Indians Bring Up Pitcher Cody Anderson; Option OF Tyler Naquin to AAA Columbus

The Indians today added staring pitcher Cody Anderson back to the Major League roster from AAA Columbus, and in the meantime sent young outfielder Tyler Naquin back to the minors.

While the move might not make sense to fans, there’s a pretty easy reason why the team did send Naquin back to Columbus, that being that he has options, and he’ll be back with the team soon enough.

Tough to see Naquin sent out. It was the easiest move for Indians b/c he had options but also allows them to manipulate his service time.

— Tony Lastoria (@TonyIBI) May 7, 2016

Sending Naquin out for 2 weeks and bringing him back gives the Indians a whole extra year of control.

— Tony Lastoria (@TonyIBI) May 7, 2016

Naquin made the opening day roster and to this point has played well, hitting .315 (17-for-54) with two doubles and two RBI. He scored eight runs and played 22 games.

With Naquin back to the minors, look for Rajai Davis to get just about all the playing time in center for the Indians until they bring Naquin back up.

As for Anderson, he will start today’s 4:10pm game vs the Royals, and this season has struggled, going 0-1 with a 7.65 ERA in 4 starts (20.0IP, 34H, 17R/ER) before being optioned to Triple-A Columbus on April 27th.

He made one start for the Clippers on May 1 at Gwinnett (ND, 5.2IP, 7H, 4R/ER, 2HR, 3BB, 6K).