Joey Cantillo has been a reliable part of the Cleveland Guardians rotation all year. At the moment, he boasts a solid, if not spectacular, 4.00 ERA in 144 frames, but he has been struggling lately, particularly in the early innings of his outings.
Take, for example, his last start on Monday against the Baltimore Orioles. Cantillo allowed four runs in 2.1 frames, and they all came in the second and third innings. In the start before that one, on September 2, he surrendered seven runs in his first three frames, although not all of them were earned.
Evidently, Cantillo has been encountering some issues early in his starts. To help him solve these problems, Guardians insider Joe Noga brings up an interesting concept in the modern game: putting an opener ahead of the left-hander to solve the first inning or two.
“The question kind of automatically becomes, especially in today’s game at least, is it time to maybe look at an opener for Joey Cantillo?” Noga said. “Because really, the first couple of innings are where he’s been having his major problems over the last four starts.”
In his chat with fellow Guardians insider Paul Hoynes in the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast, Noga and his colleague even identified a potential ‘opener’ for Cantillo: Daniel Espino.
Espino is young, talented, throws very hard, and has some starting pitching experience from his time as a prospect. Remember, he was turned into a reliever ahead of the 2026 campaign, but he had been a starter for his entire career.
As the reporters explained, the difference in pitching approaches and styles between Espino and Cantillo is evident. The former touches the triple digits, and the latter focuses on off-speed stuff. It could drive the hitters crazy.
The idea has some cons, too. Using Espino, or another high-leverage reliever ahead of Cantillo as an opener, takes a weapon away from the late innings. It’s a risk they will have to take if they decide to adopt this concept, but it doesn’t sound bad at all.
One thing is clear: Cantillo and the Guardians need to do something to get the pitcher going. His ERA in the second half is 5.02, and with several alternatives such as Slade Cecconi, Logan Allen, and Ben Lively, he can’t afford to keep throwing like this.
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