Guardians make no-brainer roster move with reliever Codi Heuer

While Guardians non-roster invitee Codi Heuer didn’t have the best spring showing with the Guardians, it’s clear the team liked what they saw from him. 

On Sunday, the Guardians added Heuer to their 40-man roster and optioned to Triple-A Columbus, per MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins. The move means that the Guardians would only need to remove a pitcher from the 26-man roster to add Heuer to their big league picture. 

Codi Heuer could end up making a big league impact for the Guardians in 2026 

Although the move means that Heuer is going to start the season in the minors (which would have likely happened even if the Guardians didn’t add him to their 40-man roster), it confirms the Guardians at least think highly enough of Heuer to use a valuable roster spot on him. 

As mentioned above, Heuer’s had a bit of a rough go of it in spring, as evidenced by his 9.00 ERA in eight innings of work. But he’s also racked up 11 strikeouts and thrown 18 pitches at 97+ miles per hour, which are more important than any spring stats. 

Velocity was the name of the game early in Heuer’s career when he posted a 1.52 ERA in 23 2/3 innings for the White Sox for 2020. He struggled at the start of 2021 and was traded to the Chicago Cubs midway through the season as a part of the Craig Kimbrel deal. 

His career was derailed over the next two seasons, however, as he missed all of 2022 due to Tommy John surgery before missing almost of 2023 with an elbow fracture that eventually required surgery. 

Heuer made his return to organized baseball in 2025 via a minor league contract with the Rangers. He had a 5.79 ERA in 4 2/3 big league innings with the Rangers and Tigers, but he had a 3.14 ERA in 48 2/3 minor league innings last season. 

That potential was enough for the Guardians to roll the dice on him as a non-roster invitee, and it seems like his performance was enough for Cleveland’s front office to want to keep him in the fold. 

Now that his velocity is back to where it was pre-injury, he and the Guardians will have time to work on his mechanics and pitch execution away from the bright lights of the big leagues. 

In other bullpen news, the Guardians also reunited with fan favorite Pedro Avila, who had previously been in camp with the Guardians but was granted his release after being informed he wasn’t going to make the major league roster. 

Avila’s release was likely so he could navigate the market to see if there was an MLB spot out there for him, but it seems like there weren’t any available to his liking. 

Avila is another arm who will likely fit into the Guardians’ big league picture at some point (manager Stephen Vogt spoke earlier in the week about how much Cleveland loves Avila), but his skillset makes him more of a “break glass in case of emergency” option.