CLEVELAND -- All roads lead to Cade Smith.
If the Guardians are going to pull this off, it’s going to end with him. In the postseason, most Guardians games do.
Smith has pitched in 18 of the Guardians’ 20 postseason games since the start of 2024. He’s the only pitcher in postseason history to appear in 18 or more of a team's games in a 20-game span. He pitched in all five games of the American League Division Series win over the White Sox and Game 1 of this AL Championship Series against the Rays. With a rare night off in Game 2 and Wednesday’s off-day, Smith is practically coming off a vacation.
This is all by design. It doesn’t take a brilliant front office to come up with the idea of pitching your elite closer as often as possible, but Smith needs to prepare for this mentally as much as physically.
“We talked before the playoffs even started,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “He said, ‘Whenever you need me, I'll be ready in whatever role you need me.’ He wants to help us win games. I probably would like for him to not pitch in a game, but at the same time it's probably not going to work out that way.”
This postseason, Smith has allowed just one run on two hits over his 7 2/3 innings and struck out 11. Last year, Blue Jays closer Louis Varland set a postseason record with 15 appearances in their 18-game run to Game 7 of the World Series. Smith would need a deep Guardians run to take a shot at that, but it’s the exact trajectory he’s on.
This requires more than just his incredible talent. It requires tight ballgames, trust from a manager and a stubborn refusal to take his foot off the gas.
“This is the postseason. This is do or die,” Smith said. “Every game matters. It's the embodiment of that statement that it's all hands on deck.”
Smith doesn’t frame himself as the hero here, just one small piece of a broader team identity. At the very core of the Guardians’ identity is an unselfish approach to the game, and Smith’s constant availability is just his version of that.
“We have every single guy in there bought in,” Smith said. “Whether that means that they're being taken out of the lineup or put in, taken out of the game or put into the game, that they're ready to do whatever is asked so that we can win as a team. So things like that, starters coming down to help out the bullpen, that speaks to that same mentality, that what matters is that we win this game and then we'll worry about the next game after.”
Smith lives on the elite tier of big league closers now. He saved 41 games for the Guardians this season after moving into the closer’s role full-time, striking out 107 batters over 74 innings. The Guardians’ pitching development is one of their superpowers, but that attention too often falls on their starters, led by Game 3 starter Gavin Williams and Rookie of the Year candidate Parker Messick. Smith is one of their biggest success stories, though – a non-drafted signing after the shortened 2020 Draft. Looking back on it, president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti lights up when he talks about Smith’s journey.
“I'd be lying if I said we knew it would progress exactly like this,” Antonetti said. “But if I knew then what I know about Cade now, there's not another human being I would bet on more to make that a reality than Cade.”
There’s no path to the World Series now that doesn’t involve Smith pitching nearly every night. The same goes for Hunter Gaddis, who also pitched in all five ALDS games along with Game 1 of the ALCS. He’s given the Guardians 5 1/3 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts in front of Smith.
It’s easy to see how the Guardians can shorten some games here. The Rays have a solid bullpen, too, led by a breakout star in closer Bryan Baker, but the Guardians have to like their chances if the game is tied in the seventh inning. After their Game 1 win at Tropicana Field, Patrick Bailey called this bullpen the best one in baseball, and the rest of this roster is echoing him.
“They're unbelievable,” Williams said. “Just being able to do what they do day in and day out, I know it's very taxing on them. Honestly, props to them. I don't know how they do it as much as they do.”
All that’s left is to keep doing it.
Smith wants the ball and Vogt wants to give it to him. Good things happen when Smith is on the mound, and if the Guardians are going to take a run at snapping their 78-year World Series drought, he’ll be the man they turn to -- over and over -- to finish the job.