Guardians' pitching factory is facilitating this reliever's run of dominance

Emmanuel Clase is the obvious "ace" of the Cleveland Guardians' bullpen, having fought through some early-season struggles to get back to his usual dominant ways.

And even though some trade rumors surrounding Clase have threatened the integrity of the back-end of Cleveland's bullpen, there's another arm who deserves his flowers for his scintillating performance this year: Cade Smith.

Following a ridiculous rookie season where he racked up a 1.91 ERA and 2.7 fWAR in 75 1/3 innings as Clase's primary set-up man, Smith hasn't been as good on the surface in 2025 (2.36 ERA and a much higher walk rate). However it's clear that Clase has serious competition for the title of "best reliever in Cleveland" once you take a deeper dive.

Cade Smith proving to be most valuable reliever in Guardians' bullpen

Smith has been day-to-day lately because of a back injury, but he had been dealing prior to that this season.

His 2.36 ERA is still fine on its own, but it's backed up by a 1.31 FIP that somehow beats the 1.40 mark he produced last year. And while he's walking hitters more frequently, he's also raised his strikeout rate from 35.6% to 36.6%.

Plus, the metrics suggest he'll actually regress positively from here on out, hard as that may be to believe.

He's allowing a gargantuan .351 BABIP, which ranks 16th among MLB relievers with at least 20 innings pitched. That'll come down with more innings, especially when you consider that he's allowing significantly less hard contact (42.8% in 2024, 40.3% in 2025) and barrels (8.4%, 3.9%) this season.

On top of all of that, he's getting more whiffs compared to last year (30.2% in 2024 vs. 35.1%). One of the most unhittable reliever in baseball last year has become even more unhittable, partly due to the fact that his third pitch, the sweeper, has gone from being a meatball (.465 wOBA allowed, 29.2% whiff rate in '24) to a legitimate out pitch (.266, 40.7% in '25).

For what it's worth, he also hasn't allowed a home run this season, which can be attributed to the scant 13.0% pulled fly ball rate he surrenders. I guess it helps to have a high-90s fastball you can juxtapose with a high-80s splitter or mid-80s sweeper.

All of this data is impressive, but the important thing to take away from this is that Cade Smith is getting better, not worse. It would have been wholly unrealistic to expect him to keep up his ridiculous performance from last season, and yet, the flamethrowing right-hander is putting on one heck of an encore.

There's no reason to root for the Guardians to part ways with Clase, one of the best closers in the sport. However, it is nice knowing that they have a ready-made replacement waiting in the wings in case of emergency.