Guardians potentially facing tough pitching decision after latest Slade Cecconi dud 

Last year Slade Cecconi locked down a spot in the Cleveland Guardians’ rotation thanks to a solid season where he went deep in games despite not posting incredibly flashy peripherals. 

But all the momentum he gained during that strong season has gone by the wayside as of late thanks to a sluggish start to 2026. 

The latest instance of that sluggish start came on Monday when Cecconi allowed six earned runs against the Astros in five innings. Houston recorded 10 hits against him (with two home runs) and only struck out twice. 

Cecconi now has an unsightly 6.20 ERA across five starts this season. While there’s plenty of time left in the season for him to try to fix things, his struggles are starting to get hard to ignore — especially when it’s coming at a time when Parker Messick and Gavin Williams are pitching like aces. 

All of that sets up a question that could dictate the first part of the Guardians’ season: How long will the Guardians go before making a change in their rotation? 

The Guardians’ lack of pitching depth should give Slade Cecconi more chances to turn things around

While it’s hard to believe the Guardians would make any kind of change soon thanks to the lack of MLB-ready pitching depth in the system (more on that in a second), Cecconi’s been a bit of an anchor in Cleveland’s rotation through the first month of the season. 

The past week has been a great example of that theme, as Messick, Williams, Tanner Bibee and Joey Cantillo combined to go 2-0 with a 2.10 ERA in Cleveland’s four-game series against the Baltimore Orioles. Then Cecconi took the mound and struggled in Monday’s series opener against Houston. 

Although there’s no shame in having a rough game against the Astros (Houstonn’s .259 team batting average is the third-best in baseball), it’s not the first time he’s labored through a start this season.

It seemed like he was on the upswing after throwing six shutout innings in the Cubs in his second start of the season, he’s had a 6.91 ERA in 14 1/3 innings in three starts since. 

After Monday’s shellacking, both Cecconi and manager Stephen Vogt said that they think he’s close to turning things around, pointing to his increased velocity and work he put in before the start. 

But he keeps struggling, it may be time for them to consider sending him down to Triple-A so he can work on those things without having to worry about his big league results. 

That said, there really aren’t a ton of starting pitchers who are tearing things up in Triple-A right now. 

Pedro Avila and Logan Allen are two options in the Triple-A rotation with big league experience, but they both currently have ERAs above 5.90. Rorik Maltrud currently has the best ERA in Columbus’ starting rotation (2.61), but the 26-year-old is in his first season at Triple-A and isn’t on the 40-man roster. 

Plus none of those options are more interesting than Cecconi. While it’s been frustrating to watch him go out and get shelled every fifth day, he’s still a part of the Guardians’ long-term core. 

When Cecconi is at his best, he’s generating plenty of hard contact and racking up innings in bunches. Although we haven’t seen nearly enough of that this season, it’s not like the things that made him successful went away overnight. 

Although he should get more chances to turn things around, the clock’s starting to tick.

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