The Cleveland Indians' playoff hopes may be over.
But the legend of Carlos Carrasco continues to grow.
In an essay for The Players' Tribune titled, "I May Have Cancer, But Cancer Doesn’t Have Me," Carrasco opened up about his battle with leukemia, which sidelined him for three months during the 2019 season. In doing so, the 32-year-old displayed the same positive attitude that he's consistently shown since his June diagnosis, while also shedding some light on the role his wife, Karelis, has had on his outlook.
"It was like, two seconds of thinking, This is really it for me. I’m gonna die. And then three seconds of extreme sadness. And then like five seconds of thinking about my family, and us no longer being together," Carrasco wrote.
"That was the worst 10 seconds imaginable. It seemed to last forever, like those 10 seconds were actually days— days and days, where all I could think about was dying. It was all just very dark and sad. I wouldn’t wish those 10 seconds on anyone.
"But then, in the blink of an eye, everything totally changed.
"For good.
"My wife, you gotta understand … she’s the most positive person on the planet.
"So there was no sadness at all from her. No grief.
"After she said those words to me, and let me process them, the very next thing out of her mouth was….
“'You’re fine. You got this!'”
In June, the Indians announced that they had placed Carrasco on the Injured List with an undisclosed blood condition. A month later, the right-hander revealed to a television station in the Dominican Republic that the condition in question was leukemia.
Despite the severity of his diagnosis, Carrasco remained determined to make a return to baseball this season and began rehab assignments with the Indians' minor league affiliates in August. On Sept. 1, he made his return to the Indians' big league roster, where he served as a member of the team's bullpen during their unsuccessful final push to secure a fourth straight postseason appearance.
