Cleveland Sports Forum

Marshall defining determination at Tribe camp

Veteran eyes bullpen job, 2 1/2 years removed from nearly tragic injury

By Jack Magruder Special to MLB.com

Mar. 3rd, 2018

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The five-inch scar that runs down the right side of Evan Marshall's scalp is an unavoidable reminder that anything can happen -- and that anything can be overcome. Marshall still tools around in his Dodge Challenger Hellcat muscle car, although it is parked back home in Wichita, Kan. Wife Allie and dog Butters remain his rocks and his foundation.

And he still throws 94 mph despite a career that was briefly stalled after he was struck in the head by a line drive on Aug. 4, 2015, while pitching in a Triple-A game for Arizona's Reno affiliate.
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It could have been a tragic detour. The ball, traveling 105 mph, struck Marshall in the right temple. He suffered a fractured skull, and 90 minutes later he underwent emergency surgery to relieve swelling and bleeding of the brain.

Marshall made such progress that he was back in the Majors with Arizona in 2016 and with Seattle last season. He occasionally is asked to take part in programs put on by the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, which supervised his outpatient therapy. Barrow uses Marshall as a model of complete recovery.

A National League West scout contacted Cleveland manager Terry Francona after Marshall signed with the Indians over the winter.

"He said, 'That's my pick to click,'" Francona said. "He said, 'His ball, there's a lot to like.'"

Marshall, who relies on a sinking fastball that moves, really liked what he saw from the Indians while he was deciding where to go in free agency, and the organization has only become more attractive during his time in camp.

"You look around, you see [Corey] Kluber, you see [Carlos] Carrasco. Obviously I knew [Trevor] Bauer," said Marshall, who was drafted in the fourth round by the D-backs in 2011, the same year they took Bauer third overall.

"There are some big names in here, and you see how hard they work," Marshall said. "Everything behind the scenes, you understand why they are as successful as they are. They earn every inch that they get."

A non-roster invitee on a team that has a reputation of giving everyone in camp a fair shake, Marshall is vying for a place in a strong Cleveland bullpen that appears to have a least one job open after the offseason losses of setup men Bryan Shaw and Joe Smith.

"This is a really great team, and they lost some assets in free agency," said the 27-year-old Marshall.

"So there's an opportunity where they have a couple of holes that they are going to ask guys in-house to step up to try to take, or look for it elsewhere. I would like to try to be that elsewhere."

Marshall, a right-hander, has given up a run in two appearances this spring. He pitched a scoreless inning and was credited with the victory in Thursday's 8-7 win over the Dodgers.

"Very good," Francona said of that outing. "The first couple, guys are getting their legs under them. The ball came out very, very well. I think we were all pleased. Velocity, movement. A couple of good breaking balls"

Marshall was a bullpen mainstay as a rookie in 2014, when he was 4-4 with a 2.74 ERA in 57 appearances with the D-backs after being recalled early in the season. He recorded the victory in his first Major League appearance and had holds in his next two outings while developing into a primary setup man.

A Spring Training injury set him back in '15, and he spent much of that season in Reno before the injury.

The fact that Marshall is back on the mound is testament to not only the treatment he received, but also his will to return.

'It was a severe brain injury," Dr. Christina Kwasnica, the medical director of rehabilitation at Barrow, said three weeks after Marshall was struck.

"It was a hit right in the wrong part of the skull, where the skull is thin. Right below there is an artery, and so he had immediate bleeding. And even with the fastest medical care you could get, he was very close to having a very bad outcome for this."

And a little update on our walking wounded ...

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GOODYEAR, Ariz.

With a series of smaller bursts and directional changes, Michael Brantley took another large step toward getting back in the lineup. Brantley went through his first day of defensive agility drills on a back field Friday and afterward said he felt great.

Inasmuch as Brantley already has been a full participant in batting practice and cage work, he appears that much closer to returning to form after undergoing right ankle surgery on Oct. 18.

"Just more turns and cuts, progressing where I need to be," Brantley said. "All is going well. I'm progressing every day. That's all I can ask. I'm putting in the work that I need to get back on the field and compete with this great group of guys in this locker room."

Brantley's schedule going forward includes more agility work and an increase in baserunning and outfield drills.

