The Indians are about a week into Spring games and there are a few notable players that have been conspicuously absent from action. To this point, Jason Kipnis, Nick Swisher, Brandon Moss and Gavin Floyd have been yet to play in real game action, despite accounting for $29.5M in 2015 salaries, due to injuries sustained in 2014 that they are still recovering from.
Gavin Floyd
A free agent signing, Floyd broke his elbow throwing a pitch in a game for the Braves last year and has not pitched in game action since. He was originally scheduled to pitch on Sunday, but has been bumped back a few days, likely to start sometime in the middle of the next week. Floyd was signed because of his impressive numbers in 2014 (2.65 ERA, 45 K’s, 54.1 IP) and the Indians are being cautious in fear that what happened last year could happen again. Even with the cautious approach, Floyd should get at least four or five starts this Spring, enough to get him up to six innings per start and ready for the regular season. At the moment, he should still be expected to make his debut on April 10th (the Indians Home Opener) or within a game either way.
Brandon Moss
Moss was acquired this off-season from a trade with the Athletics with the Tribe hoping to add his 20+ home run power to the lineup. Unfortunately, Moss dealt with injuries at the end of last season and had to have hip surgery during the off-season. He was never expected to play in the first half of Spring Training games, but has actually moved ahead of his schedule. Moss is in a good position in that he can play DH during the first week of games if necessary as he continues to improve. His primary position is to be right field, otherwise a very weak position both offensively and defensively for Cleveland, but it could take him even longer to be able to run at full speed. Unfortunately, the plan of using him as the DH in Spring or later could be complicated by the next injured star, Nick Swisher.
Nick Swisher
Swisher missed most of August and all of September with knee issues and had surgery on both knees at the end of the season. He has been hitting in the batting cage against live pitching and taking throws at first, but is unable to run in game action at this point. The situation outlined above with Moss at DH is actually much more likely for Swisher, who won’t really be able to play in the outfield even when he is healthy. With Carlos Santana healthy and playing at a superior level at first, there is little room for Swisher to go back there either. Most likely neither Swisher or Moss will play every day for the final two weeks of Spring, so they may become something of a DH platoon while preparing for the regular season. At the moment, it appears that Swisher will be ready to get into game action during March and should be ready for the 2015 season in April.
Below is a video of Swisher explaining a bit about his situation and how excited he is (spoiler: not all that much).
[mlbvideo id=”39744783″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]Jason Kipnis
Like Floyd, Moss and Swisher, Kipnis also dealt with injury in 2014, an strained oblique that likely had much to do with turning his 5.9 WAR in 2013 into a 0.9 in 2014. On the positive side, that injury is healed, but he has a new one keeping him off the field. Kipnis pinched two fingers while lifting weights this off-season and needed surgery to repair a tendon. He has taken infield practice and is throwing regularly (as can be seen in the picture at the top). Like the others, for the moment, he is expected to return in time for at least two weeks of Spring games and should be ready for the regular season. The most positive note for this particular injury is that it shouldn’t be anywhere near as debilitating as the oblique was and there is a good chance he will return to 2013 form once he is able to play regularly, even if that isn’t until later in April.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
