Pitcher Says Leukemia Battle 'Is Going to Make Me Stronger'

Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco announced Friday that he has leukemia. "At the end of May, they shut me down because they saw something wrong with my blood," he told a Dominican Republic TV station, per USA Today. Additional blood tests showed the problem to be leukemia. "I never thought that I'd have something like this," Carrasco said in a video on the Indians' Twitter page, adding, "But you never know what's going on inside your body." Leukemia is a cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow; Carrasco didn't say which form he has.

The Indians placed Carrasco, 32, on the injured list on June 5, per ESPN, and said he was exploring treatment options for a blood disorder that they didn't specify. Carrasco said that the condition is "under control" and that he plans to return to the team at the end of July. He won 17 games last season for the Indians. In 2017, Carrasco finished fourth in the American League voting for the Cy Young Award. This season, he was 4-6 with a 4.98 ERA when he went on the injured list. In the video posted Saturday, Carrasco, who's from Venezuela, tells the AP that he has a lot of help from family and teammates. "This is going to make me stronger than I've ever been," he said. (More leukemia stories.)