What Emmanuel Clase And His Contract Extension Bring To The Guardians' Bullpen

Locking up Emmanuel Clase is huge for the Cleveland Guardians!

Clase is a tremendous pitcher and a unique one at that. He has a three-pitch arsenal of a cutter which he uses 69.2 percent of the time, a slider with a 29.8 usage rate, and a four-seam fastball. However, he only threw his fastball 10 times in 2021. What makes this pitch distribution so impressive is that he consistently throws over 100 mph. Combining that with his slider which he throws in the mid-90s gives batters little chance of success at the plate.

In 2021, Clase threw his cutter at an average of 100.2 mph while striking out 42 batters with it. Usually, pitchers will see their fastball climb into the triple digits, but Clase is able to get there with his cutter. Throwing a cutter this hard is impressive because it allows him to have more control over where it goes, resulting in more strikes.

But Clase’s best pitch is easily his slider, which has a whiff percentage of 40.5 percent. Almost half the time he throws it, batters are swinging out of their shoes. Clase ranked in the 99th percentile in chase rate in 2021 and this was in large part because of his slider.

Emmanuel Clase, 101mph Fastball and 94mph Slider, Overlay. pic.twitter.com/zW0Gkb9ZG3
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 27, 2021

Having Clase at the back of the bullpen is huge for the Guardians because he shows batters something different than most pitchers. He throws heat, but all his pitches have significant movement on them. Turning to him late in the game gives batters little time to adjust to the heat he throws combined with his pitch’s movement. In 2021 Clase had a 1.29 ERA coming out of the bullpen, which is fantastic for a reliever. He also had 24 saves, which was fifth in the league.

With the Guardians signing him through 2028, they get one of the league's better closers who is still only 24.

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