A miserable season for Cleveland’s James Karinchak was compounded on Saturday when the Guardians sent him to Triple-A Columbus after another poor outing Friday.
Karinchak, a key part of their bullpen last season, gave up a run with two walks in the eighth inning of an eventual Cleveland win over the Astros, bringing his ERA to 3.90 in 32 games.
The Guardians brought up lefty Tim Herrin in a corresponding move.
“Not an easy decision, not a fun conversation,” manager Terry Francona told reporters. “As you can imagine, the hope is he can take this couple weeks and work on commanding the strike zone, work on holding runners.
“He probably didn’t like hearing that today.”
The 27-year-old has struggled with the pitch clock, with his walks per nine innings rising from 4.8 last season to 6.2 in 2023.
His strikeouts per nine have also dropped from 14.3 to 12.4.
Karinchak’s workload also has increased, with his 32 appearances tied for the league lead entering Saturday’s action.
Last month, he found himself the victim of Pete Alonso, who hit a grand slam off Karinchak in the seventh inning during a 10-9 extra-inning Mets win over Cleveland at Citi Field.
Though the Guardians are in second place in the AL Central, Francona’s club has a middling 30-34 record, with trade rumors surrounding their best starter, 2020 Cy Young award Shane Bieber.
Whether the Karinchek demotion ends up being a long-term move is unclear — the Guardians burned through much of their bullpen in a 14-inning win on Friday and might have needed a fresh arm — but the team wants him to work on his mechanics and controlling baserunners.
“We need him throwing innings of leverage,” Francona said. “But if you are walking people and you’re not controlling the running game, there’s too many ways for other teams to score that run when you can’t afford a run.”
For his career, the right-hander has whiffed 239 batters in 154¹/₃ innings.
Credit: Source link
