After much speculation, the Cleveland Indians have finally confirmed that starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco will indeed require Tommy John surgery to repair his injured right elbow. Carrasco will miss most if not all of the 2012 season.

Reports had surfaced this weekend stating that Carrasco needed surgery, but until Tuesday Cleveland was not willing to confirm the rumors. The Indians were exploring other possible options that would have allowed Carrasco to avoid such an extended stay on the disabled list.

While the club could have elected to simply scope and clean up Carrasco’s elbow, this would have only temporarily fixed the problem. Instead, the Indians decided Tommy John surgery was their best option.

The elbow has forced Carrasco to the disabled list two times this season, once back at the end of April and, more recently, at the beginning of August.

Carrasco has had an up and down season for the Indians. The right-hander’s ERA for the year sits at a fairly uninspiring mark of 4.62. But Carrasco has shown flashes throughout 2011 of what Cleveland hopes can become his consistent level of production.

Carrasco only maintained an ERA south of 4.80 during one month of the season. But, in that month Carrasco was pretty fantastic. Over his 6 June starts, Carrasco only gave up 9 earned runs in his 42.2 innings of work, good for a 1.90 ERA.

Cleveland hopes Carrasco can find a rehab path similar to the one Stephen Strasburg took. Strasburg returned to action last night for the Nationals after undergoing similar surgery at the end of the 2010 season.

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