Fan favorite pitcher leaves Guardians for overseas opportunity at worst possible time

Last week, the Cleveland Guardians released pitcher Pedro Avila from Triple-A Columbus. At the time, it was tough to know what to make of the move considering the same thing happened earlier in the year only for Avila to end up signing another minor league deal with the Guardians. 

But that isn't the case this time. On Wednesday, Avila officially signed a contract with the SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization. 

While Avila hadn’t been setting the world on fire in Columbus, his departure still stings a bit considering the Guardians don’t have a ton of pitching depth right now, and he stood out as an obvious “break-glass-in-case-of-emergancy” option. 

Guardians pitcher Pedro Avila is headed to Japan

Avila burst onto the scene for the Guardians in 2024 when he had a 3.25 ERA in 74 2/3 innings while pitching in a longman role. His stats didn’t jump off the page and most of his work came in one of the most thankless roles in baseball, but he was able to save the Guardians’ bullpen time after time. 

He even got a chance to get some work in the postseason, and ended up working four scoreless innings against the Yankees in the ALCS. 

He started his career with the Padres, where he had a 3.77 ERA in 71 2/3 innings across parts of five seasons.

That action was the last time we saw him on a big league mound. The Guardians designated him for assignment after that 2024 season, and he ended up spending 2025 with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in Nippon Professional Baseball, where he had a 4.04 ERA. 

That performance was good enough for the Guardians to decide to reunite with him on a minor league contract. He had been working out of the rotation at Triple-A Columbus, and had a 7.50 ERA in 60 innings. 

The mere fact that he would’ve been a legitimate option for the Guardians’ rotation should they have suffered some kind of injury speaks volumes about Cleveland’s pitching depth. 

The Guardians’ rotation depth suffered a huge blow last month when Khal Stephen suffered an elbow injury that will require him to go under the knife, but there wasn’t much to write home about even before that. 

Now that thin depth is even thinner thanks to Avila’s departure, which means Logan Allen, Austin Peterson or Yorman Gómez could be called upon if the Guardians’ rotation suffers an injury. 

The good news for the Guardians is that their rotation has been both solid and durable this season. Not only do they have a staff ERA of 3.76, but they’re also the only team in baseball to use the same five starters all season. 

Wednesday’s move guaranteed there’s no chance Avila will be a part of that picture this season.

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