Emmanuel Clase was in a tier of his own last year.
He became the owner of two revered records in franchise history: most saves as a Guardian all-time and in a single season.
He also posted a 0.61 ERA and allowed just five earned runs in the entire regular season.
After conceding two more earned runs on Saturday night in a non-save situation against the Kansas City Royals, he has now surrendered six in the young campaign, already surpassing last year’s total.
His stuff is fine and his velocity is very close to his career norms.
So, what’s happening with Clase? Why is he running a 7.71 ERA as of Sunday morning?
Well, according to Guardians analyst Justin Lada, it’s a command issue.
If you point out that he is not really walking guys, you would be right: one base on balls in seven innings isn’t bad at all.
The problem stems from catching too much of the fat part of the zone more often than usual.
“Clase is a really good example right now of command vs. control. Control is that he’s not really walking guys. Command is that he’s missing in the big part of the plate and not hitting the spots he normally does,” he posted on X.
Clase is a really good example right now of command vs. control.
Control is that he's not really walking guys.
Command is that he's missing in the big part of the plate and not hitting the spots he normally does.
— Justin L. (jlbaseball on bluesky) (@JL_Baseball) April 13, 2025
The sentence is spot-on.
Clase isn’t hurting himself with walks: in a way, he is struggling because his strikes are too ‘hittable.’
Yes, he throws close to 100 mph with movement.
However, big-league hitters are trained to hit balls in the heart of the zone.
Yes, it’s harder to hit a 100 mph cutter with movement in the ‘middle-middle’ part of the zone than, say, a 92 mph flat fastball.
Still, MLB-caliber hitters can inflict damage if the location of the pitch is poor.
In Clase’s case, the struggles are part mental, and part command-related.
He needs to have a clean outing, and then his confidence will feed on that.
It all starts with hitting his spots, though.
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