Guardians' Slade Cecconi becomes latest victim of unique 2025 curse

Slade Cecconi is never going to blow you away as a pitcher. He doesn’t have that most overpowering stuff, nor does he generate a lot of strikeouts. 

But, as he showed on Monday against the Royals, when he’s on, he can be one of the best middle-of-the-rotation starters in all of baseball. 

Cecconi’s start against Kansas City was him at his best, as he carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning and ended up allowing one hit with three walks across eight innings in a blowout Guardians win. 

Had Cecconi completed his no-hit bid, it would have been the first no-hitter thrown by a Cleveland pitcher since Len Barker’s perfect game in May 1981.

He’s the second Guardians starter to carry a no-hitter into the eighth inning this year alongside Gavin Williams. 

While the Guardians didn’t gain any ground in the Wild Card race due to the Mariners’ win over the Cardinals, they leapfrogged the Royals in the Wild Card standings. 

Slade Cecconi’s dazzling start shows how bright his Guardians future can be 

With the strong outing, Cecconi now has a 4.45 ERA across 115 1/3 innings, and has already eclipsed his career-high for innings in a season (77 innings in 2024). That hasn’t stopped him from being a horse in the Guardians’ rotation, however, as he’s gone more than six innings in 11 of his 20 starts this year. 

Monday was the second time he’s pitched 8+ innings this year; he came within two outs of a complete game earlier this year before his defense let him down behind him. 

And he’s been getting all this done without strong peripherals. He ranks in the bottom sixth percentile or worse in expected batting average, expected ERA, chase rate, barrel rate and hard-hit rate, and is also in 21st percentile in whiff rate. So he doesn’t get a lot of swing and miss, and is giving up hard contact at one of the worst rates in the league. 

But it also looks like there’s a solid pitcher under all that. He’s always going to need some strong defense behind him, and the Guardians answered that call on Monday with two big plays from Brayan Rocchio and one from Daniel Schneemann. 

While there’s no way to quantify how much of a difference this made, Cecconi’s start was his first turn in the rotation since the Guardians shifted to a six-man rotation to give all their pitchers a little more rest. Parker Messick and Joey Cantillo (two of the team’s young arms who could also benefit from the additional rest) were both sharp in their first turns through it as well. 

It may be unconventional for the Guardians, but it seems to be working. 

Cecconi will have plenty more chances to dazzle on Progressive Field’s mound, as he’s not due for free agency until 2031, which is one of the biggest reasons why the Guardians targeted him as part of their return from the Diamondbacks in exchange for Josh Naylor in the offseason. 

The Guardians are going to need production from up and down their lineup if they want to claw into the postseason, and Cecconi did more than his part on Monday.