“The players have been pretty upfront that [Clevinger and Plesac] have to earn their trust back,” Indians manager Terry Francona said prior to Wednesday night’s game against the Cubs. “And I understand that. I'd rather be talking about us trying to win a game. But it's the reality of where we are now.”
Plesac and Clevinger went out Saturday night in Chicago, violating team protocols and rules of conduct for the season.
Plesac took a car service back to Cleveland Sunday at the direction of the club while it wasn't learned until Monday that Clevinger, who flew home with the team Sunday, had joined Plesac.
Both pitchers were placed on the restricted list for a minimum of three days and were to be tested for COVID-19 on Wednesday. The team is confident neither player was exposed or ended up exposing the team, but the chance they took angered several players.
Tuesday night Adam Plutko, who started in place of Clevinger, blasted both pitchers for not only violating the team’s rules but lying about it too.
“They hurt us bad. They lied to us,” Plutko said Tueday night following a 7-1 loss to the Cubs. “They sat here in front of [the media] and publicly said things that they didn’t follow through on. It’s gonna be up to them. It really is.
“The term that I continue to hear, and excuse my language, is ‘grown-ass man.’ So those grown-ass men can sit here and tell you guys what happened and tell you guys what they’re gonna do to fix it. I don’t need to do that for them.”
So, can they regain the trust of their teammates?
“I certainly hope so,” Francona said. “My goal would never be to be vindictive or put somebody in the penalty box. I don't believe in that. I do believe in being accountable to your teammates. And I know that they've got some trust to earn back and they're going to have to earn that back, and I don't know how easy that will be. If I did, I'd tell you. If I had the exact solution, I'd snap my fingers and we'd do it.
“There's been a lot of conversations. There will continue to be conversations and we will try to do what we think is best for our entire team.”
While the violation was egregious and potentially put the entire team at risk, Francona believes what took place over the weekend is not an accurate reflection of Plutko’s and Clevinger’s character.
“They’re not remotely bad kids,” Francona said. “They made a mistake and they made some pretty bad errors in judgement after their mistakes, and now they have to figure out a way to try to get the trust back of their team.”
“He’s champing at the bit,” Francona said.
Perez had been throwing and running the bases. The team would like to see him throw from 150 feet on back-to-back days but they’ve been cautious not to rush his return from a shoulder injury.
“He actually wanted to play Friday,” Francona said. “But the medical people think, it’s been 15, 16 days, that’s a lot without being in any type of game action. The worst thing we could do is, once you overstep you can’t take it back so we’ll try to do it right.
“You can’t do what’s right when it’s convenient.”
The Indians posted a congratulatory message on the scoreboard during batting practice commemorating the latest milestone for the first baseman and his teammates clapped before he stepped in the cage to take BP.
Tuesday night Santana moved into second place on the franchise all-time walks list passing Tris Speaker and trailing only Hall of Famer Jim Thome.
Naquin, who pinch hit in the ninth inning Tuesday night, is fresh off the injured list where he started the 2020 season due to a hairline fracture to his right big toe suffered during an exhibition game with the Pirates on July 24.
Over the last six games Reyes is hitting .292 (19-for-65) with five extra base hits - three doubles and two home runs.