Cade Smith has shown why he should be the Guardians closer next season 

Take yourself back to late July. The Guardians were hanging on to a postseason spot. Everyone was wondering if Steven Kwan would end up elsewhere at the end of the season. There was still some hype around the Browns. 

And the back end of the Guardians’ bullpen looked like a question mark. They were hit with an uppercut to the jaw just days before the trade deadline when Major League Baseball announced that Emmanuel Clase had been suspended as a part of a gambling investigation. 

Although it looked like the Guardians were planning on trading Clase at the trade deadline, it would be one thing for them to give him away and get something in return. 

Instead they were forced to adapt to a new life without arguably the best closer in baseball while not getting anything in return for him.

And after a rocky first couple weeks, Cade Smith has filled in valiantly for Clase and seems poised to open next year as the team’s full-time closer. 

Smith has a 3.00 ERA in 72 innings this year, and has posted a 2.96 ERA with 13 saves in 27 1/3 innings since becoming the team’s full-time closer. Smith’s been worth 1.1 fWAR since he took over as the team’s full-time closer, which is the highest mark in baseball among relievers in that time frame. 

Cade Smith has been one of the best relievers in baseball since becoming the Guardians’ closer 

Even if Smith’s counting stats aren’t great, his advanced stats are still in line with his breakout 2024 campaign. He’s in the 97th percentile in strikeout rate and the 95th percentile in whiff rate, and his expected ERA of 2.46 is in the 98th percentile. 

Smith struggled in his first outing as closer when he blew a game against the lowly Rockies, he’s settled in and is looking more like the version of him that earned Cy Young votes last year. 

Smith showing that he can be the closer next season also gives the Guardians more bandwidth to be able to figure out how to build the bullpen behind Smith. 

Hunter Gaddis has moved into Smith’s eighth inning role and will be back next year, as will Nic Enright, Eric Sabrowski and Andrew Walters. But there are still some questions to be answered. Will Jakob Junis be back after entering free agency? What should they do with Tim Herrin and Matt Festa? Who will be this offseason’s veteran addition? 

The Guardians’ bullpen has had the second-best bullpen ERA since Clase went down, and Smith’s presence at the back of the bullpen has been a big reason for that. That, coupled with a near-historic performance from the team’s starters, have vaulted the Guardians into the thick of the postseason picture. 

And, at the end of the day, most of that success comes back to what Smith has done.