While the Indians had a great weekend on the field, the fallout over the team meeting on Friday prior to the team’s first game in Detroit finally comes to light.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported Monday morning that the meeting between Indians and coaches was very exciting, and included players shaking starters Mike Clevinger en Zach Plesac for her actions in Chicago a week ago Saturday.
Passan says that relief Oliver Perez was so shocked by the actions of the two starters that he claimed he would choose the rest of 2020 if the two remain on the team roster.
Clevinger and Plesac spoke at the meeting with an attempt to defend their actions on the night of August 7, but it sounds like the other Indians in the clubhouse do not want anything to do with it.
The report says a few players accepted the pair’s apology and wanted them to stay on the roster of the big league, but in the end, enough players were still overwhelmed by the “breach of trust” by leaving the team hotel that it decision was made to send them to the team’s alternative training site in Eastlake.
Plesac and Clevinger will have to stay at Eastlake for at least 10 days, meaning the first time they will be allowed to rejoin the Indian Premier League club on August 23 when the team takes over the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field.
Getting Clevinger back in the fold seems to have more of a sense of urgency since his place in the rotation, as the number two starter had to be completed by two starts already by Adam Plutko.
Plutko did not last three innings on Sunday in the Indians final victory over the Tigers, and it remains to be seen how long the Indians will stick with him with Clevinger ready to go on the 23rd session in Eastlake.
As for Plesac, with off-days the team can continue until September 1, but every now and then they need someone to start the home game on Saturday, August 22 against the Tigers.
The tenseess of the team meeting presumably saw a number of players go to the two pitchers right, as not only was Perez focal in his statement that he was dismissed, but also team leader Francisco Lindor was critical of the couple.
Indian Manager Terry Francona and also a number of players spoke several times before the start of the season about the importance of bad this year and following team rules – only to have two of their key players occasionally break the rules just three weeks into the short season .
With Clevinger and Plesac away, the Tribe won all three in Detroit and moved on to a game of the Twins in AL Central that sat at 13-9.
The club has an off-day Monday before heading to Pittsburgh to play a set of three games against the 4-14 Pirates starting Tuesday night.
