In baseball, there is an adage that you cannot have enough pitching. Terry Francona offers a corollary when he says when you think you have enough pitching, you go out and get some more.
In the next week or so, we will find out what the Cleveland Guardians will do when starting pitchers Triston McKenzie and Aaron Civale come off the injured list.
Civale made two starts at the beginning of the season, while McKenzie was injured at the end of training camp and has been out the entire season.
The Guards weathered the storm with the help of their so called “pitching factory”. They used Hunter Gaddis, who was going to make the Opening Day roster out of the bullpen as a starter to replace McKenzie, and when Civale went down, they went with Peyton Battenfield first, and then went to Logan Allen and Tanner Bibee, when Gaddis struggled.
Battenfield went 0-5 with a 5.19 ERA before he went on the IL with should soreness, but Allen and Bibee seem to have earned the right to stay on the big league roster.
Allen, a lefty, has made seven starts covering 39.2 innings and posted an ERA of 2.72 striking out 43 batters, walking 11, and allowing 39 hits. He really has had just one bad start, that vs. the Angels, who peppered him with eight hits in 4+ frames.
Otherwise, he has given his team a chance to win in every other start.
If possible, Bibee has been even better, going 1-1 with a 2.88 ERA in his six starts, pitching 34-1/3 innings, allowing 28 hits and fanning 34 batters, walking eight. He too had a struggle in just one of his outings, a 3-2/3 inning effort vs. Detroit where he allowed seven hits and four runs.
It is safe to assume both have earned their place on the varsity roster, but remember, the organziation will likely want to manage the innings for both as the season goes on.
Both pitched 132 innings a year ago, their most since turning professional. Conventional wisdom would say the brass will want to keep them around 150-155 this season. Adding 20 innings per season is kind of the mark in trying to avoid arm issues.
There is one open spot in the rotation, the one Gaddis currently holds, so according to reports, Civale will take the next turn against Minnesota on Friday night.
As for McKenzie, do the Guardians go with a six man rotation to limit the innings for Allen and Bibee? Or could have move Cal Quantrill back to the bullpen to help a relief corps that is searching for outs.
Right now, McKenzie is scheduled to pitch the series finale in the Twin Cities this weekend.
The problem with the Quantrill move is once you do it, it would be difficult to bring him back to the rotation if the two rookies start to falter.
Another option would be a modified six man rotation is which Shane Bieber pitches with his preferred fifth day, and the others worked off of that.
Allen could have made the decision a bit easier, but he threw an absolute gem yesterday, allowing just three hits and whiffing 10 in seven shutout frames.
We will see what Terry Francona and the front office decides later in the week.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 