CLEVELAND — The Guardians starting rotation in 2024 has been a case of give-and-take.
When they entered spring training, the rotation looked to be the part of the roster to provide the most stability. That has not been the case.
Ace Shane Bieber's season was abruptly cut short as he underwent Tommy John surgery. Gavin Williams has yet to make his 2024 debut.
Those injuries have led to much larger roles for both Ben Lively and Carlos Carrasco , at least compared to their respective outlooks when spring camp got underway in February. Lively has been terrific, but Carrasco has struggled to find his groove.
It's been one step forward, one step back.
The recent trends for Tanner Bibee and Triston McKenzie have followed this path as well.
Bibee has been on a roll. In a six-start stretch between May 13 and June 12, he had a 2.83 ERA in 35 innings. That was before Wednesday's outing in the Guardians' 8-0 win over the Seattle Mariners in which he tossed six scoreless innings.
But the biggest bright spot for the Guardians is how Bibee has been missing bats lately. In his June 12 start in Cincinnati , he set a career high with 11 strikeouts, the first time he had ever reached double digits in a single outing.
That career high lasted all of one week, as he eclipsed it with a 12-strikeout performance Wednesday night against the Mariners. Beyond the strikeouts, Bibee had 20 swings-and-misses on only 93 pitches, a top-tier rate.
"It's a fun night to catch when you have an elite pitcher with all of his pitches working," said Guardians manager Stephen Vogt , a former catcher. "It kind of feels like you're playing video games."
To Vogt, the Guardians haven't only seen a better version of Bibee lately, but a more efficient one.
"Early in the year, the mid-count is where he would not toy around, but he'd try to be perfect as soon as he'd get ahead," Vogt said. "He'd try to be perfect in the mid-count and then … it's a seven-pitch at-bat. I feel like now it's three, four pitches and they're out of there."
Bibee joked after the game that the didn't particularly enjoy pitching in such hot, humid weather. But he won't complain when he had every pitch working.
Pitchers sometimes have to adjust from start to start based on which pitches are working on that particular day. But when everything is spinning correctly, Bibee can put together an ace-like performance, as he did Wednesday.
"I love being a part of stand it's really fun working with him because I know that with whatever I'm calling or whatever he shakes to, he's throwing it with conviction and that just makes the pitches that much better," said catcher Bo Naylor . "My job's easy."
McKenzie, meanwhile, has been struggling to find his footing on the mound this season, which he had hoped would be a rebound year after missing nearly all of 2023 with injuries.
McKenzie couldn't get out of the third inning in Tuesday night's loss to the Mariners . His velocity was up and around his pre-injury level, which was an encouraging sign for the Guardians. He has averaged 90.9 mph with his fastball this season, but Tuesday night that was up to 92.2 mph, and he maxed out at 94.3 mph.
But the effectiveness didn't arrive with the velocity jump.
"I thought my delivery wasn't really synced up," McKenzie said. "I thought the velo was a little up, but moving down the mound was the same. But I don't think that was an excuse."After that rough outing, McKenzie had given up the most walks (42) and the second-most home runs (15) in the majors this season. In his last five starts, he's posted a 7.04 ERA.With Bieber out, Williams making slow progress, Carrasco struggling and Logan Allen dealing with some inconsistency, the Guardians have needed McKenzie to offer some resemblance of stability. He knows it, too.But his hopeful injury rebound has featured a much harder landing than he would have liked."Especially after losing the last two, I just wanted to go out there and put my best foot forward," McKenzie said, "and [didn't] give the guys my best effort in my opinion."The Guardians rotation has been attempting to right the ship. But that can be difficult when they're riding such extreme waves, both high and low, at the same time.
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com. Read more about the Guardians at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/cleveland-guardians. Follow him on Threads at @ByRyanLewis .
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Guardians starting rotation Tanner Bibee 12 strikeouts
