Joey Cantillo named the American League Rookie of the Month

Cleveland Guardians pitcher Joey Cantillo has been named the American League Rookie of the Month for the month of September.

During September, Cantillo started five games, posting an ERA of 1.55 per start and allowing only five total runs in those five starts. Cantillo also struck out 28 batters in just 29 innings of work, allowing exclusively 20 hits and picking up two wins on his record to bring his season record to 5-3.

Before Cantillo’s first start against Boston on September 3rd, the Guardians were 10.5 games behind the Detroit Tigers for first place in the American League Central Division. As all baseball fans know, the Guardians ended up completing that comeback to take the division crown back to Cleveland, and Cantillo was a big part of that for the Guardians' rotation.

Cleveland won four out of the five games that Cantillo started in September, including the enormous win on September 16th, where they took down the Tigers 7-5 in extra innings.

Joey will be the first Cleveland rookie to win the Rookie of the Month award this year, as the Athletics have dominated it, winning three out of the five awards this year. Cantillo will also be the first Cleveland player to win the award since Steven Kwan, who did it in his rookie season of 2022 in the months of September and April.

Seven rookies from Cleveland have accomplished the Rookie of the Month feat since the award was created in 2001. This list includes Kwan, Tyler Naquin, and Francisco Lindor. Cantillo will be the 5th pitcher for Cleveland to win the award and the first one since Scott Lewis won it in 2008, also in the month of September.

Cantillo’s resilience this season has been remarkable. After starting the season in the bullpen and pitching well, Cantillo gave up two runs to the Red Sox and was sent down to Triple-A Columbus, which would be the first of three times this season that Cantillo was sent down to Columbus. Most recently, it was in August, after a shaky couple of starts.

But Joey stayed the course and was called up again for his September 3rd start vs Boston, where he showed his worth as one of the coveted lefty arms in the rotation. Then the dominant start vs Kansas City, where Cantillo went 8.0 innings, gave up four hits, and zero runs.

Cantillo has earned his spot in this rotation. When the pitching gets tight in the postseason, we'll see where he gets his starts, but he has proven his worth for this team.