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Cal Quantrill is pitching himself out of Guardians rotation

How much longer will Quantrill remain a starter in Cleveland?

By James Mastrucci

Atlanta Braves v Cleveland Guardians
Atlanta Braves v Cleveland Guardians / Jason Miller/GettyImages
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The 2023 season has not been a fruitful endeavor for Cal Quantrill. In fact, his recent performances have him heading in a direction where he may not be in the Guardians pitching rotation much longer.

Since returning from the injured list just prior to the end of June, Quantrill has been hit around quite hard as he has been throwing what seems to be the equivalent of batting practice in two straight starts. Quantrill's last two outings have seen him give up 11 runs on 19 hits with two walks while only striking out four in 7.2 innings.

While this may seem isolated to Quantrill's recent outings it is hardly the case. Quantrill has been hittable all season as his 6.45 ERA and 1.567 WHIP clearly shows. In fact, six of Quantrill's 13 starts this season have seen five or more runs come across to score and that is simply unacceptable for a rotation pitcher of any kind. (Note: Quantrill's first start of the season four runs were classified as earned but five came around to score in the outing).

It would be one thing if Quantrill was able to keep these type of outings to a select few, making the other seven starts with three runs or fewer the norm. Unfortunately that has not been the case and it seems like what should be rare occasions have been occuring at a near 50/50 split.

At some point if Quantrill continues to pitch at this rate the Guardians would have no choice but to remove him from their pitching rotation. While that would be far from optimal due to the undetermined timeline for Triston McKenzie, there comes a time when the hand of a team is forced to make a decision and it appears it may come soon.

Perhaps the Guardians may decide to shake things up a bit after the All-Star break if Quantrill is unable to pitch at an acceptable level. Maybe they opt to make a change during the break to allow everyone to adjust to their new roles as the team makes their second half push. Either way, if Quantrill keeps pitching like this it is hard to justify him keeping his spot in the rotation.