As the Beatles once said, it was a “Long and Winding Road” for the Cleveland Guardians in 2024. They rolled to a 38-19 start through the end of May, and looked to be on a path to 100+ victories.
But starting in June, the offense sputtered and over the next three months, Steven Vogt’s squad went 39-40 in the three summer months, through August. And then when the Kansas City Royals were breathing down their backs, they turned it on going 13-7 to date in September.
In the past few years, the American League Central Division was baseball’s poor stepchild, the weakest division in the sport. However, this season, it looks like three teams will make the post-season party, and in the next few days, the Guards will clinch a bye right to the best-of-five Division Series, where they will have home field advantage.
The offense is too dependent on Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor, and prior to the All-Star break, Steven Kwan, although if Kyle Manzardo can maintain what he is doing through the playoffs, it would go a long way.
But the Guardians have depended on their bullpen all year long, led by the sports’ best closer in Emmanuel Clase, a Cy Young Award candidate. He likely will not win, but he probably will finish second.
When Cleveland won the division title in 2022, Clase was incredible, going 3-4 with 42 saves and a 1.36 ERA, allowing just 43 hits in 72.2 innings.
He’s been better this year, saving 46 games with a 0.63 ERA, allowing just 37 hits in 71.1 innings.
And he’s backed by a pair of relievers having equally dominant years in rookie Cade Smith (1.96 ERA, 100 strikeouts in 73.1 IP) and Hunter Gaddis (1.53 ERA, 39 hits allowed in 70.2 IP).
Fox analyst John Smoltz said a few months ago that when you play the Guardians, you are essentially playing a five inning game. That’s how good those relievers have been.
What’s even more incredible is that in the past few weeks, we’ve seen even more dominance, as Tim Herrin (1.90 ERA, 63 Ks in 61.1 IP) and now recently called up Andrew Walters, drafted just last year, who has provided five appearances and has yet to allow a hit.
Just this week, the Guardians have also had great outings from Eli Morgan in the extra inning win over Minnesota, and Erik Sabrowski, called up at the end of August and saved Friday’s win over St. Louis with 2.1 scoreless innings.
Could Vogt need just four innings from a starting pitcher in the playoffs? That will be interesting to watch. Remember, Joe Torre and Terry Francona revolutionized relief pitching usage in the post-season by asking their primary relievers to get one more out, go 1.1 IP instead of just three outs.
The emergence of Herrin and Walters could really shorten the game for Cleveland.
We feared all season the lack of innings provided by the starting rotation this season would take a toll on the relief corps by August and September. So far, the bullpen might be even better down the stretch because of Herrin, the additions of Walters and Sabrowski, and the way Morgan has pitched.
He had problems with the gopher ball before this season, allowing 19 dingers over the past two season, but this year, he’s taken care of that issue to date, giving up just two long balls.
This is a contrast from Nick Sandlin, who has allowed 12 homers this year and 24 over the past two campaigns. Could he lose his spot on the playoff roster because of it?
Congratulations to the Central Division champs! Since the wild card era started in 1995, they’ve won 12 division titles, an incredible run.
One of these years, they are going to cash in with a World Series win. Could the bullpen make that year this year?
Cleveland Sports Perspective 