What Role Should Danny Salazar Have This Year with the Indians?

It was just a couple of years ago that Danny Salazar was one of the more promising starting pitchers coming up through the ranks and someone that looked like they could be a legitimate ace for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, that narrative has changed as of late as Danny Salazar is no longer viewed like he once was and is in a bit of a transitional period in his career.

Thanks to right elbow inflammation, Salazar has spent the past two seasons on the DL for various lengths of time and the Cleveland Indians are obviously concerned about that going forward. Following a winter in which Salazar's name was connected to a couple of different teams, most notably the Chicago Cubs, Danny Salazar is still on the 25-man roster, which means that the Indians need to use him and find the right role to preserve his health, but what role should he fill exactly?

To start, let's first examine how Salazar was used last season and the success or struggles that he faced in various situations. After he returned from the DL towards the latter part of July, Salazar was used in the rotation until around the middle-to-later part of August. In that span, he put up a 2.68 ERA over the course of 37 IP with 51 strikeouts. Once the end of August rolled around, Salazar was moved to the bullpen, where he could fit into a role that allowed him to still work on his mechanics, but a role that wasn't as demanding as being a typical starting pitcher. Over 6.1 IP in the bullpen, Salazar had a 7.38 ERA, while surrendering 5 earned runs, giving up 1 home run, and recording 8 strikeouts.

As the latter part of September came around, the Indians elected to have Danny Salazar make one more start in which he recorded a 0.00 ERA over 4.2 IP. Salazar certainly didn't pitch deep into that game against the rival, Minnesota Twins, but he did record 9 strikeouts and made a case to the front office to be included on the postseason roster. When the postseason rolled around, Salazar was utilized in a relief role once again only pitching 1 and 2/3 innings and recording a 0.00 ERA once again.

While Salazar's final regular season start and his relief appearance in the postseason should be signs of optimism, is there a reason that we should be concerned about his elbow and the potential for another DL stint to happen again this season? The answer isn't a clear yes or no because health problems can crop up out of nowhere, but the Indians do need to be cautious about Salazar's workload and how much he pitches, which means that the best role for him would likely be as a long man out of the bullpen.

Yes, Salazar struggled putting up a 7.38 ERA over 6.1 IP pitching out of the bullpen last season, as noted above, but that is going to be the role where the Indians can have the most control over his workload and the role where he can continue to focus on working on his mechanics to try and become the asset that he once was. Now, it doesn't mean that Danny Salazar needs to stay in the bullpen all year in that role, but at least for the first half of the season, it would be a good idea. Come the middle part of the season around the All-Star Break, the Indians can always re-evaulate the situation, see how Salazar is performing, and more importantly see how he is feeling to determine if he can slot back into the starting rotation. Who knows, there might be an injury that pops up in the starting rotation before then and depending on how Salazar is performing, he could always be considered as a substitute.

Looking back on the trade talk this winter, Cleveland did the right thing by electing to hold onto Salazar because there is still potential in him and a lot to like especially from a strikeout perspective. Last year alone, Salazar recorded a 12.67 strikeouts-per-9 rate, even while dealing with nagging elbow inflammation and question marks regarding not only his health, but his future. Among pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched, that put Salazar second in the league behind only, Chris Sale, of the Boston Red Sox.

Knowing that and knowing that Salazar's has had a strikeouts-per-9 rate over at least 10 in all four of the past seasons, besides in 2014 when he had a 9.82 strikeouts-per-9 rate, that means that he gives the Indians another useful weapon in the bullpen especially as games get to the middle-to-latter innings. Usually when you look at the back end of the bullpen of most successful teams, those relievers have high strikeout-per-9 rates and they know how to get hitters out when it matters most. It doesn't mean that Danny Salazar is going to be the team's next closer, or maybe it does, but rather that it gives Cleveland a three-headed monster in Salazar, Andrew Miller, and Cody Allen, at least for this coming season as Miller and Allen are both set to hit free agency after this year. That three-headed monster could end up becoming extremely valuable for Cleveland this season, assuming all three stay healthy, given that the Indians lost Bryan Shaw and Joe Smith this winter.

Essentially, if the Indians were to use Salazar in a long-man relief role like in September of last year, they could have him pitch in the middle part of the game into the 7th or 8th inning depending on the situation at hand. For instance, if Corey Kluber, has an un-Kluber like start and only goes 5 and 1/3 innings, then Cleveland could bring in Danny Salazar to get the other two outs in the 5th and to pitch both the 6th and 7th innings. The same could be true if the starting pitcher on a particular day, such as Carlos Carrasco, goes 6 innings. The Indians could bring Salazar in to pitch the 7th inning and part of the 8th inning before handing the ball over to Andrew Miller which are typically the most important outs in a game. Of course, all of this is going to depend on the situation at hand, what the score is, and the availability of those relievers on a particular day, but you at least get the gist of the idea.

While there is still uncertainty regarding Danny Salazar's bill of health for this season, the best thing the Indians can do is to utilize him in a role where he will be most successful and a role where they can continue to monitor his workload which is in the bullpen as a long-man reliever. Although it doesn't look plausible that Salazar can be a starting pitcher right now, there is a possibility that he can return to form and defy expectations, while staying healthy, and give the Indians that 1-2-3-4 punch again, in Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, and himself, come the end of this season. Some fans might be disappointed that he wasn't used to try to get an outfield bat this winter, but as they say, sometimes the best trades are the ones that don't end up happening at all. That could very well be the case here.