Cleveland placed RHP Joey Dawley on the disabled list on June 8th. Dawley left his June 5th start at Anaheim in the fifth inning due to discomfort in his elbow. Tests revealed only minor muscle strains in the area around his elbow, so the Indians do not view this injury as a serious problem. While Cleveland has not announced a timetable for his rehab, I suspect he will begin playing catch soon, progressing towards a return sometime around the All-Star Break provided he does not encounter any setbacks.

Kansas City designated Dawley for assignment in mid-May in order to create a place on their 40-man roster for Wilton Guerrero. The Indians snatched Dawley off waivers and assigned the 32-year-old to AAA Buffalo. However, Dawley only made one start at AAA before Cleveland promoted him to the majors on May 29th, because the Indians were not satisfied with Chad Durbin as a replacement for Jeff D'Amico in the rotation. Dawley made one disappointing start and one okay start before hitting the DL, so he will not necessarily return to the rotation as soon as he's healthy. In order to make room for Dawley on the 25-man roster, Cleveland designated Durbin for assignment. Durbin subsequently cleared waivers and accepted an assignment to AAA.

D'Amico left his May 10th start in Boston in the third inning due a problem with his back. The back problem evidently originated in spring training and gradually grew worse over the course of the season. While he attempted a rehab start in late May, discomfort led him to delay additional outings until after further resting his strained back. For the first time since that setback, the 28-year-old made a rehab start late last week. He's set to make another start today and should be ready to rejoin the team by the end of the month. D'Amico basically lost his rotation spot due to his ineffectiveness before revealing he was injured, but I suspect the Indians will be ready to give him another opportunity by the time he's healthy.