Guards invest in already historically great bullpen ahead of ’25

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — The Guardians entered the offseason with needs.

The bullpen was not one of them.

Given the historically great performance from their relief corps in the 2024 run to the ALCS, the bullpen was the one element of this club (well, maybe outside that guy at third base) that could have arguably been left alone. Instead, with the first-base switch from Josh Naylor to Carlos Santana a financial wash and the re-signed Shane Bieber making less in ’25 than he did in ’24, the bullpen is the only area in which Cleveland added payroll.

The Guardians are expected to confirm their one-year deal with right-hander Jakob Junis — who they view as a reliever despite him finishing the 2024 season in the Reds’ rotation — on Saturday. When they do, that will pair with the one-year pact the club made with veteran reliever Paul Sewald for a combined $10.5 million in new investment in the bullpen — or 11% of the Guards’ total projected payroll, per Cot’s Contracts.

“I don’t know that, entering the offseason, we would have said the bullpen is a priority or the priority,” assistant general manager Matt Forman said. “But we made choices to fortify what was already a very strong group.”

Strong group is an understatement. The Guardians’ 2.57 relief ERA was the fourth-best of the Wild Card era. That group’s unexpected emergence as an elite strength changed the trajectory of what could have been a bumpy ride for this club, given the iffiness endured all season in the rotation.

But the back-end dominance was significantly weighted toward four guys — AL Reliever of the Year Emmanuel Clase and youngsters Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and Tim Herrin. They all had at least 70 appearances and sub-2.00 ERAs.

No team in Major League history had four such relievers before.

There’s the rub, of course. Making such history is cool, but repeating it in an area as volatile as a big league bullpen is pretty much impossible. By the end of the ALCS loss to the Yankees, we had seen evidence of the Guards’ great group running on fumes — in the uncharacteristic end-of-game implosions endured by Clase, in Smith getting beat on his best pitch by Giancarlo Stanton and in Gaddis serving up Juan Soto’s clinching crusher.

So while the Guardians are taking some calculated gambles elsewhere on the roster — making only low-key acquisitions in the rotation, replacing Naylor and his power bat with a 39-year-old Carlos Santana, trading away Andrés Giménez’s Platinum Glove and opening second-base opportunity to young unprovens, entering yet another season with question marks in the outfield alignment — they made what on this sparse payroll can only be described as significant investments in the ‘pen.

Not that Sewald and Junis jerseys will be flying off the shelves in the Guardians Team Store this summer, but these were sensible signings.

Sewald never got right last year after opening the season on the Diamondbacks’ injured list with an oblique issue. But there’s reason to believe the Guards’ proven pitching prowess can get the 34-year-old right-hander back to his form of 2021-23, when he threw 189 1/3 innings with a 2.95 ERA, 33.9% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate.

As for the 32-year-old Junis, he will be available to the Guards in the same hybrid role he served for the Brewers and Reds last season. But with so many other rotation options to sort through, Cleveland really views Junis as a reliever capable of providing command and length. Last season, all but three of his 18 relief appearances were for multiple innings (as many as 3 2/3 innings), and his 3.2% walk rate was in the top 1% in MLB. Think of him basically fulfilling the role vacated by Pedro Avila (3.25 ERA in 74 2/3 innings with Cleveland last year).

And of course, beyond the external additions, the Guardians have prospects who could pop. Most notably, Andrew Walters (No. 22) and Erik Sabrowski, late-season callups who pitched themselves directly on the postseason roster last year. And also 40-man right-handers Franco Aleman and Nic Enright (currently recovering from a lat strain) and perhaps even left-handed starter Doug Nikhazy.

The Guardians are going to have to navigate the potential lag effects with the four horsemen from their 2024 bullpen, beginning with the Cactus League season.

“We’re going to be mindful in their buildup,” manager Stephen Vogt said.

The Guards were mindful of those lag effects in their roster construction, too.