Tag: connor brogdon

Watching The Guardians’ Bullpen

A potential problem for the Cleveland Guardians raised its ugly head last week when the bullpen had a couple of meltdowns, blowing a three-run lead against St. Louis, and then losing a four-run lead against the Orioles on Friday night.

The last two seasons, the relief corps was perhaps the strength of the team, and even with the loss of Emmanuel Clase, it was great down the stretch a year ago, led by Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, and Erik Sabrowski.

But the bullpen is always the most volatile part of any baseball team, and even if you think you have it covered, it can always go the other way. That’s just baseball.

In the off-season, the Cleveland front office tried to add to the group, signing Shawn Armstrong, who had a solid year with Texas last season, finishing with a 2.31 ERA and fanning 74 hitters in 74 innings.

They also added Connor Brogdon (5.55 ERA for the Angels), Colin Holderman (7.01 ERA for Pittsburgh), and Codi Heuer, last effective in the majors with the Cubs in 2021. Obviously, they saw something they could work with that trio, and to be fair, they had poor seasons a year ago.

We always say the worst things a relief pitcher can do is walk people and give up home runs. And that’s exactly been the problem lately for the Cleveland firemen.

In the loss to the Cardinals, Sabrowski, who has been great all year, allowed a two-run homer to cut a three-run lead to just one. Then, in the ninth, an error opened the order, but a wild pitch by Smith moved the runner to second and he scored on a hit.

In the Baltimore game, Armstrong came in with a four-run lead and walked two hitters and hit another. After a sacrifice fly and a double to make it 4-3, Brogdon gave up a long ball and turned the game into a loss.

Look, every team has some games when they blow late leads, and maybe Steven Vogt’s squad got them out of the way in April. However, there are other warning signs.

Two relievers, Matt Festa and Armstrong have already allowed two home runs in less than 10 innings pitched for each pitcher, and Brogdon has given up three gopher balls. Overall, not counting Koby Allard, the bullpen has allowed 12 dingers in the team’s 24 games played. That’s way too many.

In terms of walks, Armstrong is the chief culprit to date with seven in 9.2 innings, but as effective as Sabrowski has generally been, he’s issued five free passes in 10.2 frames. In total, the ‘pen has walked 27 hitters this season.

Vogt already seems hesitant to use Tim Herrin in high leverage situations because of his inability to throw strikes. After a great ’24 season in which he fanned 68 and walked just 25 in 65.2 innings, last year, he walked 30 with 45 Ks in 42.2 innings and this year has walked four in five innings of work.

The skipper used Rule 5 pick Peyton Pallette on Sunday for two innings, and he did a good job. Maybe he gets bumped up in the food chain going forward.

Fortunately, there is some depth at AAA. Heuer has thrown seven scoreless innings in Columbus, and Holderman is there as well, albeit with a 10.80 ERA.

Franco Aleman has eight punchouts (three walks though) in 5.2 innings and Andrew Walters, who pitched with the Guardians in ’24 and briefly in ’25 before a lat injury should be close to being ready. And maybe the big club with take a look at Will Dion, a 26-year-old southpaw, who has thrown 11 innings in seven relief appearances, with 13 Ks and just four walks.

Hopefully, last week is a blip on the radar, but a contending team can’t let bullpen issues fester too long. Something to watch for Vogt and how the bullpen is used.

Spring Training Nears And Guardians Offense Is Still Subpar

As of today, spring training opens for the Cleveland Guardians in one month. The regular season is about nine weeks away. Yes, snow covers the ground in northeast Ohio, but in a few weeks, baseball will be in the news.

Actually, it is in the news for some franchises, as those teams have made moves to try to improve weaknesses from last season. Other franchises are making news by pushing the sport toward a work stoppage after the 2026 season. Yes, we are talking about you, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After the season, Steven Vogt talked about improving the bullpen and the offense. The front office has signed some bullpen arms, the most notable being Shawn Armstrong, but it looks like basically they are trying solve that issue with quantity, signing Colin Holderman, Connor Brogdon, and most recently Yorman Gomez.

We don’t necessarily disagree with that because bullpens are arguably the most volatile part of any team, and it is quite possible that by the end of the season, one of the mainstays of the Cleveland bullpen will be someone who isn’t on the radar right now.

But perhaps the bullpen won’t matter because the Guardians had the worst offense in the American League last season, and third worst in all of Major League Baseball, and simply haven’t done anything about it.

Yes, team president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff will tell you they are trying to provide a runway for the Guards’ top prospects, meaning Chase DeLauter, George Valera, and Travis Bazzana, and to a lesser point, C.J. Kayfus and Juan Brito.

And we will offer the usual opinion we have about this organization at times: Wishing and hoping is not a plan. It’s a great song by Dusty Springfield.

If the Guardians were a 90-loss team, going with the young players and giving them a long leash to see what they can do, should be the plan. But that’s not where they are, they are the two-time defending champions in the AL Central, and the goal, the plan, should be how do we go from being ousted in the League Championship Series in ’24 and in the Wild Card Series in ’25 to get to the World Series.

A particular area where the Guardians need help is right-handed hitting. As a team, they had a 647 OPS vs. left-handed pitching and their hitters from the right side against righties batted just .186 with a 545 OPS.

In short, they need a right-handed bat.

All of the young players mentioned earlier hit from the left side outside of Brito, who is a switch-hitter. The Guardians need someone to hit from the right side of the plate.

And what happens if DeLauter or Valera struggle when the season opens, if they even open the regular season with the team? The Guardians are notoriously conservative having young players open the year with the big club, choosing to keep them out of the cold weather.

So, as of right now, get ready to see the same group who struggled to score runs last season getting a lot of at bats.

Remember, the Guardians finished 88-74 last year. Based on their run differential, they should have been 80-82. They had luck on their side.

The best right-handed hitter Cleveland had a year ago was Gabriel Arias. Think about that and think about should the front office be satisfied with that.