Khal Stephen’s injury puts even more pressure on Guardians’ steady rotation 

Death, taxes and the Cleveland Guardians using the same five starting pitchers this season. 

While the MLB season can sometimes be a 162 game journey throughout uncertainty, the Guardians’ starting rotation has been one of the steadiest units in all of baseball. 

Both because it has a 3.80 ERA as a unit, but also because the Guardians are the only team in MLB to use the same five starting pitchers all season. 

At a time in baseball when more and more teams are using openers, bulk pitchers and overall “pitching madness,” the Guardians’ rotation has been a steady metronome. 

And that steadiness became even more vital over the weekend when Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti announced that Khal Stephen is set to undergo UCL surgery this week. 

The Guardians don’t know if he’s going to need an internal brace surgery or the full Tommy John operation, though the fact he’s going under the knife confirms that Stephen isn’t going to be back until late 2027 (at the earliest). 

While that surgery is obviously a huge blow to Stephen’s future, it also has a huge impact on the Guardians’ pitching depth given Stephen was one of Cleveland’s most MLB-ready pitching prospects.

Prior to Stephen’s injury, the Guardians using the same five starters all season felt like a fun novelty. Now it's a necessity. 

Khal Stephen’s injury hurts Cleveland’s pitching depth

Prior to getting hurt, Stephen had a 3.44 ERA in 55 innings with Double-A Akron, and seemed to be building some momentum toward a late-season call-up. 

With him out of the picture, the Guardians’ starting pitching pipeline consists of Logan Allen, Austin Peterson and Yorman Gómez (all of whom are on the 40-man roster). 

Allen’s the only one of that group to pitch in MLB this year (he had a four inning cameo out of the bullpen in May), but all three of them have an ERA of 4.15 or higher in Triple-A. 

The good news for the Guardians is that they’re finally at a point where all five of their pitchers seem to be finding their groove. 

Slade Cecconi and Joey Cantillo both looked like liabilities earlier in the season, but they’ve led the Guardians rotation in ERA over the past 30 days (3.25 and 3.72 ERA, respectively). 

In fact, Cantillo’s 3.86 ERA is a smidge lower than Gavin Williams’ (3.89). That seems unfathomable given how things went at the beginning of the season. 

Stephen’s injury also opens up the possibility the Guardians could trade for a starting pitcher at the trade deadline, though that would be a bit of a gamble given it would displace one of the current options in Cleveland’s rotation. 

Even if that rotation doesn’t have a frontline ace that jumps off the page, it’s been an incredibly consistent and healthy unit. Those things are even more important after Stephen's injury.

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