2 players Guardians fans have lost trust in, 2 who are becoming reliable

It’s no secret the Cleveland Guardians are rolling. And while their recent success has been led by household names like José Ramírez and Travis Bazzana, they’ve also had some more unheralded players rise the trust tree while some other ones have dipped a bit. 

Here’s a look at two Guardians who have earned a bit more trust along with two who have lost it. 

Guardians fans shouldn’t trust Tim Herrin

While Herrin’s inclusion on this may seem a bit confusing given he has a 1.65 ERA and has been the 11th most valuable Guardian by measure of bWAR, it seems like his success has been built on a house of cards. 

He’s still walking far too many batters (14.5% walk rate) and is on pace for a career-low strikeout rate of just 15.8%. It’s hard to see him sustaining any success with numbers like that. 

Herrin started the season with 12 2/3 scoreless innings, but he’s allowed three runs in his last 3 2/3 innings while walking three. Guardians manager Stephen Vogt called on him to protect a three-run lead in the seventh inning of Tuesday’s game against the Tigers and he promptly gave up a solo home run and needed to be pulled for Codi Heuer. 

Herrin holds a valuable place on the roster as a funky lefty reliever, but he shouldn’t be trusted just yet. 

Colin Holderman has become reliable for Guardians 

But one Guardians reliever who has clearly earned more trust is Holderman, who has allowed just one earned run in 15 innings since getting called up at the end of April. 

He’s evolved into a single-inning reliever after initially working as a longman, and just picked up back-to-back wins in relief in the first two games of the Guardians’ series against the Tigers. 

Holderman’s struck out more than 30% of the batters he’s faced this season while holding the opposite to a .201 batting average (88th percentile). 

The Guardians’ bullpen is finally coming into form after some early season struggles, and Holderman’s ascension has been a huge part of that. 

Guardians fans shouldn’t trust Steven Kwan 

Although Kwan has played a bit better since getting bumped down in the Guardians’ lineup, he still hasn’t done enough for us to fully trust him yet. He entered play on Friday with a .202/.330/.260 slashline in 212 at-bats. 

Kwan’s struggles have been one of the few negatives for the Guardians, and they took a good first step toward mitigating his negative impact by moving him out of the leadoff spot. But that still doesn’t change the fact that Kwan’s been a black hole in the lineup and has tanked most of his trade value. 

Coming into the season it seemed like there was a chance the Guardians would try to sell high on Kwan and his rising price tag ($7.73 million). Now it seems like they may be forced into holding onto him for his final arbitration-eligible season. 

Brayan Rocchio has become reliable for Guardians 

Rocchio’s been one of the most productive players at the bottom of the Guardians’ roster, as he’s second on the team with 27 RBI despite spending almost all of the season hitting out of the No. 9 spot. 

He’s been even better as of late, and entered the weekend hitting .471 with a homer, four RBI and two steals across the Guardians’ six-game winning streak. 

Having a productive Rocchio at the bottom of the lineup essentially gives the Guardians a second leadoff hitter who also gets an opportunity to hit with runners on base. How many teams in baseball can say they have a weapon like him in their lineup?

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