CLEVELAND — Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco is not having the start to spring training that he expected or wanted.
While doing squats during a workout at the team’s spring training facility in Goodyear, Arizona Wednesday, Carrasco experienced discomfort in his upper right leg
According to Indians.com writer Mandy Bell, Carrasco “walked into the clubhouse using a crutch this morning.”
“He had an MRI at 8:30 this morning,” Indians manager Terry Francona said in his daily press conference. “We sent it to a place in California. We have not gotten anything back yet.
“I know it’s a little vague, but that’s what we know. Rather than give out something we don’t know, we’ll wait till we hear what they have to say and we’ll pass it along.”
Carrasco is the Indians’ second starting pitcher to experience an injury in spring training, as Mike Clevinger underwent surgery to repair a partially torn meniscus in his plant leg and is expected to miss between six and eight weeks.
“You find out when you need it because if you don’t have it, it hurts,” Francona said of the importance of having pitching depth.
“How many times have you heard me say, ‘when you think you have enough pitching, go get more.?’ If you are in a situation where you have to aggravate a pitcher because you have too many good ones, that’s not the worst problem.”
Carrasco battled something far more imposing than a middle-of-the-order power hitter during the 2019 season and did so with the calm he consistently displayed in his career, no matter the challenges that have come his way.
Carrasco fought through a battle with chronic myeloid leukemia in the middle of the 2019 regular season, but always one to display grace under pressure, he went through treatments, worked through minor-league rehabilitation appearances with the Akron RubberDucks and Columbus Clippers and returned to the Indians’ bullpen on September 1, all while serving as a role model to children going through similar challenges.
While fighting his own battle, Carrasco frequently visited patients from Cleveland Clinic Children’s who were fighting leukemia. Also, after making his return to the Indians, Carrasco vowed to “punchout cancer” and donated $200 for every strikeout he had over the last month of the season in support of research for a cure.
For his off-the-field efforts, Carrasco became the third player in Indians history to win the Roberto Clemente Award, following in the footsteps of Hall of Fame slugger Jim Thome (2002) and Andre “Thunder” Thornton (1979).
Before going on the injured list last year, Carrasco had a 4-6 record with a 4.98 earned run average over 12 starts. In 65.0 innings of work, Carrasco allowed 74 hits, 37 runs, 36 of which were earned, 14 home runs and 11 walks against 79 strikeouts.
Following his return to the team, Carrasco went 2-1 over 15.0 innings of work in 11 appearances out of the Indians’ bullpen. Additionally, Carrasco struck out 17 batters in those 15 innings.
During his 10-year tenure with the Indians, Carrasco has an 85-69 record with a 3.82 ERA over 230 games, including 183 starts. Over 1,174.1 innings of work, Carrasco registered 1,223 strikeouts against 1,110 hits and 498 earned runs allowed.