Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, in his first year on the job, is facing the challenge of ... [+]
The Cleveland Guardians have a well-established reputation for drafting and developing pitchers. For a brief time in the second half of the 2023 season, all five members of the team’s starting rotation were pitchers drafted and developed by Cleveland. It is important that the Guardians keep their pitching factory humming, because they also have had terrible luck in keeping those pitchers healthy.
That bad luck has surfaced again this spring. Just 12 days away from opening day, half of the Guardians’ projected bullpen is unavailable, along with a key starter in their rotation, plus – when healthy – the top pitching prospect in the organization’s minor league system.
The key starter is 24-year-old right-hander Gavin Williams, a fire-balling 6-foot-6, 250-pound first-round pick by Cleveland in the 2021 MLB draft. Williams needed just a season and a half to reach the big leagues, which he did last summer, after averaging 11.8 strikeouts per nine innings in the minors, while holding hitters to a .172 batting average.
In 16 starts for Cleveland in the second of the season, Williams had a 3.29 ERA, while striking out an average of almost nine batters per nine innings while holding opposing hitters to a .219 batting average.
Williams was expected to be a fixture in Cleveland’s rotation this year, but instead he will start the season on the injured list, due to a sore right elbow. “Because of where we are in spring training, and because he’s a starting pitcher, he will start the season on the injured list, then rejoin the rotation once he’s built up,” said Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti.
The Guardians’ have also lost key reliever Trevor Stephan, who is the setup man for closer Emmanuel Clase. Stephan will undergo ulnar collateral ligament surgery and be sidelined indefinitely. Stephan appeared in 71 games last year and was 7-7 while averaging nearly 10 strikeouts per nine innings.
“It’s hard to replace someone like Trevor,” said Guardians manager Stephan Vogt. “Anytime you get news like this it’s unfortunate. But we do feel we have a number of guys who can step up. Who that’s going to be we’re still sorting out, but we feel we have a number of candidates that can fill that role.”
Yet another left-handed reliever, Sam Hentges, has been sidelined with swelling in a finger on his throwing hand, and Antonetti said reliever James Karinchak, who has yet to pitch in a spring game, will start the year on the injured list
But the most disappointing news coming out of the Guardians’ camp is that pitcher Daniel Espino, the team’s first round pick in the 2019 MLB draft, is going to miss the entire season for the second year in a row, due to shoulder surgery.
The 24-year-old Espino’s, ceiling seemed to be limitless when Cleveland drafted him out of a Georgia high school. But in the five years since the Guardians drafted him Espino has yet to pitch a full season.
“This is heartbreaking in a lot of ways,” said Antonetti. “There is not a person who could do any more than Daniel has. He commits fully to the rehab process. He goes above and beyond what our doctors and training staff suggest. I feel for Daniel, that he’s going to have another lengthy rehab in front of him. On the positive side, he has a great mindset. He knows he’s going to persevere through this. He says he’s going to overcome these obstacles and be a better person for it.”
In 33 career minor league starts Espino has a 3.57 ERA, while averaging 14.9 strikeouts per nine innings and holding opposing hitters to a .184 batting average.
The Guardians have not had much luck when selecting pitchers with their first-round pick in the MLB draft. In 2015, they took Brady Aiken in the first round, but after three unsuccessful seasons in the low minors, Aiken retired.
Triston McKenzie was Cleveland’s second first round pick in the 2015 draft. McKenzie missed all the 2019 season due to injury, and he has only pitched full seasons in two of the last five years.
Espino was Cleveland’s first-round pick in 2019. He only pitched in four minor league games in 2022 due to knee and shoulder issues, he missed all of 2023, and will miss all of 2024 with shoulder injuries.
Ethan Hankins was the Guardians’ first-round pick in the 2018 draft. He did not pitch at all in 2021 due to elbow surgery that limited him to one minor league appearance in 2022. In 2023 he started 15 games for high Class-A Lake County and was 1-7 with a 4.70 ERA.