"Just keep progressing and adding volume to it and keep going," Brantley said. "One day at a time. I do not want to look too far ahead. It's about how I come in every day. When the times comes, I'll be ready."

Cleveland has not scheduled Brantley for games yet, and that is fine with him. The finish line is not Opening Day on March 29 in Seattle.

"There are not too many more hurdles yet, but at the same time, I want to make sure I am ready for each one," Brantley said. "Get back as soon as possible, but make sure it is 100 percent. There is no timetable on my return. I don't want to look at it like that, because then if I come back 80 percent, I am not helping this team. I want to give them everything I got, and that's 100 percent."

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Guyer takes swings

Brandon Guyer hit off a tee Friday for the first time since he underwent October surgery to repair the extensor tendon in his left wrist, and he admitted wondering how the first contact would feel.

Consider it a success.

"I was a little nervous going into it, but it felt good," Guyer said. "I was really pleasantly surprised with how it felt. Hopefully can keep going and not have any more setbacks."

Guyer took 10 dry swings and 20 swings off the tee.

"I swung really hard," Guyer said. "It was a good test for it. I never knew how it was going to be actually hitting an object. Dry swings are dry swings, but actually hitting a ball … it felt good."

Next up would be a series of flips and batting practice, with an eye toward being ready for the start of the regular season. As with Brantley, Guyer is keeping the big picture firmly in focus.

"That was my goal. It still is my goal," Guyer said. "I don't want to just be dead set on it and it doesn't happen, or I rush it and hurt something. We'll see what happens."

Guyer reported to camp on time but tweaked his wrist during early spring workouts. The injury first cropped up last May and aggravated it in September.

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Right-hander Danny Salazar (shoulder) played catch from 75-90 feet on Friday for the second straight day.

"Appropriate," Indians manager Terry Francona said of the team's spring plan. "The idea is, when you build somebody up, you want them to stay up. We're not trying to slow him down. We're trying to do it correctly."

Salazar had a setback during his offseason throwing program that has put him behind this spring, and it appears likely he will open the season on the disabled list.

I don't know why but I always tend to forget about this guy ...

A helping hand

On consecutive defensive plays separated by a half-inning break, Chisenhall showed off his glove in right field in Friday's 9-4 win over the Rangers at Goodyear Ballpark.

Chisenhall made a one-hop throw to home plate to catch Rougned Odor trying to score from second base with runners on second and third to end the third inning. Roberto Perez applied the tag just before Odor slid in head-first.

In the fourth, Chisenhall went to his knees to his left to catch Joey Gallo's sinking line drive for the first out.

According to metrics calculated by Baseball-Reference, Chisenhall saved two runs more than the average outfielder in 65 games last season. He recorded two outfield assists, both from right.

Chisenhall also collected two hits and two RBIs on Friday.

Salazar had a setback during his offseason throwing program that has put him behind this spring, and it appears likely he will open the season on the disabled list.

I am often suspicious that Salazar doesn't work his offseason program diligently. And when did he suffer his "setback"? And when did he tell the Indians about it? The stories have all made it sound as if the first the team was aware of the latest injury was when he showed up in Goodyear. Unless he hurt himself on the fly this is something they should have learned of before he made it back to Arizona.

Think the plan all along was to stash Salazar on the DL. Indians have too many starters and Salazar will be a nice reserve.

Might see a few more DLs for guys without options ending ST with mystery injuries.

I assume that they would love to have Danny on the starting 5 with Tomlin the odd man out. His injury sounds real

Yeah, it's legit. And besides, no matter how minor he has proven he will not pitch through normal aches and pains that starters go through.

And we lost Shaw and Smith so sure the Indians wouldn't have minded sticking the odd man out of the rotation in the pen.

Danny seems like a good bullpen fit with his hard stuff. I'd rather lose one of 7 relievers for a month than one of 5 starters, and you know he'll be down for awhile.
I'm sure his injury history and slow "recovery" history made him very difficult to trade for much.

When Mike Napoli arrived at Indians camp, he asked Terry Francona for recommendations on who he should mentor.

Francona told him: “The more time you spend around Bobby Bradley, the better off he’s going to be.”

