Earlier this week, the Cleveland Indians announced that starting pitcher Mike Clevinger will miss multiple months with what has been diagnosed as a "right upper back/Teres major muscle strain."
Thus far, details on the right-hander's injury have been limited, and perhaps for good reason; At this point, not even the Indians know how he'll be approaching his rehab.
Meeting with reporters ahead of the team's Thursday matchup with the Detroit Tigers, Indians team president Chris Antonetti revealed the team is still weighing whether or not Clevinger will undergo surgery to help repair the injury. Speaking to the team's official radio network, Cleveland manager Terry Francona said that the recovery time for Clevinger isn't expected to change too dramatically whether he undergoes surgery or not.
Antonetti said that a decision on whether or not Clevinger will undergo surgery will be made in the coming days.
At this point, the timetable on Clevinger's return remains unclear -- other than Francona saying it will be at least six-to-eight weeks before he picks up a baseball again. The 28-year-old had initially insisted he'd be fine after being pulled following the fifth inning of the Indians' win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday.
As it turned out, that wasn't the case.
Although he's technically Cleveland's No. 4 starter, the loss of Clevinger is a significant one for an Indians' team still without All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor. After working all offseason to improve his velocity, the player nicknamed "Sunshine" put together two impressive starts to kickoff his 2019 campaign, recording a career-high 12 strikeouts in the Indians home opener vs. the Chicago White Sox last week.
After receiving a no-decision following seven scoreless innings against the White Sox, Clevinger earned his first win of the season on Sunday when he recorded 10 strikeouts in five innings to complete a sweep against the Blue Jays.
Jefry Rodriguez will start in Clevinger's place against the Kansas City Royals on Saturday, with the team still evaluating how it will fill the long-term void left in its rotation.