At the end of last season, the Cleveland Guardians knew if they had a lead after six innings, the game was effectively over. Their bullpen was dominant, led by closer Emmanuel Clase. Trevor Stephan and James Karinchak combined to take care of the seventh and eighth, and Terry Francona had Sam Hentges, Enyel De Los Santos, and Nick Sandlin if needed to bridge from the starter to the set up men and closer.
It is also said the most volatile part of any team is the relief pitching, and just because it happened a year ago doesn’t mean it will happen again.
It’s still early, so Francona and Carl Willis are still trying to decide how to use some of the pieces of the ‘pen and integrate a couple of new hurlers into the mix.
Last season, Cleveland relievers threw the fifth least innings of any bullpen, the third least in the American League behind only Houston and Seattle. The non-starters pitched 37.7% of the innings played by the Guardians.
So far this season, that number is up to 43%. There are several reasons for the high total, and one of them is the Guards have played four extra-inning games to date, which is 25% of their schedule.
Another reason is right now, Cleveland has two inexperienced starting pitchers in the rotation. Hunter Gaddis has made three starts and pitched into the sixth inning just once, while Peyton Battenfield made his first career start last week and threw just 4-2/3 frames.
Add in Zach Plesac’s one inning outing in his season debut, and Cal Quantrill getting into the sixth for the first time in three starts in his last outing, and the relievers have had to soak up a lot of the workload.
We have always maintained there are two things a relief pitcher cannot do: Walk people and give up home runs. Cleveland pitchers in total have walked 44 batters in 2023, 25 of them have come from the bullpen.
Clase, who walked just 10 hitters all last season, has already issued four in nine innings this season. De Los Santos has issued four free passes in ’23, after allowing only 17 all of 2022.
The home run numbers are similar. Guardians’ hurlers have allowed only 14 homers this season, a total that ranks tied for 5th in the AL for the fewest coughed up. Unfortunately, the relievers have allowed eight of the blasts, with Sandlin and rookie Tim Herrin each giving up a pair.
We think De Los Santos should be the secondary set up man if the normal three who close out games (Clase, Karinchak, and Stephan) are unavailable because any of them have worked two days in a row. We have the most confidence in him out of everyone else.
Sandlin still falls behind too many hitters and Herrin is a rookie, but he does have electric stuff.
Another thing that magnifies the results of the bullpen is that the Guardians have only won one game this year by more than two runs, the 9-4 victory against Seattle on the second day of the season. There isn’t much room for error for a guy like Herrin to work with.
It takes time to develop a bullpen and having all the close games means the growing pains that go along with it get closer looks.
In the meantime, mixing in a few 6-1 or 7-2 victories would really help the principal relievers get some needed rest.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 