Stephen Vogt confirms Guardians won't participate into latest pitch calling trend

While every professional sports league can be defined as “copycat leagues,” MLB stands above. Remember last season when the first month of the season was defined by everyone trying to steal the Yankees’ torpedo bat idea? 

And one of the newest trends that’s beginning to make its way through baseball is teams calling pitches from the dugout, which the Marlins quietly started doing at the end of last season.

It’s gotten some more legs this season, as both the Rockies (who now employ former Marlins pitching coach Alon Leichman) and Giants have gone on record to say that they’re planning on calling some pitches from the dugout in 2026. 

But it looks like that won’t be happening in Cleveland. 

On Monday, The Athletic’s Andrew Baggerly shined some new light on the trend of teams calling pitches from the dugout. And while he put a lot of focus on the Giants and new manager Tony Vitello, he also included some interesting quotes from Stephen Vogt. 

“I know it’s happening now in some places, but it won’t happen in Cleveland,” Vogt said about the Guardians calling pitches from the dugout, per Baggerly. “We haven’t called them because we’re not back there — and I’m biased because I used to be. I don’t know what they’re seeing or feeling. I don’t know where the pitchers are missing or by how much. We’re blessed with three unbelievable game callers. Maybe it’s different if we had a catcher who wasn’t a good game caller, but our guys do all the homework.”

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt confirms Guardians won’t be calling pitches from dugout

Vogt experienced pretty much everything during his 10-year playing career, as he was designated for assignment multiple times, was an All-Star and also was a part of the World Series winning club (the 2021 Braves). 

But most of the pitches he called during that time originated from his brain, as he told Baggerly that he had pitches called from the dugout “maybe a couple dozen times” throughout his career. 

While it may be disheartening to see Vogt essentially shut off something that could serve as a tactical advantage, he’s clearly earned the benefit of the doubt. Not only has he won American League Manager of the Year in both of the seasons he’s stood on the top step in the Guardians’ dugout, but he also has that aforementioned institutional knowledge about catching. 

And if that’s not enough, the Guardians also have two solid defensive catchers in Bo Naylor and Austin Hedges.

The Giants are an interesting test case, however, since Vitello (who previously was the manager at the University of Tennessee) is coming from a system where almost every pitch was called from the dugout. 

But for the Guardians, this is simply a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The Guardians’ finished last season with the fourth-best team ERA in baseball (3.70), and a good portion of that is due to the game-calling from Cleveland’s catchers. 

It looks like things behind the plate will look pretty similar in 2026.