Before the 2023 baseball season started, we thought the Cleveland Guardians would repeat as American League Central Division champions. However, we did acknowledge that because last year’s squad had so many young players, it would be difficult to project how they would perform this season.
They simply didn’t have a track record.
Last season, the Guards finished sixth in the league in runs scored, this year, they are tied for 14th in runs per game with Detroit. Their bullpen has been giving up long balls by the bushel. This past weekend against the Mets, the relievers surrendered three more gopher balls to run the total to 21 on the season.
The entire staff has allowed 49.
The Guardians have struggled the entire season except for the first week, and since then their record is 16-24. That’s a .400 winning percentage. However, they still sit just 3.5 games behind Minnesota in the division, so if things can turn around (soon would be good), this ballclub can still return to the post-season.
Bad bullpens usually mean bad teams. The good thing is some tweaking of the pecking order could turn everything around.
Emmanuel Clase takes the brunt of the criticism, and there is no question he is not the same guy he was at the end of last year. However, he has been immune to the home run ball that has plagued the ‘pen, allowing just one. His strikeout numbers are down, and the ground balls he is giving up are finding holes.
The bigger worry is James Karinchak, who has allowed six dingers in 19.1 innings. Trevor Stephan has allowed four in 19.2 frames. Eli Morgan and Nick Sandlin have allowed three each.
One of our basic rules about relievers? They can’t give up walks, and they can’t give up home runs.
We were concerned about Andres Gimenez, who had a tremendous season a year ago (837 OPS), because of his strikeout to walk ratio (112:34). He had an on base percentage of .371 because he was hit by a league-leading 25 pitches.
He still gets hit a lot (eight times to date), but seems susceptible to the high fastball this season, and he has just 11 extra-base hits in 2023, compared 46 a year ago. The pop simply hasn’t been there. Gimenez is still playing great defense and is just 24 years old, so he still should be on the rise as a player.
We were concerned about the signing of Mike Zunino, although we were more worried about his extreme lack of contact throughout his career. He had a reputation as a solid catcher though, and we know that’s what the Guardians emphasize at that position.
So far, there seems to be a disconnect between the pitching staff and Zunino. With Zunino, the Guardians’ pitchers have pitched to a 4.66 ERA. With Cam Gallagher behind the dish, that figure is 2.57.
Check out these numbers–
Gallagher Zunino
Shane Bieber: 1.64 ERA 3.83 ERA
Cal Quantrill: 2.89 ERA 4.73 ERA
Emmanuel Clase: 3.12 ERA 3.65 ERA
James Karinchak: 1.04 ERA 7.84 ERA
Those are four key pitchers for the Guardians who are having more success with Gallagher handling them. To be fair, rookies Tanner Bibee and Logan Allen seem to work well with Zunino, but still overall, there is quite a disparity between having Zunino, who seems to have a problem blocking pitches in the dirt, and Gallagher.
It’s one thing to trade the offense because you are getting exceptional defensive, like Cleveland received from Austin Hedges, but when you aren’t getting the defense, it becomes an issue.
We are coming up on Memorial Day and that means the season isn’t so young anymore. The Guardians haven’t built off a 92 win season liked they hoped. But they are still close enough to get where they want to be.
That doesn’t mean the organization should not be concerned though.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 