CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Indians found a way to bolster their bullpen and outfield with just one move when they sent two-time American League Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Emmanuel Clase and Delino DeShields Jr.
The Indians’ newest pitcher is a hard-throwing reliever who is more than capable of hitting triple digits on the radar machine.
“He’s made meaningful progress,” Indians president Chris Antonetti said on a conference call with the Cleveland media Sunday. “His velocity’s really jumped. He averaged I think close to 100 miles an hour in the major leagues last year. Two years ago, his velocity was in the low-to-mid 90s.”
The 6-foot-2, 206-pound Clase is a native of Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic who made his Major League Baseball debut in August of 2019.
Following Clase’s promotion from the Triple-A Nashville Sounds last summer, the 21-year-old right-hander made 21 appearances with one start for the Texas Rangers over the final eight weeks of the season and made quite the impression.
Clase posted a 2-3 record (.400 winning percentage) with a 2.31 earned run average and one save. Over 23.1 innings pitched, Clase allowed 20 hits, eight runs, six of which were earned, and six walks against 21 strikeouts while showing the significant increase in velocity that caught Cleveland’s attention.
“That is one of the things we liked about Emmanuel Clase, his ability to get right and left-handed hitters out and not a very high split pitcher,” Antonetti said. “That does seem to fit well with the new rules that will be in place in 2020.”
Although the Indians had a solid bullpen for much of 2019, including a standout first half that led to an All-Star Game appearance for closer Brad Hand, adding Clase will give Cleveland a very strong, young arm at the back end of games.
“I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that last year, our bullpen was a really successful bullpen, but each winter, we try to seek ways to adjust and tweak it and improve, and we think Clase will fit really well into the back end of the bullpen and provide a different look for guys that are out there,” Antonetti said.
“We saw a little bit of it with James Karinchak toward the end of the year, another guy with electric stuff. When you start to look at the group of pitchers who could be out there, we’ve got a diverse group that is able to attack hitters in a variety of different ways.”
According to Antonetti, if the Indians already did not know how good of a return they received for Kluber, executives quickly were reminded when the phone began ringing with questions of Clase’s availability on the trade market.
“Really hard to find, not only a 22-year-old that is in major leagues having success, but there aren’t that many guys that average 100 miles an hour with their fastball, and not only have great velocity, but also, placement,” Antonetti said. “We’ve received a couple of trade inquiries on him already.”