The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen is back to being dominant

At face value, the Guardians’ bullpen ERA of 3.77 looks a bit disappointing, especially considering they were coming off a season where they led all of MLB with a 2.57 ERA. 

But that’s not all there is to this story. 

While this iteration of the Guardians’ bullpen has made the late innings more of a roller coaster than last year, they’re beginning to find their footing — and the rest of baseball should be scared because of it. 

The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen is back to being dominant 

Any conversation about the bullpen’s early season struggles begins and ends with Emmanuel Clase. After putting together a historic 2024 season that nearly ended with him winning the American League Cy Young, Clase blew his first save of the year on Opening Day, which ended up serving as an omen for the month to come.

By the end of April, Clase had a 6.75 ERA with two blown saves and plenty of questions about whether he should continue to be the Guardians’ closer.

But things changed in May, and Clase’s posted a 1.28 ERA over his last 20 innings, which is the ninth-best ERA among relievers over that time frame. 

That theme has carried over to the rest of the relievers as well. While Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith picked up where they left off last year, Clase and free agent acquisition Paul Sewald both posted ERAs above six and Tim Herrin had an ERA of 3.48. 

Things didn’t get much better in May. While Clase got back to being his lights out self, he was one of only three Guardians who had an ERA under two in the month (Gaddis and Kolby Allard). Herrin had an ERA for 4.66, while Joey Cantillo posted an ERA of 5.44 and allowed three home runs. 

That’s beginning to look like a thing of the past thanks to a strong June that’s morphed into a dominant July. While the loss of Andrew Walters to a season-ending lat injury hurt, the Guardians appear to have unearthed some gems to go along their big three of Smith, Gaddis and Clase. 

Allard has pitched well with the Guardians (despite having some underwhelming metrics) and re-joined the team last week after being DFA’d. Nic Enright has wowed when he’s gotten a chance to pitch, and threw 1 1/3 electric innings on Friday as the 27th man in the doubleheader.

Enright’s showing on Friday was part of a strong extra inning performance for Cleveland’s ‘pen. While the Guardians lost Game 2 of the doubleheader in part due to missteps from Sewald and Allard, Cleveland’s bullpen didn’t allow an earned run across 8 1/3 innings in both games. 

That depth could be even more important lately depending on what happens with Gaddis, who dealt with cramps during his outing on Friday and had some soreness pop up on Saturday. While it looks like the Guardians dodged a bullet, there’s still a chance someone could need to step up. 

That player could be Erik Sabrowski, who has allowed just one run in 6 1/3 innings this year and earned a spot on the postseason roster on the back of just 12 2/3 innings last year. 

The Guardians have turned things around after their 10-game swoon and have worked their way back into the American League postseason picture. They have their bullpen to thank for that.