Salazar nears first outing since 2017

KANSAS CITY -- It’s been a long road for Indians pitcher Danny Salazar. But after spending over a year and a half injured, he’s now days away from getting back in the game.

After missing the start of the 2018 season with right shoulder rotator cuff tendinitis, Salazar decided to undergo arthroscopic surgery -- performed by Dr. Keith Meister -- last July. He finally escaped the team’s Spring Training facility in Goodyear, Ariz., on July 5 after already starting his 30-day rehab clock on June 30 with two appearances in the desert.

Now that his time is about to expire, Indians manager Terry Francona said the team will announce its plan with Salazar on Tuesday.

“We’re putting a plan in place,” Francona said. “I think today’s not appropriate yet because it involves talking to other people. But I think Tuesday we can kind of put it in place and explain what we’re gonna do.”

Salazar made his final appearance with Triple-A on Saturday, throwing 69 pitches and allowing one hit in four innings with one walk and five strikeouts.

Up to this point, Francona had not publicized if any decision was made on whether the 29-year-old would be used as a starter or reliever, but the skipper did explain how challenging it can be to judge someone’s rehab outings, especially for someone who has missed as much time as the right-hander has.

“That is a really hard thing to do,” Francona said. “His velocity is not gonna be 97 [mph], but I think he averaged close to 93. But he had a good breaking ball and a good split change, so it sounded like he really pitched. It is hard though. ... We’ve seen guys that will pitch to a 2.00 ERA in Triple-A and come up here and have no chance. You’ll see guys with a 4.00 and they come up here and they’re OK. It’s hard.”

Salazar’s last big league outing came in Game 4 of the 2017 American League Division Series against the Yankees.

“Yeah, I mean it’s been a while,” Francona said. “I hope he can give us something to help us win. That’s the idea. It’s been a long road.”

Kluber to simulate innings on Tuesday

After throwing his fourth bullpen on Saturday, Corey Kluber will simulate as if he’s throwing a few innings for his next bullpen session on Tuesday. Assuming all goes well, Francona said that Kluber will then face some hitters on Saturday

“[We’re] trying to figure out how to do that, because we don’t want him to face our own hitters,” Francona said. “Got to see where Mahoning [Valley] or something like one of those teams [is on Saturday]. We’ll figure something out.”

This date in Indians history

1990: Cleveland retired the number of longtime Indians coach and player Mel Harder (No. 18).