Guardians' Big Offseason Addition Raising Glaring Red Flags

The Cleveland Guardians' biggest addition of the winter is raising some glaring red flags heading into the 2025 MLB season.

Mar 3, 2025; Peoria, Arizona, USA; Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis L. Ortiz against the Seattle Mariners during a spring training game at Peoria Sports Complex. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The Cleveland Guardians knew they had to address their ailing starting rotation heading into the offseason, so they went out and swung a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates to acquire Luis Ortiz.

The Guardians were generally lauded for their acquisition of Ortiz, a flamethrower who exhibited considerable potential with the Pirates last season.

However, Ortiz hasn't exactly gotten off to a shining start in Cleveland. In four appearances in spring training, Ortiz has gone 0-3 and lays claim to a 12.66 ERA. He has surrendered 16 hits and three home runs over 10.2 innings, also issuing six walks.

While these are just exhibition games and it's a very small sample size, it's definitely not what the Guardians wanted to see out of Ortiz early on, especially with Shane Bieber sidelined while recovering from Tommy John surgery and major question marks throughout the rest of the pitching staff.

Last year, Ortiz pitched in 37 games and made 15 starts in Pittsburgh, going 7-6 with a 3.32 ERA while allowing 109 hits and registering 107 strikeouts across 135.2 frames.

The 26-year-old has very limited experience as a starter, as he broke into the bigs with the Pirates in 2022 and has started just 34 games out of 59 outings.

Ortiz's low strikeout numbers are also concerning, as he owns a lifetime average of just 6.9 punchouts per nine innings, which is awfully low given the velocity of his fastball.

We'll see if the Dominican native can shake things off heading into 2025, but right now, there is some reason to be worried about the right-hander.

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