Cleveland Guardians: What Went Wrong and Offseason Outlook

• Result: Lost 3-1 to the New York Yankees
• Key Free Agents:  SP Shane Bieber, SP Matthew Boyd

As much as Guardians fans may not want to hear it right now, the 2024 season can only be described as a great success. Picked by many pundits to finish in the middle-of-the-pack in the AL Central, the Cleveland Guardians got off to a torrid start despite losing ace Shane Bieber. New manager Stephen Vogt navigated the league’s best bullpen, superstar Jose Ramirez flirted with a 40-40 season, and young players like Tanner Bibee, Josh Naylor, and David Fry took big steps forward.  

Towards the end of the season, however, it became apparent that the Guardians had some serious problems. The first is that, after injuries to Bieber and Trison McKenzie, the Guardians did not have any dependable starters outside of Bibee. 37-year-old Carlos Carrasco was clearly over the hill, while Logan Allen and Gavin Williams took significant steps backward after strong rookie seasons. The club was forced to piece together the rest of the rotation with journeymen and cast-offs like Alex Cobb, Matthew Boyd, and Ben Lively. Though Boyd proved to be a diamond in the rough, Cobb would make just three starts before getting injured again in the postseason, while Lively was left off the roster despite finishing second on the team in starts, ERA, and strikeouts.  

Meanwhile, the offense also proved unable to sustain its hot start. Steven Kwan went from flirting with .400 to hitting .220 after June 25, while Fry slashed just .219/.280/.360 after June 4. The result was a lineup that became too reliant on Ramirez and Naylor, and the Guardians would go just 41-43 after their 51-26 start.  

Due to the weakness of the American League this year, their 92-69 record was still good enough to earn them a first-round bye and home-field advantage against the upstart Detroit Tigers. In a continuation of their second-half struggles, the series would prove to be much harder than it originally appeared, and it would take a clutch, two-run home run by David Fry in Game Four to stave off elimination and squeak out a five-game victory.   

When they got to New York for the American League Championship Series, their bullpen was running on fumes. The last three games of the division series saw them get just nine combined innings from their starters, and star closer Emmanuel Clase was forced to appear four times in the five-game series, twice being used for multiple innings. The Guardians needed to get some length from their starters, but Cobb and Bibee would each get yanked before recording an out in the third inning, and the offense could only manage five combined runs en route to a 2-0 series deficit. 

The bats would finally wake up when the series shifted to Cleveland, and a pair of memorable home runs by Jhonkensy Noel and Fry would give the Guardians their only win of the series. Those homers, however, overshadowed another collapse by Clase, and things would only get worse from there. Cade Smith and Clase would falter again in an 8-6 loss in Game Four, and Hunter Gaddis would serve up a pennant-clinching, three-run homer to Juan Soto in the 10th inning of Game 5.  

The Juan Soto bomb that led the #yankees to the World Series!! ???????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/xCCJQmhNnc

— World Baseball Network (@WorldBaseball_) October 20, 2024

Though their resilience against the Yankees is commendable, it’s obvious that such reliance on a bullpen is not a sustainable way of winning. You cannot expect to compete in October if you can only depend on one starting pitcher. Steps forward from Williams and Allen, as well as a return to health from Triston McKenzie, will help. Still, if the Cleveland Guardians are serious about competing in the suddenly strong AL Central, they will need to make at least two outside additions to their starting rotation. 

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Photo Credit: Members of the Cleveland Guardians are stand in front of the dugout. (Photo by Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images)