No reason to panic about Emmanuel Clase... yet

It seems pretty safe to say that the early season performance of Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase has not matched the expectations placed upon him entering the season. Given his elite performance in 2024, most expected that to continue, but unfortunately, that is not how baseball works, especially when it comes to bullpen arms.

Through 11 games, Clase has a 7.84 ERA, 2.226 WHIP, and 7.8 strikeouts per nine innings pitched, the worst marks in his career across the board. This may seem like a reason to panic, however, that would be incredibly premature. Anyone expecting Clase to duplicate his performance from last season (0.61 ERA and 0.659 WHIP) is just not living in reality. What Clase was able to accomplish last season was impressive, but it should be viewed as his career best and not the standard by which he is judged.

Some level of fatigue should have been expected following his third consecutive season of incredibly heavy use. Clase led all of baseball in games finished (66) and the American League in saves (47) in 2024, marking the third straight year for both and the first time that Clase did not lead all of baseball in saves since 2021. Eventually, this type of use will build up and result in a blip like is being seen currently. It is incredibly easy to overreact to this early-season performance, but that would be unwise.

Relief arms are incredibly volatile and can be prone to rough patches, which appears to be the case currently with Clase. With 10.1 innings under his belt, it is difficult to make any sort of accurate judgment about Clase's performance in 2025. There is a lot of baseball left to play, and it is highly likely that his end-of-season numbers will look closer to his career averages (1.87 ERA, 0.935 WHIP, 8.7 K/9).

The only time it would be reasonable to move beyond slight worry and closer to panic would be if Clase is unable to turn around his performance on the mound. Should that unlikely development come true, then, and only then, would it be justified to move into panic mode. Until then, anything resembling that type of reaction is very premature.