Guardians reinforce pitching factory with unique international signing 

The Cleveland Guardians are no strangers to thinking outside of the box when it comes to pitching additions. Whether they sign a veteran on his last legs, an injured pitcher looking to get back to 100% or an overpooled prospect, they always seem to squeeze everything they can out of every pitcher in their system. 

Now they’re dipping into the (unconventional) international market, as MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reported Tuesday that Cleveland had signed free agent pitcher Ettore Giulianelli to a minor league contract. 

The contract marks Giulianelli’s second stint with a big league club, as he was with the Cardinals from 2021 to ‘24, where he had 4.46 ERA across 68 2/3 innings in the Florida Complex League and Single-A. The Cardinals signed him as an international free agent in 2019. 

While Italy isn’t really viewed as a baseball hotbed, they advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2023 World Baseball Classic and are one of the top teams in the upcoming iteration of the tournament, and Giulianelli’s pitching development is a tangible example of the country’s growth on the diamond. 

Guardians' latest minor league signing shows team's outside the box thinking

Giulianelli’s fastball reportedly hit 98 miles per hour during training this offseason, and he also boasts a loopy screwball that helped him post a 3.96 ERA in 25 innings at Single-A for the Cardinals in 2024. 

While Giulianelli is still years away from being a big league contributor for the Guardians (if he ever gets there), signings like this are the kind of thing that have helped Cleveland produce a seemingly unending conveyor belt of MLB-ready pitching talent. 

They also are no stranger to rolling the dice on promising pitchers who need some polish, as they helped Anthony Gose transform from outfielder to relief pitcher and are in the process of helping former Cleveland outfielder Tyler Naquin do the same. 

The biggest hurdle that Giulianelli (and any other player trying to learn how to pitch) will need to clear is learning and mastering command of offspeed stuff. While Giulianelli tallied104 strikeouts during his four year stint in St. Louis’ minor league system, he also allowed 76 walks, including an eye-popping 31 in those 25 innings in 2024.

Even though it’s clear that he has a fastball that could play in the bigs, it’s also clear that he’s still struggling with command. But the Guardians will have the opportunity to stash him in the minors and help him work on that on back fields in Arizona and on the mound in lower levels of the minors. 

At the end of the day, this signing likely won’t amount to much, but it’s still low-risk signing with a potentially high payoff, which are the kind of signings teams need to make if they want to be a perennial contender.