Indians Pitcher Carlos Carrasco Has Elbow Inflammation, OF Mercado Has Mild Wrist Sprain

Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco is suffering from inflammation in his throwing elbow and will be shutdown for a few days, while the MRI on outfielder Oscar Mercado shows that he's got a mild sprain of his wrist suffered a few days back diving for a ball.

With less than three weeks before opening day at Progressive Field the Cleveland Indians continue to try and get their team back to 100 percent health, but it has not been easy.

Saturday Indians.com reporter Mandy Bell reported via twitter that starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco, who just made his first start of the spring this past week, is suffering from inflammation in his pitching elbow.

Manager Terry Francona stated that the team would shut down Carrasco for a few days to allow the elbow to recover fully.

Per Francona the Tribe starter will work out with weighted balls in Goodyear on Saturday to see how the elbow reacts, but the manager didn’t appear to feel the injury would be a long term issue for the starter.

Carrasco is slated as of now to be in the starting rotation to start 2020, likely as the number two or three starter.

The team named Shane Bieber as the opening day starter for March 26 at Progressive Field against the Detroit Tigers.

On another note the team got some good news on the prognosis for starting outfielder Oscar Mercado.

It was just a few days ago that Mercado suffered a wrist injury when he went diving for a ball in a spring training game.

The team announced that Mercado would have an MRI, and the results of the MRI have come back showing that he’s got a ‘mild sprain’ of his left wrist.

For now, Mercado is day-to-day and Francona says he will get the next two to three days off before he’s back doing light exercises and working his way back into the lineup.