Insider Exposes Surprising Concern for Cleveland Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians may have to deal with a rather surprising concern heading into the 2025 MLB season.
Sep 4, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt (12) watches from the dugout against the Kansas City Royals prior to a game at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images
Sep 4, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt (12) watches from the dugout against the Kansas City Royals prior to a game at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images / Denny Medley-Imagn Images
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The Cleveland Guardians are coming off of a spectacular 2024 campaign in which they won the AL Central and made it all the way to the ALCS.

However, major concerns exists for the Guardians heading into next season.

The starting rotation is full of question marks, and the lineup could ultimately be a flop if some of Cleveland's younger players don't step up.

But Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com has revealed another surprising worry for the Guardians: the bullpen.

Cleveland's bullpen was a massive strength last season and was actually historically good, although it definitely went off the rails a bit in the playoffs, possibly due to fatigue.

Hoynes wonders if the Guardians' relievers will face similar issues in 2025.

“Relievers Trevor Stephan and Sam Hentges are dealing with injuries. Stephan, recovering from Tommy John surgery, is expected to return at some point this year, but Hentges (left shoulder) could miss the season," Hoynes wrote. "All of which puts even more attention on how quickly [Emmanuel] Clase, [Hunter] Gaddis, [Tim] Herrin and [Cade] Smith recover from last year’s workload. It will go along way in determining what kind of season the Guardians have."

There is no question that Cleveland's bullpen will have a tough time matching its production from last year, where Clase, Gaddis, Smith and Herrin all posted sub-2 ERAs and all appeared in over 70 games.

That's a difficult act to follow for sure, and it will certainly be interesting to monitor the Guardians' relievers throughout the course of the season.

It will be up to Stephen Vogt to manage the bullpen properly to ensure his best hurlers don't burn out during the second half of the year.


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Matthew Schmidt
MATTHEW SCHMIDT

Matthew Schmidt is a sportswriter who covers NFL, MLB, NBA and college football and basketball. He has been writing professionally since 2011 and has also worked for Bleacher Report, FanRag Sports, ClutchPoints, NFLAnalysis.net and NBAAnalysis.net. He was born and raised in New Jersey and has a rather eclectic group of favorite teams: the Boston Celtics, New York Giants and Miami Marlins.