CLEVELAND — There's a scene in the 1993 comedy classic " Mrs. Doubtfire " in which Robin Williams , playing the title character, leaps over a barrier and yells "Help is on the way, dear!"
That's sort of the situation the Guardians are hoping for when it comes to their banged-up starting rotation, but they're not sure from what direction Williams would be leaping.
The Guardians have baseball's best bullpen , and their lineup has experienced a power surge that has produced at an above-average rate and has Cleveland in first place in the American League Central.
But not much has gone as expected when it comes to the starting rotation. Tanner Bibee has been terrific , and Ben Lively is having the best season of his career . Very little outside of those two spots has gone smoothly.
Triston McKenzie and Logan Allen are in Triple-A trying to regain their form, and Shane Bieber's season was over a couple weeks after Opening Day.
As the Guardians look toward the trade deadline , which is fast approaching (July 30), they could use a couple of bats (shortstop or outfield, specifically, though with their designated hitter flexibility, a lot of options exist). But their primary concern will rest with the starting rotation.
But as is the case with any trade, it takes (at least) two to tango to complete a deal.
"I would say we're actively engaged exploring opportunities to try to improve the team. It's hard to predict what will come of that," said Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti. "I think it's important to remember that the group of guys in that clubhouse are the ones that have played and put us in the position to win the amount of games that we have. And our success in the second half is going to be determined by that group of guys. If we can find opportunities to compliment them, great."
Here's the other problem: just about every contender could use some pitching help, so it's a seller's market.
Contending teams are just about always looking to bolster their pitching staffs at the trade deadline anyway. But this year, teams have been hit a bit harder than usual by pitching injuries across the league, the Guardians included. That has created an even more lopsided advantage for rebuilding teams with pitchers to deal.
"I mean, the supply and demand, there's definitely an imbalance there," Antonetti said. "I think there are 18 or 19 teams that are actively looking to add to their teams and improve them. The vast majority of those are looking for pitching and specifically starting pitching, so it creates a unique market."
"It was one of the reasons why we wanted to try to get ahead of that as best we could and bring in Matt Boyd , so we had at least another option as we started to look at the balance of the season starting in August, and thankfully Matt's continued to make great progress and we think he's going to be able to impact us, but we'll continue to explore."
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Boyd , 33, has a career 4.94 ERA in the majors and is coming off of Tommy John surgery, so he likely remains a depth option later in the year rather than someone who can really grab hold of a rotation spot. McKenzie and Allen both had ERAs north of 5.00 when they were optioned to Triple-A. Allen has been pitched well since making the trip to Columbus, but McKenzie has continued to struggle with his command.
The Guardians likely need to address their pitching staff in some way within the next week. Whether it's from Columbus via their own minor league system or another major league clubhouse across North America, that remains to be seen. Regardless, the Guardians hope some help is on the way, considering their elite bullpen and stronger lineup have them securely holding aspirations of October success.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Guardians 2024 trade deadline starting pitching market
