Going into the 2013 season, the Indians had a rotation of Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jimenez, Scott Kazmir, Corey Kluber, and Zach McAllister (yikes). On July 11 that year, the 23-year old Danny Salazar was brought up to make a start in place of McAllister, who was out with a sprained finger. He was brilliant against the Toronto Blue Jays on that day, going 6.0 innings and allowing just 1 earned run on 2 hits while walking 1 and striking out 7. He would be sent back to Columbus the next day, but he did enough in the majors over the next few months to earn him the start in the 2013 Wild Card game against the Tampa Bay Rays. While his start wasn’t great (he gave up 3 unearned runs), there was enough there to indicate that a promising career was about to take off.
Command Issues
Four years later, the future of Danny Salazar is uncertain. After a dominant 2015 and an All-Star appearance in 2016, Danny Salazar looked to lock down a rotation spot in 2017 behind Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco. Unfortunately for Salazar, this season did not get off to the promising start that everyone was hoping for and counting on. Through the first month of the season, the strikeouts were there (42 in 29 innings; 13.03 K/9), but so were the walks (14; 4.35 BB/9).
A common problem that has been an issue for Salazar throughout his career has been his command. He has the “stuff” to be a front-of-the-rotation starter, but his command gets him into trouble far too often. When his secondary pitches began to fall out of the zone and put Danny behind in the count, he would have to rely on his fastball. His fastball, as you know, is fantastic in terms of velocity and inducing swings and misses. However, when Danny has no pitch working that he can pair the fastball with (namely his incredible split-change), batters are able to time the fastball and knock it around. On the other hand, we saw Salazar do this a lot this season:
Danny Salazar gets Mike Moustakas swinging at strike three for the third ou.. ? https://t.co/bxexUs4oPL
— Platano Power RD (@PlatanoPowerDO) August 20, 2017
Vía MLB pic.twitter.com/9TN4XPK8XK
Paired with this:
Danny Salazar's ridiculous Curveball to Melky Cabrera pic.twitter.com/9RkbOSrAvl
— Pitcher List (@ThePitcherList) August 21, 2017
And a little of this:
Danny Salazar, Nasty 90mph Changeup. pic.twitter.com/dZDxxrttD3
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 10, 2017
A Tale of Two Dzars
There has been some discussion around Let’s Go Tribe as to why Danny Salazar could be anyone’s favorite pitcher. Hopefully these three examples show just why he is so exciting to a lot of folks (myself included). And there was some good for Danny this season despite his struggles. His second half stats look much better than his first half, holding batters to a .202/.274/.295 slash line in 11 appearances. The walks were down (3.0 BB/9), the strikeouts were a little down (only 12.75 K/9), and Danny was pitching deeper into games. The period between July 13 - August 15 was some of the best pitching we’ve ever seen from Danny Salazar, and it legitimately looked like he was transforming into the ace that I’ve dreamed of since his debut in 2013. And then...
Wake me up when September ends
On August 22, Danny Salazar was sent to the DL with a stiff right elbow. If you’re thinking “but wait...Salazar pitches with his right hand. This can’t be good”, you’d be correct. It didn’t seem to be a major issue, but seeing as Salazar had already been on the DL earlier in the year for a problem in his right shoulder, it’s understandable that folks were alarmed. An MRI was taken the following day and the results showed no structural damage and merely some inflammation, which was a relief to everyone, Danny most of all. Despite over two weeks of rest, Danny didn’t look like the same pitcher when he came back on September 5. Throughout the entire month, Salazar’s velocity on his pitches looked good, but he couldn’t get any length in any of his starts (3; his other 2 appearances in the month came in relief). There was a glimmer of hope on his last start of the year when he struck out 9 in 4.2 innings and walked just 1 batter, but it wasn’t enough to get Tito’s full trust come October.
The curious case of Danny Salazar’s postseason roster spot
Last season, the Indians’s starting rotation that led them to within 1 win of a World Series championship consisted of Corey Kluber, Josh Tomlin, half of Trevor Bauer, and prayers. This season, with a healthy Carlos Carrasco, an un-lacerated Trevor Bauer, a dominant Mike Clevinger, and a...Josh Tomlin, the Indians were poised to have a scary rotation all throughout the playoffs. Add in Danny Salazar with the hope that he could replicate his July/August success, and you have an almost unstoppable force. So it begs the question, then, why Danny Salazar only pitched 1.2 innings in total (ALDS Game 4) in relief instead of starting. You could argue (and I did) that Mike Clevinger should have been given the rotation slot ahead of Danny Salazar, but he didn’t start either. It seemed as if Salazar was intended to be a long relief arm out of the pen in order to douse any fires early on and bridge the gap to Andrew Miller, Joe Smith, Bryan Shaw, and Cody Allen. But again, Danny pitched a total of 1.2 innings. It could be argued that he was utilized poorly in the ALDS, but it’s not entirely clear that he was. But if he wasn’t good enough to start (in Tito’s eyes) and not reliable enough to pitch more than 1.2 innings, why was he on the roster in the first place? I fully agree with him making the roster, but the way he was used is questionable.
What will 2018 bring for Danny Salazar?
With a rotation shaping up to be Kluber, Carrasco, Bauer, Clevinger, and Tomlin, Salazar may find himself on the outside looking in at the rotation in spring training 2018. In turning to the bullpen, Salazar would need to fine tune his command in order to be effective out of the pen. It’s entirely different for a pitcher coming on in the middle of an inning with (potentially) runners on base than it is starting in a fresh inning, which is what Danny is used to. I hope that he can harness whatever he had in July and August and channel that into a full season of work, but with his injury spotted past, it’s hard to think that he could go a full season and be dominant. But as you saw above, he has the tools necessary to be an ace. The last hurdle for Danny now is to put them all together and keep them together for the whole season.
Poll
What does the future look like for Danny Salazar?
This poll is closed
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49%
Starter for the Indians
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26%
Relief pitcher for the Indians
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24%
Pitching on another team