CLEVELAND - After completing a second simulated game this week — a two-inning sim outing — Cleveland Indians ace Shane Bieber is now set for his first rehab appearance this upcoming week.
Cleveland president Chris Antonetti revealed that Bieber will pitch for Triple-A Columbus on Tuesday. The righty will throw approximately 40-45 pitches over an estimated 2-3 innings.
Bieber has been on the shelf since landing on the injured list in June with a strained right shoulder. The team is still confident the 26-year-old starter will return to the Majors before the end of the 2021 campaign.
Meanwhile, Aaron Civale, another Indians starter that missed an extended chunk of the season with an injury, already made his return earlier this month. The team feels that getting Bieber and Civale back, regardless of the club’s place in the standings, is beneficial.
“We think that would be ideal,” Antonetti said. "The thing we wanted be sure was that we were always prioritizing their health and well-being. If it didn’t make sense for them to come back, we certainly didn’t want to rush things.”
Some had wondered if Bieber would gain anything from coming back before the end of the season. As much as physical, Antonetti believes it will be mentally beneficial.
“It could give (Bieber and Civale),” Antonetti said, “the peace of mind that they’re going to go into the offseason healthy and can have a normal offseason preparing for next season, instead of preparing through the rehab lens.”
Bieber, the American League Cy Young winner in 2020, posted a 3.28 ERA in 14 starts for Cleveland this year before landing on the IL.
Where is Karinchak?
Reliever James Karinchak has still yet to make an appearance in the Minors since his demotion to Triple-A Columbus, but Antonetti stressed that the first appearance is expected to come soon.
In the meantime, the righty continues to work on the side in bullpen sessions to correct some of his issues before entering a game setting.
“He feels good about the work he’s putting in,” Antonetti said. “(An appearance) is on the horizon in the near-term.”
Antonetti added it’s a certainty that Karinchak will appear in games in the Minors before making the jump back to the Major Leagues.
“The most important thing is helping James get back to the point of being an effective pitcher,” Antonetti said. “Whatever path we needed to follow to make that happen, that’s what we’d do. Right now, he and our pitching coaches in that group have been working really hard in non-game settings to get his body and pitches in a position to be successful when he gets back into game activity.”
Karinchak was dominant early in the season, but the young righty posted a 6.42 ERA in the 38 appearances prior to being sent back to Triple-A.
“Tough” night
Saturday was a historic night for Cleveland in all of the wrong ways. The Indians became the first team in MLB history to be no-hit three times in a single season.
Milwaukee starter Corbin Burnes did most of the work, tossing eight frames with 14 strikeouts. Lefty Josh Hader finished it off with a perfect ninth. Cleveland’s only baserunner was a walk in the seventh inning by Myles Straw, as the Brewers notched MLB’s ninth no-no of the season, a baseball record.
“It was a tough night to be a hitter,” Antonetti said, pointing to Burnes being one of the National Leagues best hurlers.
True, but unfortunately, the Indians have had a number of tough days and nights this season. Adding to the oddity, the same club that has been no-hit three times this season also recently set the franchise record for consecutive games with a home run.
Entering Sunday’s finale against the Brewers, Cleveland was 20th in the Majors in runs scored and 24th out of 30 teams in weighted runs created plus at 90 (100 is league average), meaning they’ve been 10 percent below average in run-creation this year.
“We’ve seen signs,” Antonetti said of his young club. “But we’ve yet to have that consistency.”
T.J. Zuppe
Twitter: @TJZuppe