salazar isn’t a lost cause yet, but Saturday’s start wasn’t a great sign.