Alex Cobb experience was a dud, but Guardians were right to take a chance

There are times when a team trades for a player, and everything goes right. And then there are the other times when anything could go wrong does go wrong. Unfortunately for the Cleveland Guardians and Alex Cobb, their experience was that of the latter group.

Having undergone offseason hip surgery, Cobb had yet to pitch a single major league inning when he was acquired by the Guardians at the MLB Trade Deadline. This was a move that was risky, with a potentially high reward should things work out. The problem was Cobb could never really get off the ground upon his arrival in Cleveland. From a lackluster debut to a fractured fingernail to a blister, Cobb was the living embodiment of Murphy's Law in real-time. Circumstances nor situation did not matter, the baseball gods seemingly had something against Cobb in a Guardians uniform in 2024.

Everyone was very aware of the level of risk involved with Cobb. A then 36-year-old working his way back to form is never a scenario that is going to guarantee positive results. While his final two regular season starts were much better than his debut (one run allowed on five hits in 11.2 innings with nine strikeouts and two walks), the postseason was not as kind. Cobb allowed five runs on eight hits with four walked batters and five strikeouts in 5.2 innings across two starts, the second of which resulted in Cobb being removed from the game and subsequently Cleveland's ALCS roster due to injury.

Overall, calling the Alex Cobb era in Cleveland a dud seems quite fitting. Everyone was hoping for so much more than what came of it, and the experience at the end was incredibly underwhelming. But when it comes to evaluating the organization's thought process and the state of their rotation at the time, taking a chance on Cobb, even though the possibility of things going awry was quite high, was then and is still now the right decision. Sometimes, you get the short end of the stick when playing the low-risk, high-reward game, and that just so happens to be what the Guardians got with Cobb.