Guardians have to consider bullpen remodel after creaky ALCS performance

For the past couple years, the Guardians bullpen has almost exclusively been built internally. Sure, there’s been a Shawn Armstrong here or a Jakob Junis there, but almost all of the key arms that Stephen Vogt has relied on in high leverage situations have been graduates of Cleveland’s pitching factory. 

It’s time to change that. 

Not a hugely drastic change that gets rid of everyone, but it seems clear that now is the time to deal away some of that homegrown talent in favor of making a bigger splash in the bullpen that Guardians fans are used to. 

And the easiest way for the Guardians to do that would be by trading Hunter Gaddis while he’s at the peak of his value. 

It's time for the Guardians to cut bait with Hunter Gaddis

We understand if the idea of trading Gaddis may seem a bit extreme given he’s been a staple in Cleveland’s bullpen for the past three seasons and is about to hit arbitration for the first time, but we’re at a point now where he’s been on the mound for the end of Guardians’ past three seasons. 

He was there in 2024 when Juan Soto mashed a go-ahead homer in the ALCS, he was there last season when the Tigers took a late lead in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series and he was there on Monday when Yandy Díaz padded the Rays lead in the ninth inning with a two run homer. 

His postseason shortcomings have gotten harder to ignore. 

Now, part of the reason why Gaddis has been on the mound for those moments is because he’s earned that trust via sparkling regular seasons. Blowing games late in the postseason is a bit of a double-edged sword for relievers. On one hand, you’re in that situation because of what you’ve done, but any failure in those moments is magnified because of the situation. 

Gaddis has posted a 2.50 ERA in 201 2/3 innings over the past three seasons since moving fully into the bullpen, but the Guardians have proven they’re among baseball’s best at unearthing relief arms from their system. 

Ironically, Gaddis is a great example of that (fifth round pick who started his career as a starter) as is Cade Smith, who went undrafted in 2020. Most of the Guardians’ top pitching prospects are starters (Austin Peterson, Justin Campbell and others), but no one expected Gaddis and Smith to be anything before they became something. 

They also have Erik Sabrowski and Daniel Espino, both of whom did well in high-leverage last year. 

Although this year’s free agency relief class isn’t anything impressive (much like the free agency class as a whole), that shouldn’t have a huge impact on the Guardians since they wouldn’t be swimming in the deep end no matter what the class looks like. 

Instead, they could try to go after some of the middle-ground options like Evan Phillips, Jojo Romero or Kevin Ginkel. 

That, coupled with a trade of Gadis, would help the Guardians rebuild their bullpen on the fly while getting some fresh blood in the back of the ‘pen.

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