Napoli played cribbage with Josh Tomlin and Adam Plutko in the clubhouse on Sunday morning. Sure enough, Bradley walked over and plopped down beside the group and watched the game.

Bradley dropped 30 pounds over the winter, with the help of his wife, who encouraged him to join her at Orangetheory Fitness. He attended a pair of Indians strength camps in Arizona as well. Now, he has Napoli, a 12-year big-league veteran with eight postseason appearances to his name, as his guide for the next few weeks.

That’s not a bad setup for Bradley’s first career stint in major-league camp.

A few thoughts on the Indians’ rotation …

1. Have at it: Mike Clevinger stressed all winter that he wanted to log 200 innings this season and earn his keep as a reliable force on the Indians’ starting staff. He’ll get his chance, as Francona revealed the team’s plans to include Clevinger in the Opening Day rotation. Danny Salazar’s gradual — Francona scoffed at deeming it “slow” — recovery from shoulder injury helped to seal Clevinger’s spot.

Clevinger thrived — as many pitchers would — when dealing from ahead in the count last season, and his numbers suffered when he fell behind. That isn’t rocket science (or even a class Trevor Bauer could teach), but the stark contrast in his splits speaks to how pivotal it is for Clevinger to throw strikes.

A reminder:

Clevinger, when ahead in the count last year: .370 opponent OPS

Clevinger, with an even count last year: .399 opponent OPS

Clevinger, when behind in the count last year: 1.193 opponent OPS

Clevinger believes he’s in a better position to identify his mechanical slip-ups because of his offseason training, which focused on posture and body awareness. Now, he’ll have the opportunity to try to build upon his 3.11 ERA (3.85 FIP) and 2.2 WAR from last season.

2. Role reversal: Francona and Co. maintained throughout the winter that they preferred Salazar to remain a starter. And that might be true. But they also might have wanted to protect the right-hander’s trade value, and publicly selling the idea that Salazar could still offer the potential of delivering 180-200 innings could do that (though I’m not quite sure if anyone was buying it).

At this point, it would seem as though Salazar is destined for a relief role upon his return. It would expedite his recovery process, in that he wouldn’t have to stretch out to 100 pitches. And it would seem like a natural fit, given his devastating fastball/changeup combination and the uncertainty surrounding the non-Miller/Allen ward of the Indians’ bullpen (especially beyond 2018).

It’s too early to make declarative statements about Salazar’s future, of course. He’s merely throwing from 75-90 feet at this point, trying to ease back into a throwing program while evading any more of the pesky inflammation that has bugged him off and on through the years.

3. Out of options: Josh Tomlin and Ryan Merritt are left to duke it out for the fifth rotation spot, but it might not be so clear-cut. The Indians have four off-days in the first three weeks of the season, including two bookending the club’s voyage to Puerto Rico in mid-April.

The complicating matter is Merrit’s lack of minor-league options. The Indians might have to get creative to keep from losing him, whether it’s innovative disabled-list usage or some efficient roster construction. The team’s starting pitching depth is especially lacking at Triple-A, with Cody Anderson still recovering from Tommy John surgery and Julian Merryweather shut down because of a sprained elbow ligament.

The team’s starting pitching depth is especially lacking at Triple-A, with Cody Anderson still recovering from Tommy John surgery and Julian Merryweather shut down because of a sprained elbow ligament

Not to mention Adam Plutko's 5.90 ERA in 2017 and Shawn Morimando's 5.14.

Morimando looked terrible in yesterdays game. Gave up like 4 in his inning.

He had been very good his first couple times. That's his standard erratic pattern. Doubt he'll have a big league career, at most as a lefty on lefty reliever.

So to me when you consider that the Indians basically did not replace either Shaw or Joe Smith, that lends more credibility to the theory that Salazar may be viewed as a bullpen option.

Add to that Clevinger's statement he wants 200 innings....just maybe he knows something we don't.

Tomlin at #5

Salazar may not spend all season in the bullpen, who knows, but seems they just might go that way to start.

At the start he'll be on the DL. Someone else will get a trial look, perhaps Merritt will be given a roster spot since otherwise he will have to be DFAd

I can't believe they didn't trade Merritt this offseason. Maybe he isn't worth as much as I thought but have to guess we could have got a righty reliever. Even if it was a legit prospect.