The Cleveland Guardians have had a relatively quiet offseason that has been highlighted by making some minor upgrades to the pitching staff, namely re-signing Shane Bieber and trading for Luis Ortiz to bolster a starting rotation that showed cracks at its foundation during the team’s run to the ALCS this past season.
With Bieber and Ortiz involved, it’s somewhat unclear what the five-man rotation will look like when everyone is healthy, but one analyst had a prediction.
Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter recently published an article projecting each team’s starting rotation for the upcoming season.
His updated forecast for the Guardians includes Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, Ben Lively, Ortiz, and Triston McKenzie as the five-man rotation, at least until Bieber is ready to return.
“The Guardians were left trying to cobble together a competitive rotation behind Tanner Bibee last October, turning to veterans Matthew Boyd and Alex Cobb to start playoff games. Despite those issues, they did little to address the rotation this winter outside of adding Luis L. Ortiz from the Pirates, though they should have Shane Bieber back at some point during the first half,” Reuter said
Losing Cobb and Boyd in free agency hurt, but Williams’s return to health and the acquisition of Ortiz have the team aiming for a slightly higher ceiling from its 2025 rotation.
This rotation struggled to generate any sort of length in the playoffs and contributed to the bullpen being overworked, so hopefully, the team can get a bit more consistency from this unit in 2025 to help out the league’s best bullpen.
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