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The Indians will call up T.J. House to start Monday's series opener in Minnesota, and will then bring up Danny Salazar for Tuesday's game. This from Terry Francona, as passed along by MLB.com's Jordan Bastian.
House was not expected to be a significant part of this year's team, but after making his MLB debut on May 17 as a reliever, and has made eight starts for the Tribe. He missed a couple potential starts since then, but has basically been a part of the rotation for two months now, posting a 4.40 ERA in 45 innings. He's only lasted 6 innings in half of those starts, but only twice has he allowed more than 3 runs, so he's done a reasonable impression of a fifth starter.
More on Salazar
More on Salazar
Salazar is a different story. He was viewed by most fans as the team's #2 starter coming into the year, because he pitched so well down the stretch in 2013, with the highest strikeout rate in franchise history by a pitcher with at least ten starts. He made eight starts through the middle of May, and continued to strike a ton of guys out, but he issued too many walks and gave up too many home runs, giving him an ERA of 5.53 while finishing 6 innings only twice.
He was sent down to Triple-A at that point, with the idea being that he needed to work on his off-speed pitches. He didn't do well early on there, but over the last month he's got a 2.32 ERA. He's still been walking a lot of guys, but he's allowed only 1 home run in 31 innings during that time.
I wasn't as confident as many about Salazar coming into the year, mostly because he seemed to come out of nowhere and I'm prone to pessimism. For similar reasons, I'm not sold on him being ready to succeed at the MLB level again yet. Justin Masterson may or may not be ready to make his next start, but if I were betting, I'd say he's out for one more turn, which means one of these two guys will probably be needed on the weekend. If Salazar does well, maybe he'll get another turn. If he doesn't do well, I doubt we'll see him again for at least a month.