When the bullpen door swings open and Emmanuel Clase jogs toward the mound, the Progressive Field scoreboard fills up with virtual flames and Lil Wayne’s “Fireman” blares from the ballpark speakers.
Franmil Reyes promised he had a surprise in store for Clase, the 23-year-old often tasked with extinguishing the opponent’s attempt at a ninth-inning rally. No one in the majors throws more 100 mph heat than Clase. So when the Indians returned home last week, Reyes ensured Clase had a new, more appropriate, pyromaniac-approved entrance.
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“Trying to fire up my guy,” Reyes said.
Clase has thrown 84 pitches — nearly half of his tosses — that have registered at least 100 mph, the most in the league. Each offering jams lefties or entices righties to helplessly chase or simply forces the batter to stand and marvel at such an otherworldly weapon.
“He’s probably got the best arm in baseball,” James Karinchak said.
He’s one to talk. Karinchak has mastered the execution of his mid-90s fastball and his drop-off-the-face-of-the-Earth curveball. In 10 2/3 innings, he has tallied 22 strikeouts and surrendered only two hits. He ranks atop the league leaderboard in nearly every advanced pitching metric. Since arriving in the majors in September 2019, Karinchak has struck out about half of the hitters naive enough to step in against him.
“They’ve been so good,” Terry Francona said of his dynamic back-end duo.
And they’re part of the reason the manager called a meeting with the bullpen before Cleveland’s series opener in Chicago on Friday.
“I just wanted to remind them how excited I was,” Francona said. “And I asked them to be patient, because I’m going to try to put them where I think they can succeed and keep an eye on their workloads and things like that.”
Francona is still searching for the ideal spots to deploy Nick Wittgren, who has struggled a bit, and Phil Maton, who earned some high-leverage opportunities last season but has pitched mostly in lopsided games this year. The Indians are carrying nine relievers, in part to protect Sam Hentges and Triston McKenzie in the rotation.
Nick Sandlin, a 2018 second-round draft pick, joined the fold Friday. Should the side-armer enter a game this weekend, he’ll pitch in front of his parents, brother, girlfriend and a handful of friends who made the trek to Chicago. Sandlin drew rave reviews for his effort at the alternate site last month, as his fastball reached the mid-90s and, as Francona noted, he made both lefties and righties uncomfortable at the plate.
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The organization fast-tracked Sandlin after drafting him out of Southern Mississippi. They considered hurrying him to the majors that year but ultimately opted against it. In 2019, he suffered a forearm injury that required surgery. He spent 2020 at the alternate site in Eastlake, and even when the Indians determined he wouldn’t make the Opening Day roster this spring, they kept him in big-league camp so he could continue to pitch in Cactus League games. They knew it wouldn’t be long before he debuted.
Sandlin and southpaw Kyle Nelson (two career appearances) are the new guys. Nelson replaced Oliver Pérez, who left him with a message of encouragement on his way out of the Indians clubhouse this week after he was designated for assignment. Sandlin and Nelson are 24. Clase is 23. Karinchak and Rule 5 draft pick Trevor Stephan are 25. Cal Quantrill, who will continue to serve as a multi-inning option, is 26.
On the other end of the spectrum is Bryan Shaw, who is on a mission to defy Father Time, pitch into his 40s and chase after Jesse Orosco’s all-time appearances record. He has thrown his patented cutter, which has regained a couple of ticks of velocity, 82 percent of the time, but hitters have yet to convert the pitch into a base hit. Shaw made significant changes while stranded at Seattle’s alternate site last summer. He hinted he could soon start to mix in more curveballs and changeups, two pitches he has rarely featured in the past.
The new-look Shaw — both in terms of overhauled mechanics and bushy, chestnut beard — has limited opponents to one run on two hits in 10 innings, and his underlying metrics suggest it’s no fluke. Hitters are having difficulty making solid contact against him; his opponent exit velocity and hard-hit rate are lower than they ever were during his first stop in Cleveland. In fact, his hard-hit rate ranks in the top 1 percent in baseball.
A few weeks ago, Allen referred to the bullpen as “Uncle Bryan and the rest of the boys.” Shaw said he wants to do “what I can to try to help, while doing my thing to make sure that they don’t take my job.”
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He recorded a scoreless seventh inning Friday to pave the way for Karinchak and Clase to secure Cleveland’s 5-3 victory.
“You can probably wake him up in the middle of December and he’ll probably throw 94 (mph),” Francona said.
Shaw, Karinchak and Clase this season have totaled 32 innings and 45 strikeouts, allowing only one earned run.
The Indians bullpen ranks fourth in the majors in ERA, at 2.61. It has the league’s top average fastball velocity, 95.8 mph. The group ranked last in the majors in that category from 2018 to 2020, at 92.7 mph.
That’s reason enough to fill the scoreboard with virtual flames.
“We are really young out there,” Francona said. “But there’s some ammo.”
(Photo of James Karinchak: Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)