Eno Sarris lauds young Guardians starter ahead of potential breakout season

Sometimes pitching stats can be a bit confusing. From ERA to to whiff rate and everything in between, it can be tough to just cut through the advanced stats and get a good definition of whether or not a guy just simply gets someone out. 

But sometimes those advanced stats can end up telling more of a story when it comes to a pitcher's arsenal. On Friday, The Athletic’s Eno Sarris put out a list highlighting some potential breakout young pitchers in MLB — and Joey Cantillo was right in the middle of that list. 

Joey Cantillo’s strong rise for the Guardians hasn’t gone unnoticed 

The parameters of Sarris’ list were pretty simple. To be included, you needed to be younger than 27, thrown under 300 pitches in your MLB career and have a strong out-pitch and okay command. Essentially you needed to be a young pitcher with some potential under the hood. 

And Cantillo falls into all those categories. Although he spent almost all of the 2025 season in the bigs with the Guardians, he still only has 134 big league innings under his belt (3.69 ERA). 

He also has a clear out-pitch in the form of his changeup, which generated a whiff rate of 49% last season while holding hitters to a .165 batting average against. 

That pitch, combined with his plus curveball, is one of the biggest reasons why Cantillo has such a high ceiling. 

But it’s not all gravy, as Sarris pointed out. Cantillo’s fastball averages just 91.7 miles per hour, which gives him a little less margin for error when trying to get hitters out. He also has struggled with injuries a bit throughout his career and has had spotty command, which is a bit alarming given his arsenal isn’t built around blowing people away. 

But even with that, we’ve seen how good Cantillo can be when he’s on. Last year he posted a 1.55 ERA with 28 strikeouts and just six walks in 29 innings of work en route to being named American League Rookie of the Month. 

That time period was highlighted by a start against the Royals on Sept. 9 when he threw eight shutout innings against the Royals. That start made him the first Guardians pitcher under the age of 26 to throw a scoreless start of 8+ innings since Triston McKenzie. 

All of that sets up what should be a breakout 2026 season for Cantillo. He seems destined to be a mainstay in the rotation after shuttling between the bullpen, starting rotation and Triple-A in ‘25, where he’ll provide a solid left-handed look after Tanner Bibee and Gavin Williams. 

He’s also out of options, so the Guardians won’t be able to send him down to Triple-A without exposing him to waivers. At the very least, that should earn him an opportunity to move to the bullpen should he struggle since there’s no way he’d clear waivers. 

The Guardians have a roster built around pitching success, and Cantillo is the latest team’s latest pitching success story in a generation full of them.