Biographical

Portrait of James Karinchak

James Karinchak P  

CSS Button No Image Css3Menu.com

Indians Player Cards | Indians Team Audit | Indians Depth Chart

2019 Projections (Preseason PECOTA - seasonal age 23)
IP ERA WHIP SO W L SV WARP
Login or Subscribe today for access to projections!
Birth Date9-22-1995
Height6' 3"
Weight215 lbs
Age28 years, 7 months, 4 days
BatsR
ThrowsR
2015
2016
2017
2018
0.22019
proj
WARP Summary

MLB Statistics

Historical (past-seasons) WARP is now based on DRA..
cFIP and DRA are not available on a by-team basis and display as zeroes(0). See TOT line for season totals of these stats.
Multiple stints are are currently shown —Click to hide.
YEAR Team Lg G GS IP W L SV H BB SO HR PPF H/9 BB/9 HR/9 K/9 GB% BABIP WHIP FIP ERA cFIP DRA DRA- WARP
2019 CLE MLB 5 0 5.3 0 0 0 3 1 8 0 100 5.1 1.7 0.0 13.5 38% .231 0.75 0.81 1.69 95 3.89 79.9 0.1
CareerMLB505.300031801005.11.70.013.538%.2310.750.811.69953.8979.90.1

Statistics for All Levels

'opp' stats - Quality of opponents faced - have been moved and are available only as OPP_QUAL in the Statistics reports now.
Minor league stats are currently shown —Click to hide.
YEAR Team Lg LG G GS IP W L SV H BB SO HR PPF H/9 BB/9 HR/9 K/9 GB% BABIP WHIP FIP ERA cFIP DRA DRA-
2017 MHV A- NYP 10 6 23.3 2 2 0 30 9 31 1 101 11.6 3.5 0.4 12.0 30% .468 1.67 2.48 5.79 87 7.07 150.5
2018 LKC A MID 7 0 11.3 3 0 1 8 7 20 0 6.4 5.6 0.0 15.9 55% .400 1.32 1.80 0.79 72 3.41 72.1
2018 LYN A+ CAR 25 0 27.0 1 1 13 14 17 45 1 4.7 5.7 0.3 15.0 40% .295 1.15 2.39 1.00 74 2.77 58.5
2018 AKR AA EAS 10 0 10.3 0 1 0 7 12 16 1 6.1 10.5 0.9 13.9 29% .300 1.84 4.96 2.61 115 5.59 118.1
2019 CLE MLB AL 5 0 5.3 0 0 0 3 1 8 0 100 5.1 1.7 0.0 13.5 38% .231 0.75 0.81 1.69 95 3.89 79.9
2019 AKR AA EAS 10 0 10.0 0 0 6 2 2 24 0 1.8 1.8 0.0 21.6 56% .222 0.40 -1.04 0.00 10 1.80 37.0
2019 COH AAA INT 17 0 17.3 1 1 2 14 13 42 2 7.3 6.8 1.0 21.8 48% .571 1.56 2.53 4.67 55 2.12 43.7
2019 CLT Rk AZL 3 0 3.0 0 0 0 0 2 8 0 0.0 6.0 0.0 24.0 0% .000 0.67 0.92 0.00 77 1.22 25.0

Plate Discipline

YEAR Pits Zone% Swing% Contact% Z-Swing% O-Swing% Z-Contact% O-Contact% SwStr%
2019 94 0.5213 0.5213 0.6531 0.6531 0.3778 0.7813 0.4118 0.3469
Career940.52130.52130.65310.65310.37780.78130.41180.3469

Injury History  —  No longer being updated

Last Update: 12/31/2014 23:59 ET

Date On Date Off Transaction Days Games Side Body Part Injury Severity Surgery Date Reaggravation

Compensation

Year Team Salary
2023 CLE $1,500,000
2022 CLE $714,500
2021 CLE $585,000
2020 CLE $
2019 CLE $
YearsDescriptionSalary
3 yrPrevious$2,799,500
3 yrTotal$2,799,500

 

Service TimeAgentContract Status
2 y 169 d1 year/$1.5M (2023)

Details
  • 1 year/$1.5M (2023). Re-signed by Cleveland 1/13/23 (avoided arbitration).
  • 1 year/$714,500 (2022). Re-signed by Cleveland 3/22.
  • 1 year/$585,000 (2021). Re-signed by Cleveland 3/21.
  • 1 year (2020). Re-signed by Cleveland 3/20.
  • 1 year (2019). Contract selected by Cleveland 9/13/19.
  • Drafted by Cleveland 2017 (9-282) (Bryant). $138,300 signing bonus (slot amount).

