Otero gives Tribe reliable arm in bullpen

BOSTON — There are such things as fluke seasons. After examining Dan Otero’s performance last season, the Indians decided that was exactly what the reliever experienced, leading the Indians to acquire him via a trade in the offseason.

“I’m not saying it’s bad luck or good luck,” Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway said, “but he did all the right things last year to have success. It just didn’t happen for him. That’s one of the reasons we wanted to get him. We knew it was going to come back around and even out.”

So far, Otero has backed up that belief for the Tribe.

Otero has provided Cleveland with another solid relief arm, helping chew up some innings to reduce the workload for back-end arms like Cody Allen, Bryan Shaw and Zach McAllister. Heading into this weekend’s series in Boston, Otero had a 1.20 ERA in 13 appearances, in which he struck out 11, walked three and held opposing hitters to a .224 batting average.

There has not been a drastic change in how Otero has pitched, though. The velocity on his various offerings is right in line with where it has been for the past few years. Last season, Otero had a 6.75 ERA in 41 games for the A’s, but most of his peripheral numbers — contact rate, ball-play rate and strike rate, among others — were similar to his previous …

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