Indians activate Zach McAllister; Josh Outman designated for assignment

The Indians have activated Zach McAllister from the disabled list, where he's spent the last four weeks with a lower back strain. McAllister started the season very well, with a 3.18 ERA through May 5, backed by 36 strikeouts and only 13 walks and 1 home run allowed in 39.2 innings. In his last three starts though, he struggled mightily, going a total of only 7.2 innings and allowing 17 earned runs while allowing 4 home runs. Hopefully the back strain was already slowing him down at that point, and he is now fully recovered. McAllister made three rehab appearances, pitching 4 shutout innings in the most recent.

Left-handed reliever Josh Outman was designated for assignment in order to make room for McAllister. Outman has pitched 24.2 innings for the Indians this season, but mostly in low leverage situations, either fairly early in the game, or when the scoring margin was fairly wide. His 3.28 ERA might seem to make him an odd choice DFA, but that number is really neither particularly good or bad, given the innings he's pithed. Meanwhile, the team recently called up 2013 draft pick Kyle Crockett, and since teams rarely carry three southpaw relievers (and Marc Rzepczynski isn't going anywhere), this move isn't terribly surprising.

The Indians now have ten days to see if they can work out some sort of trade involving him. If they don't, he'll be waived. If he clears waivers, the team could then keep him and send him to Columbus, but if waived, he won't clear, meaning his time with the team is at an end.

One minor note: McAllister will start tomorrow afternoon's series finale against the Angels, which means this move didn't have to be made til after tonight's game. It's a little odd they didn't hold onto Outman that long, just because there's not really any reason not to. Oh well.