Guardians wisely bring back overlooked reliever after gap year in Japan

In 2024, Pedro Avila threw his way into Cleveland’s hearts thanks to ability to eat innings out of the Guardians’ bullpen regardless of the role or innings he was asked to work. 

After a season away in Japan, the man known as "the innings eater” is back, as Daniel Álvarez-Montes of EL Extrabase reported Sunday afternoon that Avila was signing a split-level deal with the Guardians. Avila seemingly confirmed the report a little bit later by tweeting a highlight clip with the caption “I’m back.” 

Avila posted a 3.25 ERA in that 2024 season across 74 2/3 innings after joining the Guardians that April after being designated for assignment by the Padres. While he didn’t get the same kind of fanfare as Emmanuel Clase or breakout stars Cade Smith or Hunter Gaddis, he was arguably just as important as the Guardians navigated through a variety of pitching injuries.

He even made the team’s ALCS roster and threw four scoreless innings in the first three games of their series against the Yankees. 

But that wasn’t enough to keep him on the roster at the time, as the Guardians designated him for assignment after the season to clear space on the roster for free agent signing Paul Sewald. Avila cleared waivers but rejected the assignment and ended up signing a deal with the Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball. 

Avila posted a 4.04 ERA in 82 1/3 innings during his time in Japan with a ground-ball rate of 43.9% to go along with a walk rate of just 8.7%. While he only struck out 17.8% of the batters he faced off against, he didn’t allow a home run. 

Guardians bring back Pedro Avila on split-level deal 

The Guardians re-upping with Avila is a great way to make up with the mistake of losing him last offseason. Even though Sewald’s signing seemed like a great move at the time (spoiler alert, it didn’t work out), letting go of Avila seemed like the wrong move at the time and aged even worse as the season went on. 

While the Guardians ended up finishing the year with the third-best bullpen ERA in baseball (3.44), they lost Emmanuel Clase to paid leave in July as a part of a sports betting investigation and got next to no production from Sewald. Instead, the Guardians had to rely on unheralded relievers like Kolby Allard, Jakob Junis and Nic Enright, among others. 

But all three of those pitchers are gone, which has led to the Guardians aggressively adding to their bullpen this offseason. After starting the offseason by bringing in Connor Brogdon (free agency), Peyton Pallette (Rule 5 Draft) and Colin Holderman (free agency), Cleveland added (and subsequently DFA’d)  Justin Bruihl before signing Shawn Armstrong. 

Normally Avila being out of options would limit his flexibility on the roster, but the Guardians have reportedly signed him to a split-level deal, which means that he’ll be paid more than the average minor leaguer if he’s in Triple-A and will make more for the time he’s on Cleveland’s MLB roster. 

That means that teams will be less likely to claim him on waivers if he’s designated for assignment (since he’s making more than the league minimum), and he won’t elect minor league free agency if he’s DFA’d, since that means he’d have to forfeit his guaranteed salary.