Indians Option Pitchers Civale, Plesac, and Karinchak and OF Zimmer to AAA Columbus

The Indians Thursday sent a couple of their young starter in Aaron Civale, James Karinchak and Zach Plesac to AAA Columbus along with outfielder Bradley Zimmer, who is trying to make it back from missing 2019 with an injury.

While the Cleveland Indians were not doing anything on the field Thursday in what should have been the open to the 2020 season, they were doing things with their roster.

The optioned a couple players to AAA-Columbus including pitchers Aaron Civale, Zach Plesac and James Karinchak, and the team sent down outfielder Bradley Zimmer.

Three of those players sent down were expected to be on the team’s opening day roster, that being Civale, Plesac and Karinchak.

It was expected that Civale and Plesac would both be in the starting rotation, while Karinchak would be part of the back end of the bullpen.

Zimmer was continuing to work his way back from missing last season due to injury, and it was expected he was going to start the year in the minors.

Last season both Civale and Plesac were impressive as rookies, as Civale went 3-4 with a 2.34 ERA in 10 starts for the Tribe.

Plesac was in the rotation for a good part of the year, and went 8-6 with a 3.81 ERA in 21 starts.

Part of the theory for the roster moves is to be able to save on service time so the Indians can get another year of Major League eligibility.

Former Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer pointed that out in a tweet shortly after the roster moves were announced.

Gotta love service time manipulation... https://t.co/Z2YLB5dSjJ

— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) March 26, 2020