Guardians outright former bullpen ace in surprising move

In March 2023, the Cleveland Guardians signed Trevor Stephan to a four-year extension with the Cleveland Guardians in a move that seemed like a shrewd signing by the Guardians. 

That's not the case anymore.

On Friday, the Guardians announced that Stephan had been outrighted off the team’s 40-man roster. 

Guardians part with former bullpen ace in surprising move

Stephan hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since the end of 2023 due to the Tommy John surgery he underwent in April 2024. He spent all of last season rehabbing and started on a rehab assignment earlier this year. 

He posted a 6.14 ERA in 7 1/3 innings in June before allowing nine runs in 3 1/3 innings in July. His rehab assignment ended at the end of July, which led to the team officially assigning him to Triple-A. 

They took that a step further on Friday by outrighting him off the roster. While he tossed five straight scoreless innings for the Clippers, his fastball velocity has sat around 93 miles per hour in the minors compared to it being at 96.5 mph in his 2022 season. 

That 2022 season was Stephan at the peak of his powers, as he finished the year with a 2.69 ERA and 82 strikeouts in 63 2/3 innings. He then allowed one run in 5 2/3 innings in the postseason. 

Stephan demoted the latest move in the Guardians’ reinvention of their bullpen. The last time Stephan took the field, Emmanuel Clase was the ace at the back of Cleveland’s bullpen, Hunter Gaddis was still viewed as a starter and nearly no one in Cleveland had ever heard of Cade Smith. 

Now Clase may have thrown his last pitch ever for the Guardians due to his suspension as a part of a betting investigation, while Smith and Gaddis have become arguably the two most important pitchers in the Guardians bullpen. 

While there’s always a chance that Stephan could end up back in the Guardians’ major league plans, his demotion from the 40-man roster means that’ll be even tougher. 

But, even though Stephan won’t be on the team’s roster, they still owe him the roughly $7 million remaining on his contract, which is guaranteed for next season and along with a $1.25 million buyout.

Although that’s not a ton of money in today’s MLB landscape, the Guardians are one of baseball’s more frugal teams, so any kind of “dead money” could end up having a negative impact on their ability to make a splash in the offseason. 

Two years ago, the idea of a Guardians bullpen without Stephan and Clase would have seemed preposterous. That’s no longer the case.