Somewhat lost in the Cleveland Guardians’ better-than-expected start to the 2026 season have been the struggles of closer Cade Smith. With Chase DeLauter generating headlines with almost every at-bat, and Parker Messick emerging as a potential ace with two outstanding starts, Smith’s performance hasn’t drawn the closer look it otherwise might if the team were losing.
Granted, it is just 10 games into his first full season as Cleveland’s closer, and they have not lost any of the games he has appeared in. But his statistics so far would not inspire confidence if they were coming from any other reliever.
With that in mind, analyst Anthony Castrovince is shutting down concerns about Smith’s struggles, but he is expressing caution about his previous workload and the season-to-season changes relief pitchers often face.
“It’s April 6. I try not to freak out about anything, especially guys with a discernible track record, and he has that. The only thing I’d say about Cade Smith is this guy hasn’t even reached arbitration yet, and he’s at, like, 150 appearances in the big leagues. He’s been used. Seventy-plus appearances in his first two seasons, that’s tough. I’m not sweating a handful of appearances at the start of the season, but relievers are funky like that. It’s very hard to have a three-, four-, five-, six-year track record of elite performance in a big league bullpen,” Castrovince said.
"He's been used, 70+ appearances in his first 2 seasons, that's tough. I'm not sweating a handful of appearances at the start of the season, but relievers are funky like that. It's very hard to have a 3, 4, 5, 6, year track record of elite performance in a big league bullpen."… pic.twitter.com/LTwjV0VVCv
— 92.3 The Fan (@923TheFan) April 6, 2026
Since an excellent outing on Opening Day, when he needed just 13 pitches to retire the Seattle Mariners in order and earn his first save of the year, Smith has given up at least one run in four of his next five outings. Though he has just one blown save, and has finished two victories against the world champion Los Angeles Dodgers, his ERA sits at 7.50 with seven hits and three walks allowed in his six innings.
More troubling may be the fact that he’s having to work very hard to finish those innings. He has thrown more than 22 pitches four times, with a high of 33 in his most recent outing, against the Chicago Cubs in the second game of a doubleheader on Sunday, when he gave up a run but survived by stranding two runners in a 6-5 victory.
Smith was arguably Cleveland’s most valuable player last season, when he took over as the closer after Emmanuel Clase was put on leave due to an MLB gambling investigation. Over the final two months, Smith went 6-1 with 13 saves in 16 opportunities to help the Guardians rally to another AL Central title.
He has yet to regain that form, and with a very long way to go, there will undoubtedly be many more ups and downs for Smith this season.
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