The Cleveland Guardians have an embarrassment of riches in their bullpen.
Emmanuel Clase, Cade Smith, Tim Herrin, Hunter Gaddis, Jakob Junis, Paul Sewald, Joey Cantillo, and Triston McKenzie, plus injured contributors like Erik Sabrowski, Sam Hentges, Nic Enright, Franco Aleman, and Trevor Stephan, co-exist in this extremely deep and talented unit.
We aren’t even including Andrew Walters in that group, but reality indicates not only that we should, but also that he has the potential to be one of the most important relievers in this bullpen.
He was set to make the roster out of camp but suffered a shoulder scare that pushed back his 2025 debut and sent him to Triple-A to finish his ramp-up process there.
He had his first appearance of the season with the Columbus Clippers on Tuesday and was excellent.
“Andrew Walters was electric in his first Triple-A outing of the 2025 regular season. 95-97, getting 18-20 inches of IVB on the fastball and showed off a good slider. No signs here of the shoulder issue he was dealing with early in spring,” Guardians analyst Justin Lada posted on X.
Andrew Walters was electric in his first Triple-A outing of the 2025 regular season. 95-97, getting 18-20 inches of IVB on the fastball and showed off a good slider.
No signs here of the shoulder issue he was dealing with early in spring.#GuardsBall pic.twitter.com/sdAxj0ZBwh
— Justin L. (jlbaseball on bluesky) (@JL_Baseball) April 1, 2025
Results-wise, the outing was very positive: Walters threw a perfect inning with two strikeouts.
It sure sounds like he could be ready to rejoin the Guardians bullpen after a couple of additional outings with the Clippers.
The 24-year-old future bullpen ace already made a huge impression last year, tossing 8.2 scoreless frames to open his MLB career and then contributing three solid postseason innings in which he surrendered a single run.
With his high-octane heater and deadly slider, he is equipped to help the Guardians protect late-inning leads.
NEXT: Stephen Vogt Gets Criticized For Curious Lineup Decision On Monday