2019 Preseason Forecast

Last Update: 1/27/2017 12:35 ET

PCT W L SV G GS IP H BB SO HR BABIP WHIP ERA DRA VORP WARP
90o 0 0 0 0 0 18.7 12 9 23 2 .252 1.16 2.91 3.1 0.0 0.0
80o 0 0 0 0 0 12.0 9 7 14 1 .271 1.28 3.38 3.6 0.0 0.0
70o 0 0 0 0 0 7.4 6 4 9 1 .285 1.38 3.73 3.98 0.0 0.0
60o 0 0 0 0 0 3.6 3 2 4 0 .297 1.46 4.04 4.31 0.0 0.0
50o 0 0 0 0 0 0.2 0 0 0 0 .309 1.54 4.34 4.63 0.0 0.0
Weighted Mean?????0.0?00?.0000.000.00?0.00.0

The rest of this card is restricted to Baseball Prospectus Subscribers.

Not a subscriber? Click here for a free card so you can see what's missing.

Click here for more information on Baseball Prospectus subscriptions or to subscribe and get instant access to the best baseball content on the web.

BP Annual Player Comments

No BP Book Comments have been found for this player.

BP Articles

Click here to see articles tagged with James Karinchak

BP Chats

DateQuestionAnswer
2020-02-07 13:00:00 (link to chat)I am in a league that counts wins, saves, holds, era, whip and strikeouts. Who would I rather have this season, Clase or Karinchak? Does the answer change if I am looking at the next several seasons?
(Flipai from Maryland)		Maryland! I'm originally from MD. Go Terps!

Emmanuel Clase and James Karinchak are two young stud relievers for the Indians. Karinchak ranked 4th and Clase 6th on the Indians' top 10: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/prospects/article/56233/2020-prospects-cleveland-indians-top-10-prospects/

We prefer Karinchak's stuff and he has 3 years on Clase. However, PECOTA prefers Clase in 2020. Jeff Wiser detailed their projections here: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/56906/pecota-2020-pitchers-prepared-to-disappoint/

I think it is a bit of a toss up, but Clase has more MLB experience and was part of the Corey Kluber deal so there are some good optics if he plays and performs. As such, I give the 2020 edge to Clase. Long-term, we prefer Karinchak. (Jesse Roche)
2020-01-31 13:00:00 (link to chat)General question, for dynasty leagues who has the greater value, bottom of the barrel closers (think M. Givens) or high end set up guys who probably won’t get many save opportunities (Think D. Betances or R. Pressley)?
(staycock78 from MEMPHIS, TN)		In standard formats, bottom of the barrel closers with a tenative hold on a job still have ever-so-slightly more value than high-end set-up guys stuck behind top-tier closers, absent the top young arms like James Karinchak and Andres Munoz. Of course, this is not a hard and fast rule, and it will vary player-by-player. For example, I prefer Gallegos/Knebel to Givens, but I prefer Givens to Betances/Pressly. (Jesse Roche)
2020-01-13 13:00:00 (link to chat)Who you got? James Karinchak or Andres Muñoz?
(Rollie FIngers from Oakland, CA)		Ooh that's a fun one. It's a broadly similar profile--Munoz wasn't list eligible on days of service--Just absolutely off you power stuff with concerns about short-term strike-throwing. This isn't as scientific as I'd like, but I slightly prefer Karinchak's breaker and while nothing in his delivery is low effort, he feels like a guy who can hold up better over the medium term throwing everything that hard. The general volatility of relievers wipes the margin out and if you picked Munoz, I couldn't really disagree. (AL Central Top 10 Chat)
2019-07-19 12:00:00 (link to chat)James Karinchak: Destroyer of Late Inning Bats?
(Mark from Greater Idaho)		Jarrett sure thought so in April. https://www.baseballprospectus.com/prospects/article/48838/guarding-the-lines-grading-on-a-fastball-and-a-curve/ (Jeffrey Paternostro)
2019-05-10 13:00:00 (link to chat)Any thoughts on James Karinchak? should i be excited? Stats are crazy but how talented is this guy and how major league ready?
(glworld from Hawaii)		He's striking out 75 percent of dudes he has faced so far, which I think is good.

Jarrett wrote a really good piece about scouting that featured Karinchak, that I'd recommend checking out. https://www.baseballprospectus.com/prospects/article/48838/guarding-the-lines-grading-on-a-fastball-and-a-curve/

The Indians bullpen (and rotation and lineup) is such a mess, I can't imagine we don't see him in the 2nd half. (Mark Barry)


BP Roundtables

No BP Roundtables have mentioned this guy.

 

PITCHf/x Pitcher Profile

A Collaboration between BrooksBaseball.net and Baseball Prospectus - Pitch classifications provided by Pitch Info LLC


Although he has not thrown an MLB pitch in 2024, James Karinchak threw 3,688 pitches that were tracked by the PITCHf/x system between 2019 and 2023, all of them occuring in Spring Training. In 2023, he relied primarily on his Fourseam Fastball (95mph) and Curve (83mph).