Tanner Bibee has quietly re-asserted himself as frontline starter for Guardians

Baseball can be a cruel game sometimes.

Tanner Bibee provided us with another example of that on Tuesday when he did nearly everything right for five innings against the Tampa Bay Rays but still took the loss thanks to his offensive inability to get anything going in support of him. 

But, even with the loss, the start still marked a huge step forward for Bibee as he looks to recapture his dominant form that helped him earn a five-year extension last spring. 

Not only did Bibee rack up six strikeouts in his start against the Rays he was able to continue his trend of limiting the damage, which was one of the biggest things that plagued him last season. 

Although the Rays’ lone run came via some self-inflicted damage from Bibee, the fact he was able to hold the Rays to just one run is still an impressive feat and an obvious step in the right direction for the 27-year-old after he started the season with a 6.38 ERA across his first four starts. 

With the start, he’s now posted a 1.59 ERA across his past three starts (17 innings) and is starting to look more like the version of Bibee that we saw in 2023 and 2024. 

Tanner Bibee is starting to justify Guardians’ faith in him 

While Bibee has allowed multiple walks across all three of those starts (he gave up three against the Rays), his command seems a lot sharper. 

A big reason for that has been his curveball, which he’s been throwing equally to both left-and-right-handed batters while holding opponents to a .053 batting average against on the pitch. 

The Rays’ lone run against him came in the fifth inning when he walked No. 9 hitter Taylor Walls before allowing back-to-back two out singles to Ben Williamson and Jonathan Aranda. Still a bit too much action than you’d like for an inning, but he did a great job bouncing back and getting Yandy Díaz to ground out to end the inning. 

It’s hard to overstate how much a resurgent Bibee would mean to the Guardians. While they’ve gotten stellar production from Parker Messick and Gavin Williams at the top of their rotation, Joey Cantillo’s been a bit inconsistent and Slade Cecconi’s struggles are becoming harder and harder to ignore.

Not only would a dominant Bibee give the Guardians a strong three-headed attack at the top of their rotation, but it would also help their long-term picture since they’re going to be paying him a market rate for the next three seasons regardless. 

Now the Guardians just need to figure out a way to get him some run support, as Cleveland’s offense has been shut out in two of his last three starts. 

Even if Bibee may not be the ace of the Guardians’ staff any more, he’s still an incredibly important pitcher. If he keeps this up, he may end up becoming the staff’s most important pitcher. 

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