James Karinchak chewed, trimmed, and yelled his way into a great rookie campaign

Based solely on “Gets Us” metric, there may be no finer player to come through the Cleveland organization than James Karinchak.

Loaded with Major League references? Yeah, I think number 99 has got that.

For better or worse, his season also resembled the ups and downs of your typical Cleveland season.

Coming into this season, expectations were sky high for Karinchak. After a 2019 season in which he maintained greater than 20 K/9 across every level of the minors he pitched in and then allowed just two baserunners and struck out eight of the 22 batters he faced in a late-season big league cameo, the weight of the fanbase’s hopes were upon the 24-year-old righty.