Patrick Bailey has helped make the Guardians' rotation even more dangerous

Last Friday, Joey Cantillo took the mound for the Guardians and threw six stellar innings against the Seattle Mariners. A day later, Slade Cecconi followed that up with six scoreless innings of his own in a Guardians win.

While it’s always dangerous to extrapolate too much from a single weekend, both pitcher’s starters were some much-needed breaths of fresh air considering how much they both struggled at the start of the season. 

Not only did those starts help the Guardians hold their own against the Mariners, it also showed why Cleveland is still one of the most dangerous teams in the American League. 

And we may have Patrick Bailey to thank for it.

Patrick Bailey continues to be extremely valuable to Guardians

On June 21st, Cantillo threw 44 curveballs in the Guardians’ win over the Astros, the most by any big league pitcher this season. That record lasted all of five days, as he threw 45 curveballs against the Mariners. He allowed just one run on two hits and recorded nine strikeouts. 

While it was already clear that Cantillo’s curveball was a plus-pitch, he’s become one of the game’s top curveball maestros. When Bailey first got to Cleveland, he let Cantillo know how much he liked his curveball and that he wanted him to throw it more. 

After a couple starts where Cantillo shook the curveball off more, they’ve thrown caution to the wind lately,upped his curveball usage and had great results. 

“(Bailey and I) talked through some things,” Cantillo said after his start against the Mariners. “Honestly I’m probably just throwing more (thanks to) that confidence back there. He’s really good at what he does back there, and I trust him. He did a great job back there.”

What Bailey’s helped do with Cecconi may be even more impressive. After posting a 6.15 ERA through his first eight starts of the season, Cecconi has posted a 2.55 ERA since the Guardians acquired Bailey, which is the third-best ERA among AL starting pitchers in that time frame. 

"He's really receptive to having conversations between starts and after outings where we both can get on the same page as to how we want to define my identity as a pitcher," Cecconi said after his stellar start against the Mariners. 

Some of that success can also be tied back to an usage change, as Cecconi dumped his sweeper and replaced it with his slider/cutter hybrid, which has helped add more diversity to his pitch mix. 

Bailey’s never going to set the world on fire in the batter’s box (.205/.253/.315 slashline with the Guardians), but he’s been able to make up for that via to his defensive acumen and pitch-calling. 

Cantillo and Cecconi looked like clear liabilities earlier this year, but the Guardians had no other option than to roll with them because of their lack of MLB-ready pitching depth. Bailey has helped make that decision look genius. 

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