Emmanuel Clase


Emmanuel Clase is a Dominican professional baseball relief pitcher for the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball. He made his MLB debut in 2019 with the Texas Rangers.

Career

Clase signed with the San Diego Padres as an international free agent on February 11, 2015 for a $125,000 signing bonus. He played for the DSL Padres in 2015, going 2–1 with a 1.99 ERA in 54 innings. In 2016 he played for the AZL Padres, going 2–0 with a 4.01 ERA in innings. In 2017 he played for the AZL Padres, going 2–4 with a 5.30 ERA in innings, and in one game with the Tri-City Dust Devils of the Class A Short Season Northwest League, allowing 5 runs in innings.

Texas Rangers

On May 7, 2018, the Padres traded Clase to the Texas Rangers as the player to be named later in an earlier trade for Brett Nicholas. Clase was assigned to the Spokane Indians of the Class A Short Season Northwest League, and finished the 2018 season after going 1–1 with a 0.64 ERA, 27 strikeouts, and 12 saves in innings. Clase was assigned to the Down East Wood Ducks of the Class A-Advanced Carolina League to open the 2019 season. He appeared in 6 games for them, going 2–0 with a 0.00 ERA, 1 save, and 11 strikeouts in 7 innings. On April 23, he was promoted to the Frisco RoughRiders of the Double-A Texas League, and went 1–2 with a 3.35 ERA and 39 strikeouts over innings.
On August 2, 2019, the Rangers selected Clase's contract and promoted him to the MLB. He made his MLB debut on August 4, pitching scoreless innings. Clase produced a 2–3 record with a 2.31 ERA and 21 strikeouts over innings in 2019. His cutter was on average the fastest in MLB, at.

Cleveland Indians

On December 15, 2019, the Rangers traded Clase and Delino DeShields Jr. to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for Corey Kluber and cash considerations.
Clase was suspended for 80 games on May 1, 2020 after testing positive for Boldenone, a banned PED.

Pitching style

Clase features an upper 90s/low 100s mph cut fastball and a low 90s slider.