Guardians bullpen struggles against White Sox shined new light on team’s lone trade deadline mistake

It didn’t take long for things to go from bad to worse for the Guardians’ bullpen on Sunday. 

After Cleveland’s bullpen lost Slade Cecconi to the injured list on Friday (and were forced to ride Franco Aleman for 44 pitches as a result), the Guardians got just one inning out of Sunday’s starter Joey Cantillo before the rains came and set off a two hour and 23 minute rain delay. 

When the clouds finally cleared, Cantillo was in the dugout, Tim Herrin was on the mound in the second inning and Cleveland’s taxed bullpen had eight innings to cover. 

What followed was a rough double whammy. Not only did the Guardians’ bullpen blow the lead in what became a back-breaking loss, but they were forced to use six relievers. 

Although Monday’s off day should help the Guardians mitigate how taxing Sunday’s game was, it did shine a bit of attention on the Guardians’ decision to not add a legitimate big league reliever at the trade deadline. 

The Guardians lack of bullpen additions could be the thing that keeps them out of the postseason

The Guardians did add one reliever at the bullpen in the form of Craig Yoho, but he gave Sunday’s game away via a game-tying double from Randal Grichuk followed by a three-home home run from Colson Montgomery. 

Yoho opened his Guardians tenure with two scoreless appearances, but he’s allowed seven runs across 1 1/3 innings in his last two appearances. Even if he may end up becoming a Cleveland bullpen staple on the back of his electric changeup, he still has some work to do. 

Outside of that, Cleveland’s lone bullpen “addition” consisted of signing Ryan Borucki to a minor league deal. Even though Borucki has pitched two scoreless innings at Triple-A Columbus, he’s not on the 40-man roster, so the Guardians will need to jump through some hoops to add him to the roster. 

It looked like Cecconi could also turn into a bullpen weapon thanks to his ability to pitch multiple innings, but he only managed to make two relief appearances before going on the 10-day injured list with arm fatigue that Stephen Vogt seemed to chalk up to Cecconi’s shift to the bullpen. 

Chris Antonetti and the Guardians front office did a great job adding to their lineup and rotation at the trade deadline, but their lack of bonafide bullpen reinforcements is standing out right now. 

The biggest thing they’re going to need to try to figure out now is the long relief picture. Will Dion had been filling out that role for the Guardians, but they traded him to the Nationals in their deal for Griffin.

That set up Cecconi’s move to a relief role, but his tenure in the bullpen lasted all of 48 hours. 

Aleman was the first person to answer the call with his 44 pitch outing on Friday (by far the most he’s thrown in a single big league outing), but he’s arguably more valuable as a single-inning reliever. 

Logan Allen, Yorman Gómez and Austin Peterson are three depth options in Triple-A, but Allen is the only one of those three with big league experience. All three have been working out of the rotation with Triple-A Columbus this year. 

While any bullpen addition may not have carried the same importance as the players the Guardians did go after, their lack of bullpen reinforcements could end up being the thing that tanks their season. 

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