Next steps for Guardians’ bullpen are evident after embarrassment against Braves 

Not much went right for the Cleveland Guardians in Sunday’s series finale against the Atlanta Braves. 

The bats largely went quiet outside of Rhys Hoskins’ first Guardians home run, and Tanner Bibee and Kolby Allard combined to allow 13 runs in 8 2/3 innings. 

The reason that inning total didn’t reach a complete nine innings is thanks to Austin Hedges, who came in to get the final out of the game after Allard surrendered four hits, a hit by pitch and walk in the bottom of the eighth inning. 

Needless to say, it’s never a good sign when the only “pitcher” who doesn’t surrender a run the backup catcher put into the game to record the final out. 

But that rough outing should hopefully set up a bullpen shakeup thanks to the impending return of ace set up man Hunter Gaddis, who joined the team in Atlanta and seems poised to be activated off the injured list later today. 

Hunter Gaddis would be a welcome addition to the Guardians’ bullpen 

While Gaddis wouldn’t have been much help to the Guardians last night since they were playing from behind from the jump thanks to Bibee’s struggles, his return would still be a huge boost to a beleaguered Guardians bullpen. 

Although the Guardians have had plenty of success early this season (Sunday’s loss marked the first time they’d lost a series all year), their bullpen entered play on Sunday with a 4.40 ERA in 52 2/3 innings. 

Those numbers aren’t as bad as it seems, however. Not only has Cade Smith looked mortal (6.43 ERA), but Matt Festa has a 8.10 ERA after he had two runs hung on him on Friday. 

Kolby Allard also now has a 10.38 ERA after his disastrous performance on Sunday that will likely bring about an end to his time on the roster. Even though Allard fills an obvious need as a multi-inning longman, he’s looked nothing like the pitcher who finished last season with a 2.63 ERA. 

Gaddis would be an obvious upgrade over Allard (even if he’s still working his way back to full strength). 

Gaddis was limited to just one outing in the spring before a forearm injury popped up, though his imaging came back clean afterward. 

He’s been rehabbing at Triple-A in the time since and posted a 10.38 ERA in 4 1/3 innings. His fastball maxed out at 92.7 miles per hour in his last outing. 

Even if manager Stephen Vogt doesn’t immediately thrust Gaddis into his customary eighth inning role, he’d still be another valuable arm who could take some pressure off the team’s high-leverage arms. 

Shawn Armstrong and Erik Sabrowski have stepped up in set up roles for the Guardians so far this year, but they’ve both appeared in eight games, which is tied for the second-most in baseball. 

Last September, the Guardians pulled off a miraculous comeback in the American League Central thanks to some dominant pitching from their bullpen.

While that dominance hasn’t carried over into this season, Gaddis making his return would go a long way toward making that a reality.