We are not a psychologist or even an amateur one, but it seems like the people connected with the Cleveland Guardians are deflecting.
We have heard over the past few days that the reasons the Guards have struggled this season are the injuries to the starting rotation and the overall youth of the roster.
We respectfully say those are the easy reasons to point at, but we don’t believe they are true.
First, let’s look at the rotation. Yes, Cleveland is down three starters right now. Triston McKenzie has pretty much been out all season, making just two starts. Cal Quantrill, who soaked up a ton of innings a year ago, is out with a shoulder issue, and has missed roughly seven starts.
Shane Bieber is out with a forearm/elbow issue and has missed his last two starts, and Aaron Civale who is back now, but had to be replaced for about eight turns through the rotation earlier this season.
Blaming this for the Guardians inconsistent play would be valid if the pitchers who replaced the injured starters were not doing the job.
Here are the statistics for the primary starters who have filled in for those who have missed time on the injured list:
Tanner Bibee: 89.2 IP, 3.11 ERA, 91Ks, 31 BB in 16 starts
Logan Allen: 80.1 IP, 3.70 ERA, 80Ks, 28 BB in 15 starts
Gavin Williams: 33.2 IP, 3.74 ERA, 26Ks, 15 BB in 6 starts
Peyton Battenfield (as a starter): 32.2 IP, 4.68 ERA, 25 Ks, 8 BB in 6 starts
While perhaps Bieber and McKenzie might have done better, unless they were having a Cy Young type of year, it wouldn’t be greatly improved.
No, the pitching woes have more to do with the failure of the bullpen, particularly in the 8th inning, where the Guardians have struggled to get the game to Emmanuel Clase. Most of the relievers haven’t pitched as well as they did in 2022, which is what happens often to bullpens.
As for the youth of the team, the most disappointing members of the current roster in terms of offense were both veterans, Myles Straw and the recently dealt Amed Rosario. The only rookies the Guards have really used in high volume this season are Will Brennan and Bo Naylor.
We wish Brennan would get better plate discipline (40 Ks, 10 walks), but most fans would rather see Brennan move to centerfield in place of Straw. As for Naylor, the reason he was brought up was the terrible play of free agent Mike Zunino, and the rookie catcher has already hit one more homer and drove in as many runs as Zunino.
Straw is a great defender, but he and Rosario are among the worst offensive players in the game. And if the Guardians wanted to improve their run scoring ability, it would seem the easiest way to do it would be to change the roles of these two players.
There is no question the Guardians have been disappointing to date in 2023 coming off a division title last year. It seems like the organization is trying to put the blame in other places.
We are curious as to why.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 
You come up with alibis when you don’t want to admit you made bad decisions. And they have made many the past few seasons. It appears the front office and many fans over valued the prospects at the top of the pipeline, even though most only had 45 FV grades. The FA signings of Bell and Zunino have turned out badly. The team targeted Straw as a long-term CF through trade and then a contract extension and unfortunately he is more suited to a 4th or 5th OF role. After initially not being sold on Gonzalez because of his “swing first” profile, they seemed to think he was a unicorn based on last year’s MLB success. These decisions cascaded into other areas – they didn’t think they needed to go get more power and consolidated their OF prospects deciding Brennan was the one to keep prematurely They also never looked for a veteran reliever.