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December 9, 2015There is no such thing as too much pitching. There is no such thing as too much pitching. That is a suggested saying for any Major League Baseball team heading into any offseason. Injuries can happen and bullpens can be unreliable. That is part of why you’ve seen reliever contracts skyrocketing and spring training invites already happening this winter.
Here’s one more name you can add to the Cleveland Indians interest list: Free agent left-hander Cory Luebke. The Plain Dealer’s Paul Hoynes reported about the connection on Tuesday. Hoynes reported that it is believed the Indians have interest in Luebke, a 30-year-old who has not pitched in the big leagues since 2012.
Lubeke’s detailed injury history looms large: He first had Tommy John elbow ligament reconstruction surgery in May 2012. After a back-and-forth rehabilitation process, he had to go in for a rare second Tommy John surgery in February 2014. He missed the entire 2014 season. While making his way back in the minors last year as a reliever, he then had a flexor strain that led to minor scar tissue surgery in July. He reportedly then had a staph infection following that operation.
As expected, the San Diego Padres bought out Luebke’s contract for $1.75 million last month, as opposed to the team option they had for $7.5 million in 2016. The latest reports show that he’s pitched in some simulated games already this offseason and should resume his throwing this month.
Before all of the surgeries and setbacks, Luebke was an up-and-coming star with the Padres. Grantland’s Jonah Keri once wondered if The Ohio State University product was a top-20 pitcher in the entire league. In 2011, he was 6-10 with a 3.29 ERA in 139.1 innings. He pitched in 46 games and made 17 starts. He struck out an impressive 154 batters against just 44 walks.
In 2012, he was a popular breakout candidate everywhere and was given a large contract extension. He started off 3-1 with a 2.61 ERA in five starts and looked like San Diego’s clear ace of the future. But then, the elbow issues began. He has yet to make it back to the show.
Luebke’s comeback may remind some of Arizona’s Daniel Hudson, a righty who made the successful conversion to full-time relief duty in 2015 after two Tommy John surgeries and a long absence from the bigs. A July article in USA Today noted that Chris Capuano is the only player to ever make 10 MLB starts after a second such surgery. Other pitchers to recently undergo a second Tommy John include Jarrod Parker, Brandon Beachy, Joakim Soria, Kyle Drabek, and Joel Hanrahan.
Thus far this offseason, the Indians already have signed reliever Joba Chamberlain to a minor league contract. They also have expressed reported interest in free agent reliever Tommy Hunter, who had a rough second half in 2015 with the Chicago Cubs. It’s hard to complain about the price tags here, though, as you never know if a reliever might end up having a productive bounceback season.
7 Comments
Yawn…but I see Arizona got Shelby Miller from Atlanta and gave up Inciarte in the package. I heard a rumor that Arizona was talking to the Indians about Salazar so I wonder if Inciarte’s name was ever mentioned? I know the Indians reportedly wanted Pollock but Inciarte would have been tempting in a package for me.
From what I’ve seen, and it’s in that Hoynsie link above, the Indians had asked for Pollock and the D’Backs balked. They are trying to win now, for sure. So the package of the lesser (but still very solid!) Inciarte plus two top-100 prospects must have been better in their minds.
Yea I understand the Dbacks not wanting to trade Pollock I wouldn’t have either I was curious from an Indians perspective on whether they would have had interest in a deal like Atlanta took from Arizona for Salazar. Or do the Indians really think Salazar was worth a Pollock? If so that’s a lot obviously to much in minds of Arizona.
Most of the “experts” said that Atlanta robbed Arizona in that deal. Arbitration eligible in 2017 and under team control until 2021 for Inciarte. I wish they would go for young talent instead of guys with 200k miles on the odometer and just looking for a paycheck.
They also valued Miller higher (seemingly much higher) than Salazar for some not-so-great reasons.
Read those and the reasons seemed very “we were linked to both Miller and Salazar so we better say Shelby was our guy all along” type of reasons.
I certainly agree, but Stewart has made comments in the past showing that he seemingly values players at their last contract, so while he’s certainly covering his rear, I think he actually kind of believes the nonsense he’s spewing.