Week in Cleveland Indians Transactions: Jeff Manship returns from the Disabled List

Latest 25-man/40-man Roster

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The Dog Days* of baseball are upon us, that period of time after the All-Star break but before the final stretch of the season.

Depending on how you want to classify Manny Machado, the Indians have the best shortstop in the league, and the second-best second baseman. But the real surprise of the year has been what the Indians have been able to get from their outfielders. Before the 2016 season, I certainly thought the outfield would be a disaster, and that was assuming that Michael Brantley would miss a month or so with his shoulder injury. But even without Brantley, the Tribe outfield is actually leading the league in fWAR (couldn’t find the equivalent standings on baseball-reference).

Both Danny Salazar and Tommy Hunter should be returning from the DL this week, and that should mean Kyle Crockett and Mike Clevinger would return to the minors, at least for a couple weeks. With September 1st allowing clubs to expand their major-league rosters (theoretically the 25-man roster ceases to exist), I’d expect the Indians to bring up as many pitchers as possible, including Clevinger, Colon, Armstrong, and Crockett. I don’t think they’ll recall Erik Gonzalez right away, but he would be the one position player on the 40-man roster that would have a role in September’s playoff push.

Major-League Transactions

August 11

Activated RHP Jeff Manship from the Disabled List

Optioned LHP TJ House to Columbus (AAA)

August 12

Sent RHP Tommy Hunter to Columbus (AAA) on a rehab assignment

August 14

Outrighted LHP Tyler Olson to Columbus (AAA)

August 15

Activated RHP Joseph Colon from the 15-day Disabled List; optioned him to Columbus (AAA)

With these activations and the subsequent roster moves, the Indians are finally building back some pitching depth. Colon’s injury came at a really bad time for him, as had he been healthy during the second half of July and first week of August, he would have got several opportunities to pitch in important situations, but now that Manship (and Hunter, soon) are returning to action, he loses out on the roster spot.

Minor-League Transactions

August 12

LHP Nick Maronde demoted from Columbus (AAA) to Akron (AA)

AA: Released RHP Lendy Castillo

August 13

AAA: LHP Joe Thatcher released

I believe this came at his request, as he already has signed with the Chicago Cubs organization.

*This probably won’t be read (this being an LGT article and all), so I’d like to indulge in some stellar history. The term "dog days" is actually a very old (as in Ancient Greece old) term. The warmest period of the year (July-August) in the Northern Hemisphere coincides with the rising of Sirius in the night sky just before morning. Sirius, which is the brightest star in the night sky, is part of the constellation Canis Major, hence the term "dog days". This period of time also gave rise to the term "star-struck," as the Ancient Greeks believed the star caused any number of oddities in humans and animals.

The Ancient Egyptians celebrated the rising of Sirius in the night sky (and based their calendar around it), because it coincided with the yearly flooding of the Nile.

Sirius is actually a binary star system, though you can’t tell that with the naked eye. Both Sirius A and B once had approximately the same luminosity (25 times the brightness of the Sun), but B is now a white dwarf, having used up its hydrogen resources about 160 million years ago. It is one of the closer star systems to earth, being "only" 8.6 light-years from our solar system, and is actually going to get closer to us over the next 60,000 years.