Cleveland Guardians pitcher Tanner Bibee is a wise young man.
Having played baseball all his life and having gotten to the point where his rotation spot on the Cleveland Guardians is secure, he knows a thing or two about the game.
Speaking with the team’s official site, the right-hander dropped some knowledge on Monday.
He said that if getting to the majors is hard, staying there for the long haul is even more difficult.
“I feel like every year brings on a new challenge. I feel like the first year went relatively smoothly. The second year was a little bumpier. The third year was a little more bumpier. I feel like it’s just figuring out how to keep getting better, how to keep adapting. That’s the hardest thing in baseball. It’s not necessarily easy to get here, but it’s harder to stay,” Bibee said.
MLB is a league of adjustments.
The traits that got you there might be outdated or ineffective once hitters or pitchers have made their adjustments, so everyone needs to be constantly learning new tricks or adjusting back to regain dominance.
That’s the life of a pitcher: developing new pitches, trying mechanical tweaks to add more velocity, cleaning up mechanics, finding a consistent release point, and much more.
Bibee had, statistically at least, the worst season of his short MLB career to this point in 2025, posting a 4.24 ERA in 182.1 innings.
Things were going south when he finally found some consistency in September, the perfect time to lead a late charge that gave the Guardians a chance to take back the AL Central from the Detroit Tigers.
In that month, Bibee, who recently conceded last year’s team didn’t play that well for most of the season but still found a way, had a pristine 1.30 ERA in 27.2 frames, showing the world he can adjust and fight back.
Will he ever return to his rookie form, when he put up a 2.98 ERA? Or will he finish with another mediocre ERA over 4.00?
The truth, as is usually the case in these scenarios, lies somewhere in between.
Bibee probably doesn’t have the fastball to be an ace, but he can definitely be a frontline guy for the Guardians.
They actually need that from him.
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