The Guardians announced that right-hander Franco Aleman “submitted to a left hip inguinal hernia repair” yesterday. The club announced his recovery timeline as four to six weeks, so he’ll be injured through the remainder of spring training.
Aleman, 25 in June, isn’t a household name but he is on Cleveland’s 40-man roster. They added him in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. A tenth-round pick from 2021, he worked both as a starter and a reliever in 2022 with a 6.31 earned run average. He worked exclusively out of the bullpen over the past two seasons with great results, logging 77 2/3 innings with a 2.78 ERA. He struck out 36.2% of batters faced with an 8.6% walk rate.
The righty spent last year at Triple-A. Since he’s now on the 40-man, a major league debut at any point in 2025 is possible. That now seems unlikely occur in the initial weeks of the season, as the club will presumably want to give him some time to catch up to everyone else after this layoff.
That will cut into the club’s bullpen depth for the start of the 2025 campaign, though that’s unlikely to be a significant concern for now. Cleveland had the best bullpen in the majors in 2024 and most of that group is back this year. Unless a few other injuries pop up in the relief mix, they’ll be well positioned to proceed while Aleman is out of action.