We have discussed the bullpen issues with the Cleveland Guardians recently, and the club did make a move the other day, calling up Franco Aleman, who had allowed just three hits and four walks at AAA Columbus while striking out 18 in 12 innings.
He replaces Connor Brogdon, who gave up five homers in 15.1 innings with the Guardians after allowing 11 in 47 IP with the Angels a year ago, posting a 5.55 ERA with the Halos. If you have visited this site before, you know we believe there are two things a reliever can’t do: Give up homers and walk people.
There is another concern about the Guards’ pitching that isn’t getting a lot of attention, mostly because the team is still winning. But the starting pitching has to start eating up some innings.
Currently, Steven Vogt gets that from one starter, his ace Gavin Williams. In Williams’ eight starts, he has pitched seven innings three times and six frames twice. That latter figure should be the requirement for a starter, that way, the bullpen, which we have pointed out isn’t very good, only have to cover nine outs.
Rookie Parker Messick threw eight innings, the most by any starter this year, in his near no hitter against Baltimore, and prior to that did go six in two of his starts. But since the Orioles’ game, in which he made 112 pitches (and we would have let him go that long too, not a second guess), the longest he’s went in a game is 5.2 innings and frankly, has looked like he ran out of gas in the sixth of his last three starts.
Opening Day starter Tanner Bibee’s longest outing was throwing six innings three times, and in half of his starts, he has gone less than five innings.
Besides Slade Cecconi’s ineffectiveness so far, he has a 6.15 ERA, he’s another starter who hasn’t supplied a lot of length. He’s completed six innings just once, while getting knocked out before the fifth twice.
Then we have the curious case of Joey Cantillo, who the organization has been very conservative with. It makes us wonder if he’s having a bit of an arm problem. The southpaw has one start where he went six innings, the last of three starts where he pitched into the sixth.
Since that start, he’s been on a very short leash.
In his last two starts, he has been pulled despite throwing 69 and 70 pitches in a game, and in the latter, he had allowed just one run in five innings against the Royals. He has great stuff, but one reason he generally doesn’t go deep into games is because he has some control issues. He’s walked at least two in all but one start in 2026.
It will be interesting to see how he is handled in his next outing.
Again, the lack of length from the starter’s taxes an already ineffective bullpen. Really, Vogt has only two reliable arms out there in Erik Sabrowski and Cade Smith. Hopefully, Aleman can provide a third, and Colin Holderman looks good since coming back from AAA.
Does anyone really want to see Matt Festa and/or Tim Herrin in a close game in the 6th or 7th innings?
The rotation has to get more outs or the bullpen will be on fumes as the season goes on. And it’s not like there is depth in the high minors.
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