How does the Cleveland Guardians' pitching staff match up with rest of MLB?

Before the 2025 season began, there were some hefty expectations being placed upon the pitching staff of the Cleveland Guardians. This was a team coming off a year in which they rode their collective group of pitchers into the postseason, and there was a belief that it would continue into this season. Unfortunately, due to a rough start to the year, a group that was once nearly universally considered elite has taken a bit of a tumble when compared to the rest of Major League Baseball.

Coming in as the 24th team on Ranking All 30 MLB Pitching Staffs So Far in 2025 from Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller are the Guardians, and it's pretty easy to understand why. As a team they have a 4.14 ERA and a 1.411 WHIP, not exactly all that encouraging from a group that was expected to be far better.

Miller does note that Tanner Bibee returning to his previous form as well as Shane Bieber coming back from Tommy John surgery could help their cause, but their current construction leaves a lot to be desired, "As is, though, this rotation is a great big blob of "meh." At least Emmanuel Clase seems to have recovered from what was a brutal first few weeks.", writes Miller, making sure to mention Emmanuel Clase getting back on track at the back end of Cleveland's bullpen.

Making matters worse for the Guardians right now is losing veteran starter Ben Lively to an arm injury. The Guardians placed Lively, Cleveland's most consistent starter this year, on the 15-day injured list after exiting his last start after only 3 innings. This is going to put pressure on every arm on the pitching staff to perform, as he has been able to cover up for a lot of shortcomings from others over the first month and a half of the season.

There is still a lot of baseball to played this year, so being ranked low on a list like this one is nothing to be worried about at this time. Cleveland's non-Lively members of their starting rotation have begun to perform better, and that should help normalize usage frequency and their overall numbers in the near future. Perhaps then, they will be ranked closer to the upper third of pitching staffs rather than their current placement of right in the heart of the bottom third.