Plesac set to rejoin Indians' rotation

For the first time since Aug. 8, Zach Plesac will take the mound for the Indians.

As Mike Clevinger makes his way to join his new team in San Diego, the Tribe was left with an opening in its five-man rotation for Tuesday evening vs. the Royals (live on MLB.TV at 8:05 p.m. ET), and the club decided to call on Plesac to make his first start in over three weeks.

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“We’re excited for Zach to rejoin the rotation,” Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said on Monday before the series opener in Kansas City. “I know a lot’s transpired since the last time he started a Major League game for us. He was a really effective starter for the starts that he made this season, and we’re excited to welcome him back and give him the ball.”

The Indians made a plethora of roster moves on Monday -- adding three of their newly acquired players from the Padres to their 28-man roster, designating for assignment outfielder Domingo Santana, recalling outfielder Oscar Mercado and optioning infielder Yu Chang to the alternate training site at Lake County -- but the team has yet to recall Plesac.

When the 25-year-old officially rejoins the roster on Tuesday, Plesac will have lost 20 total days of service time. He was optioned for 18 days following the incident in Chicago in which he and Clevinger violated team protocols, and he was also in Lake County for the first two days of the 2020 season. Missing at least 20 days of service time made it much more unlikely that Plesac will become eligible for arbitration a year early under Super Two status.

Because Plesac was called up at the end of May last year and remained with the Tribe for all but 10 days of the rest of the season, he was on the path to be eligible, but missing 20 days in this 60-game season may make it difficult for him to acquire enough service time to get a jump on the arbitration process.

But Plesac’s focus on Tuesday will likely be on integrating himself back in the Indians’ clubhouse after breaking some trust with his teammates in Chicago. The Tribe held a team meeting in Detroit on Aug. 14, which included players, coaches and front-office members, and the general conclusion was that it was best if both Plesac and Clevinger were optioned to Lake County.

Plesac had gotten off to a hot start on the rubber, pitching to a 1.29 ERA with 24 strikeouts and two walks in 21 innings (three starts). Now, the right-hander and the rest of his squad will look to move forward, putting all the problems over the last few weeks behind them.

“Like I said last week, this is a book that has a lot of chapters,” Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor said. “You turn the page. … That’s how we live life. It’s a book with a lot of chapters in it and a lot of pages in it. If you don’t turn the page, you’ll never finish the book.”