CLEVELAND — It's early in the season but the Cleveland Guardians have already had to focus on decision-making when it comes to the pitching rotation, especially with two of the starters on the injured list.
On Monday, the Guardians placed Aaron Civale on the 15-Day IL with a left oblique strain and moved Triston McKenzie to the 60-Day IL.
In response, the Guardians called up right-handed pitcher Peyton Battenfield from the Columbus Clippers.
Manager Terry Francona said that the team is still working through Battenfield's position in the rotation, noting that he would be in the bullpen on Tuesday against the New York Yankees but may or may not start on Wednesday.
"We're not sure yet," Francona said. "He's in the bullpen tonight. We got to get there."
Shifts in the bullpen are a result of the movement around the starting rotation. As such, Francona is keeping his eye on the usage and workload of his pitchers.
"We got [James] Karinchak and [Emmanuel] Clase—they've been two days in a row, but not a ton of pitches. We'll go look," Francona said. "We need to be careful, though, because with a day game tomorrow and potentially, depends who pitches tonight, we just need to keep an eye on it."
But when it comes to McKenzie, Francona is staying patient. The recent move to the 60-Day IL may seem like a setback, but the Guardians skipper knows not to rush things and let McKenzie recover a little each day.
"Trust in the medical people, but also pushing to get better. And that's kind of a fine line—I think Triston's really handled it well. He keeps pushing and pushing and pushing," Francona said."Today he went out and played catch today for the first time. It was only I think 40 feet and it was 20 throws, but he's doing a really good job—and because of that, he's going to give himself the best chance to come back the healthiest he can be and the most productive."
McKenzie shared on his way to throw before Tuesday's game that he is "feeling good" and taking things "day by day."
While they're maintaining patience, it will likely be a welcome sight for the Guardians when McKenzie returns after a rough outing from his fill-in Hunter Gaddis, who saw a three-inning outing with eight hits and six runs from the Yankees.
RELATED: Guardians pitcher Triston McKenzie out up to 8 weeks with muscle strain
Watch live and local news any time:
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
