Guardians' Anthony Gose placed on IL, James Karinchak called up; Oscar Mercado reclaimed
CLEVELAND — James Karinchak doesn’t consider his long rehab stint that delayed until Sunday his Guardians callup the roughest time of his Cleveland career.
The right-hander said that designation belongs to the fourth-inning grand slam he surrendered to Gio Urshela in a 10-9 American League wild-card game loss to the New York Yankees on Sept. 30, 2020.
“That was probably the most trying time,” Karinchak said before the Guardians hosted the New York Yankees. “This one was definitely a setback mentally, but I would say the biggest mental hurdle was definitely coming back after the Gio Urshela homer in the playoffs.”
That home run helped spell the end of the postseason for Cleveland, which had suffered a 12-3 loss to the Yankees the previous day.
Karinchak, 26, a key member of the Guardians' bullpen, has been on the injured list most of this year with a right upper back strain. He was activated on Saturday and optioned to Triple-A Columbus.
Pitching coach Carl Willis said Sunday that Karinchak might have remained in Columbus for a while longer, but his call-up Sunday was necessary when left-hander Anthony Gose was placed on the 15-day injured list with a strained left triceps.
“Yesterday was really the first day we were aware of anything,” Willis said of Gose. “The hope is and the initial prognosis I think is it’s not serious. Now these are things that sometimes take a few days to really show what they really are. The hope is it’s two to three days and he’ll be feeling better, we can start a program for him to get him back soon.
“Unfortunately we had to go the IL route just because with the doubleheaders and the schedule as it is, we can’t go short one day.”
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Karinchak spent a month rehabbing in Columbus, posting a 5.73 ERA in 11 innings of 12 games. He allowed 10 hits and seven earned runs while striking out 17.
“I think his last three outings have been really, really good,” Willis said of Karinchak. “He has continued to improve and kind of started to show signs of being his old self. I don’t know that he would have necessarily been recalled today … He was getting extremely close.
“We just wanted to see him maybe get a little more consistent. But he’s certainly trending in a very positive direction.”
Cleveland Guardians reclaim Oscar Mercado, make other bullpen moves
The Guardians made several other roster moves before the game. They selected the contract of right-hander Alex Young from Triple-A Columbus, optioned right-hander Anthony Castro to Columbus and designated left-hander Kirk McCarty for assignment.
Later in the day, the Guardians reclaimed outfielder Oscar Mercado, who was designated for assignment on June 21 and claimed by the Philadelphia Phillies on June 27. Mercado got one at-bat with the Phillies on June 30, then was designated for assignment the next day.
Mercado will join the Guardians in Detroit, where they open a three-game series on Monday. To make room, right-hander Yohan Ramirez was designated for assignment.
Young, like Karinchak, is making his Guardians debut after spending the season in Columbus. He went 3-0 with a 3.14 ERA in 28⅔ innings of 27 relief outings, giving up 24 hits and 10 earned runs with six walks and 43 strikeouts. Over his last seven outings since June 12, he had pitched 6⅓ shutout innings.
James Karinchak 'blessed and excited' to rejoin Cleveland Guardians
Karinchak said he couldn’t “put it into words” what getting back to the Guardians meant to him.
“It’s really exciting, I guess, that the opportunity is finally here, so I’m just blessed and excited to get out there again.”
In late March, an MRI revealed a mild strain of the teres major muscle, and Karinchak was shut down for seven to 10 days. That turned out to be an optimistic projection as Karinchak said he had “a couple of unfortunate things” that set the timeline back.
“I’m healthy now and that’s a blessing and all the trainers and everybody that got me here, I’m very thankful,” he said.
“The biggest part is mentally knowing you can throw a baseball hard again. That’s how I got hurt. So, to get to that mental threshold again to be able to confidently throw a baseball as hard as I can, and that’s obviously what I do every day, I think that’s the biggest part.”
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Karinchak said he didn’t get to that point until mid-April.
Last season for Cleveland, Karinchak went 7-4 with a 4.07 ERA in 60 games (55⅓ innings). After a strong first half in which he went 6-2 with a 2.52 ERA in 41 games (39⅓ innings), he collapsed in the second half with a 7.88 ERA in 19 games (16 innings, .270 batting average allowed) and was optioned to Columbus on Aug. 28.
Asked if any pitch stands out for him now, he said, “Confident in both of them, so I’m excited to see what I can do.”
Selected in the ninth round of the 2017 first-year player draft, Karinchak doesn’t know if he’s back to where he was in the first half of 2021.
“I mean, I’m confident in my ability right now and we’re gonna find out soon, right?” he said.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Guardians LHP Anthony Gose placed on IL, James Karinchak up
