Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Tanner Bibee experienced the worst season of his professional career during the 2026 season. The right-hander never seemed to be able to get on track, which eventually resulted in him getting benched during the postseason.
Usually, a move like that would mean a split during the offseason, but that might not be the case here. Adam Gerstenhaber believes that Bibee is going to be part of the future, and that benching him in the postseason won’t be an issue going forward.
“Say what you want about the Guardians. There’s plenty of criticism. But they’ve mostly done an excellent job as well as almost any team in baseball, if not better than any team in baseball with their pitchers. It’s not a problem that can’t be fixed. He will be better next year and he should have no ill will toward the organization,” Gerstenhaber said.
The 2026 season was certainly the worst season of Bibee’s four-year career. He finished the season with a 7-15 record, 4.36 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, and a 148/55 K/BB ratio across 33 starts. The right-hander gave up a career-high 29 home runs and allowed a career-high 175 hits across 188.0 innings of work.
The Guardians are in a tough spot with Bibee under contract through 2029, and have a team option for the 2030 season. Luckily for Cleveland, Bibee signed a team-friendly deal that is only $48 million over the course of the deal.
Over the years, the Guardians have done an incredible job with their pitching. They’ve been one of the bigger organizations at developing pitching, so if anyone can fix Bibee, it’ll likely be Cleveland. Bibee got off to a great start to his career with a 2.98 ERA during his rookie year, but has been trending downward since then. His ERA has climbed every season, with the 2026 season being his worst to date.
Clearly, something needs to change for Bibee because he’s not having success right now. The Guardians need to focus on working with him and helping him work through these issues. They’ve helped other pitchers turn it around in the past, so hopefully they can get Bibee back on track.
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