Key Guardians reliever given ominous injury update after spring debut

Last week, Hunter Gaddis made his spring training debut for the Guardians with an electric inning against the Cubs. 

It turns out it may have been too electric. 

On Tuesday, the Guardians announced that Gaddis suffered some “forearm tightness” after the outing and will be reassessed on Thursday. 

Although it looks like the Guardians may have dodged a bullet since Gaddis’ imaging came back clean, any kind of injury to the forearm is scary since it can serve as a precursor to something more. 

Hunter Gaddis’ injury could have huge impact on Guardians’ bullpen

Gaddis has been one of the biggest relief pitchers in baseball over the past two seasons since he became a full-time reliever in 2024. He had a 1.57 ERA in 74 1/3 innings in 2024 before having a 3.11 ERA in 66 2/3 innings last season. 

And he’s set to be another incredibly important piece in the Guardians’ bullpen thanks to Emmanuel Clase’s suspension, but this latest injury news has the chance to complicate the picture a little bit. 

While the Guardians’ front office spent most of the offseason adding reliever depth, none of them are on the same level as Gaddis. The best option of that group would be Shawn Armstrong, who had a 2.31 ERA with nine saves last season with the Rangers. 

He doesn’t have Gaddis’ fastball velocity, but he does have a balanced arsenal that got hitters out en masse as of late. 

Although Gaddis has appeared in 151 games across the past two seasons (which trails only Tyler Rogers), he hasn’t really dealt with a big injury scare. He suffered a hand cramp last season that resulted in him going10 days between appearances, but some of that time was the All-Star break. 

He’s shown uncanny durability and a desire to take the ball at any point over the past two seasons, but the natural trade off is the increased injury risk that comes with extreme use. 

The next step for Gaddis and the Guardians since his imaging came back clean will be making sure that he takes his time in his rehab to not put himself at any more risk. 

If Gaddis does have to miss any time, it’ll open up a door for bottom of the bullpen guys like Peyton Pallette (who returned from his own injury on Tuesday), Kolby Allard or Pedro Avilia. 

The Guardians posted the bullpen ERA in baseball last year after they lost their All-World closer in Clase, but there’s only so much loss the unit can handle before things truly go south. Losing Gaddis would fall into that category.