This story was excerpted from Tim Stebbins’ Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
CLEVELAND -- With good performance and even better health, the Guardians’ starting rotation has been their backbone this season. They would like to keep it that way.
The Guardians entered Friday ranked seventh in MLB with a 3.72 rotation ERA. Nearly all of that production has been compiled by their season-opening staff of Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, Joey Cantillo, Slade Cecconi and Parker Messick.
That quintet’s steadiness and durability has been crucial for the Guardians, who are vying to win the AL Central title for a third consecutive year. Cleveland knows its rotation's health is paramount as we approach the stretch run.
“We talk in-game, during games, pregame about workloads, about not only today, but what's still ahead of us,” pitching coach Carl Willis said recently. “Out of respect to what's in front of us and keeping what right now we feel are our best five available to go out and give us an opportunity to win each and every day, that has to be the priority.
“The work and the communication the players provide us, the [pitching] staff and the medical staff, that's the key.”
Before Logan Allen started Game 2 of a doubleheader against the Pirates on Saturday, Cleveland was the only MLB team to use just five starters this season. Of their 104 games, 103 have been started by Bibee, Williams, Cantillo, Cecconi or Messick.
The doubleheader was part of the Guardians’ stretch of playing on 13 consecutive days following the All-Star break. The break provided a reprieve from the demands of the season. Going forward, Cleveland could find moments to move things around manually with the big picture in mind.
The Guardians have a scheduled off-day each week the rest of the season. They could find an avenue to manipulate the rotation order if they want to get any of their starters extra rest.
“We'll have some opportunities here over the next couple of months, and you'll probably see us reshuffle the deck, so to speak, with our starters,” Willis said. “The two primary focuses would be, obviously we look at the matchups, but also to look at the rest.”
The latter could apply to any of the five guys, but certainly Messick and Cantillo. The lefties are in their first full seasons as big league starters. Both are on pace to set a new career high in innings pitched this year.
Messick (who has a 2.68 ERA) has thrown 117 2/3 innings over 20 starts. His career high is 138 1/3 innings, between Triple-A and the Majors last year. Cantillo (who has a 3.74 ERA) has thrown 106 innings over 21 starts. His career high is 119 1/3 innings, set between Double-A and Triple-A in 2023.
“They're going to eclipse their innings highs,” Willis said, “and we just have to be aware of it because starting pitching is so important, and we've got five guys that are performing. We need to keep them available to take the baseball when we need them to.”
The rotation’s on-field steadiness aside, the Guardians aren’t brimming with big league-ready options. Their depth is thin behind Allen. The only other starters on their 40-man roster are right-handers Yorman Gómez and Austin Peterson, both of whom are with Triple-A Columbus and who have yet to make their MLB debuts.
The Guardians have had a remarkable streak of health. Maintaining it is paramount.
Getting any of the starters extra rest when the schedule allows could be beneficial. That isn’t the only way the Guardians can remain on top of their workloads. Willis recalled how Williams perhaps could have pitched an extra inning in first start out of the All-Star break.
Williams threw 84 pitches (65 strikes) over six innings in Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader vs. Pittsburgh. He struck out 11 batters and issued no walks. He allowed five runs, but three came on home runs. He wasn’t laboring through innings. Cleveland had a rested bullpen, and it opted to turn things over.
“The second half, we don't want to push people, but we're also not limiting,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “It's judging game by game how it's going, what type of pitches are they throwing, if they've throw a lot of high leverage pitches. It’s no different than how we do it throughout the year.”
But it could loom largest over the next two months.