It's been another quiet winter for fans of the Cleveland Indians. With very little roster activity to discuss, the recent focus has been on ownership and their unwillingness to invest in the club. With regards to the players, the majority of discussion this offseason has revolved around who's leaving the city, not who's coming in.
It's fair to say that optimism has been hard to find at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario this fall.
With that said, and baseball season nearing ever closer, it's led me to start looking at the Indians roster and who is on the team to get excited about.
Step forward James Karinchak.
The young pitcher with the arm of pure fire had an impressive 2019 season and really caught the eye in his brief cameo with the Indians last September. Who knew that 100mph bullets out of the bullpen really turns heads?
Drafted by Cleveland in the 9th round of the 2017 draft, Karinchak has risen through the minors at an incredible pace, especially since converting into a reliever in 2018. Last season he split the majority of his time between Double-A Akron and Triple-A Columbus and struck out nearly every person he encountered. Between the two levels, Karinchak combined to record 66 strikeouts over 27.1 innings.
He hasn't looked back. All evidence points to his time in the minor leagues being over: what does he have left to prove there? Karinchak's penchant for strikeouts makes for exhilarating viewing, and the Tribe will be expecting him to feature prominently out of the bullpen in 2020.
Karinchak will enter spring training with serious ambitions of breaking camp with the team. In fact, it should be an expectation. Fans are already looking forward to the prospect of him teaming up with fellow flamethrower Emmanuel Clase, forming a potentially dominant partnership in high leverage situations for years to come.
The 6'3 right-handed hurler is definitely one to watch in the coming months and beyond.
Why can't it be the spring already?