Overlooked rotation additions have been saviors of Guardians' season

The starting rotation for the Cleveland Guardians has been a revolving door this season. This was a group that was expected to lean upon Shane Bieber, Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, Trison McKenzie, and Logan Allen to be regular fixtures on the mound. Still, due to injuries and poor performance, the members of Cleveland's rotation have seen some new faces. Faces that were overlooked upon their arrival in Cleveland have since become the saviors this team desperately needed.

The expectations for the likes of Ben Lively, Matthew Boyd, and Alex Cobb were not particularly high when they were called upon to start a game for the Guardians this season. Lively was a journeyman who had yet to experience any level of success in the majors up to this point, while Boyd and Cobb were yet to throw a pitch in 2024 due to previous injuries. Having any sort of positive feelings about their inclusion into Cleveland's starting group seemed a bit unrealistic at the time, but has since proven to be true.

Lively has been the longest-tenured member of this group, pitching to the tune of a 3.98 ERA and 1.229 WHIP in 24 starts, providing some much-needed stability in a group that has mostly lacked that this season. While Lively was pitching better earlier in the season, he is still very capable of holding an opponent to two runs or less, something he has accomplished in five of his previous nine starts.

Boyd joined the rotation later in the year and has four starts under his belt, with a 2.38 ERA and 0.838 WHIP while striking out 20 and walking five in 22.2 innings. It seems the wait was well worth it, as Boyd is channeling some of his best performances from earlier in his career. The sustainability of this performance level seems to be the only question here, as Boyd has clearly pitched above his career averages up to this point. The key for Boyd will be to limit any possible regression and remain a stable figure of Cleveland's rotation.

Of the three names acquired by Cleveland, Cobb was the one who perhaps had the highest amount of expectations placed upon him despite being injured for most of the year. Cobb has proven to be a consistent starter over the course of his career and was even an All-Star last year with San Francisco. Although there was a temporary break in Cobb's presence in Cleveland's rotation due to a fractured fingernail, it did not have a lasting impact on his ability as a pitcher, considering he pitched 6 innings of perfect baseball against the Pittsburgh Pirates this past Sunday, leading the Guardians to a series win.

With the amount of changes Cleveland has seen in their starting rotation, the emergence of these three arms happened to be exactly what this team needed. Are these pitchers the top-of-the-rotation starters everyone was hoping this team would add at the trade deadline? Absolutely not, but they have been able to stabilize a group that needed it desperately and hopefully bring some regularity to a group that has lacked it for most of this season. It could also allow their pitching staff to settle in for an extended playoff run, a possibility that did not seem particularly likely all that long ago, and the chances of that happening are all thanks to the three unlikely heroes this team called upon when they needed them the most.