Indians' Triston McKenzie: Will be activated Thursday

McKenzie (forearm) will be activated from the 7-day disabled list and make his first start for Double-A Akron on Thursday.

Expect the Indians to monitor McKenzie's pitch count carefully as he makes his Eastern League debut following a two-plus-month recovery from forearm soreness. The hard-throwing 21-year-old racked up 186 strikeouts at High-A Lynchburg in 2017 to rank second in all of the minors and should continue to pile up the whiffs at Double-A if he has truly made a full recovery from the forearm injury and shows no notable decline in his velocity.