Notes: Gose reassigned; Franmil 'fine'

CLEVELAND – The Indians took their first stride toward cutting their Summer Camp roster down to 30 players. On Wednesday, Indians manager Terry Francona said he informed lefty reliever Anthony Gose that he had been reassigned to their alternate training site in Lake County. Of the Tribe’s 58 players in

CLEVELAND – The Indians took their first stride toward cutting their Summer Camp roster down to 30 players.

On Wednesday, Indians manager Terry Francona said he informed lefty reliever Anthony Gose that he had been reassigned to their alternate training site in Lake County. Of the Tribe’s 58 players in their 60-man player pool, 41 remain at Progressive Field.

“We explained to him that he will be moving over to the Lake County facility and that it’s simply that he needs reps,” Francona said. “We actually love the arm, we love the kid, we love the potential.”

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Gose appeared in 372 Major League games as an outfielder with Toronto and Detroit from 2012-16 and decided to convert to a pitcher in ’17. He split last season between Class A Advanced Lynchburg and Double-A Akron in his first year in the Indians’ organization, with a combined 2.48 ERA in 32 appearances.

He caught a lot of attention during Spring Training four months ago, hitting 100 mph on the radar gun with his heater, and he sat around 96-98 mph in his Cactus League appearances. Because of his limited experience as a pitcher, the Tribe was expecting him to benefit from getting repetitions in the Minor Leagues this year to build up for his future in the big league bullpen. But when the coronavirus outbreak shut baseball down, it put Gose in a challenging position to be able to make an impact in the Majors in 2020.

“This has been a really difficult and, in my opinion, unfair to him, last three months,” Francona said. “And I don’t mean unfair as far as us treating him. Of all the guys we’ve had in our camp, if anybody needed reps, it was him, and that got taken away. So it slowed his development a little bit, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to get [to the Majors]. I think we all feel like he’s going to be a big contributor and when he does, it has a chance to be pretty exciting.”

Franmil back in the lineup
Franmil Reyes was kept out of Tuesday’s intrasquad lineup with back pain after limping off the field on Monday following an awkward slide. He was able to finish the game Monday night, serving as the team’s designated hitter, but he was too sore to play on Tuesday. He was penciled back in the lineup on Wednesday.

“He actually feels pretty good,” Francona said. “I think he wants to make sure he feels really good before he gets in there in a game that doesn’t count. We’ve got him at DH. If you see him in there, you know he’s fine.”

Pérez benefiting from offseason surgery
Roberto Pérez is coming off of a Gold Glove-winning season, when he did not allow a passed ball in all of his 993 2/3 innings. He also hit a career-high 24 homers in his first season as the Tribe’s starting catcher. Despite his success, Pérez played through tremendous pain in his right ankle, which prompted surgery to remove bone spurs in the offseason. Since the start of Summer Camp, he said he’s been able to notice a difference in how well he feels while playing.

“We’re sitting in the dugout, and he said, ‘I really feel good,’” Francona said. “The night before he had gotten down the line pretty good and I said, ‘Berto, it’s noticeable. It really is.’ And it’s nice to see him smiling and feeling good because I think last year there were a lot of games that were really tough for him to play in and he played. And he did a good job. But I think he was pretty miserable at times.”