Stephen Vogt’s comments show Guardians continue to believe in Joey Cantillo 

Last week, the Cleveland Guardians picked up a huge series win over the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. 

But any good vibes from that series win went away over the weekend when Cleveland lost two out of three to the Texas Rangers, with the second loss coming in the form of a 10-0 loss to the Rangers on Sunday where Joey Cantillo allowed seven earned runs in four innings. 

It was yet another rough outing for Cantillo, who has a 7.89 ERA across his last five starts (21 2/3 innings) after starting the season with a 2.98 ERA across his first nine starts. 

But it seems like the Guardians aren’t panicking about Cantillo... yet.

“The first few innings, I felt it was the best strike quality and the best strike throwing we’ve seen from him for a while,” manager Stephen Vogt said after the loss, per Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes. “He got hurt on a couple of pitches he left out over the plate.”

And while that theme is true thanks to the high strikeout total he recorded in the loss, it doesn’t change that fact that Cantillo’s frustrating run of play is another example of the inconsistencies that have plagued him throughout his career. 

Joey Cantillo has become a liability in the Guardians’ starting rotation 

Cantillo’s performance earlier this year made it seem like he was ready to step into a big role in the middle of Cleveland’s rotation thanks to his ability to eat innings and keep the Guardians in the game. 

That’s gone by the wayside lately, as he’s allowed six home runs across his last five starts while walking 16. Even though he’s gone at least five innings in four of those five starts, he’s been leaving too many balls over the middle of the plate and hasn’t been locating his changeup. It’s going to be hard for him to have a ton of success when that’s happening. 

Cantillo was still able to rack up seven strikeouts against the Rangers, which honestly adds to the frustration. He showed how good his arsenal can be (he generated 11 whiffs against Texas), but it didn’t end up mattering thanks to his location issues. 

After the game he said that he would take his start against the Rangers over his previous three while saying that he was better from the “process standpoint.” 

That’s great, but eventually he’s going to need that process to lead to some positive results. 

Cantillo’s struggles are a bit more magnified thanks to how well things are going in the rest of the Guardians’ rotation. 

Gavin Williams and Parker Messick are up to their usual antics, Tanner Bibee just picked up his first win of the season with a great start against the Rangers and even Slade Cecconi has turned in a 3.04 ERA across his last five starts. 

Cantillo should still get an opportunity to right the ship given the Guardians don’t have a ton of MLB-ready starting pitching depth, but the Guardians are clearly going to need more from him as we enter the heart of the season. 

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