The Guardians have the first pick in the MLB draft July 14, and if they choose they could use it on Wake Forest starting pitcher Chase Burns. But Burns likely isn’t ready to join the team this summer, and the Guardians need starting pitching help now.
President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti on July 3 met with reporters before the Guardians hosted the White Sox at Progressive Field in Game 2 of their three-game series that concludes with a 1 p.m. game July 4. He answered questions about the draft without revealing whom the Guardians might be targeting and also answered questions about the current pitching situation.
The Guardians (53-30) have a six-game lead on second-place Minnesota in the American League Central. That’s the good news.
The bad news is their starting pitchers rank 23rd of MLB’s 30 teams with a 4.42 ERA. They rank 26th in innings pitched (424). The starting pitchers have been credited with 30 of the team’s 53 victories. That is good for sixth. Only the Yankees (38) and Orioles (36) in the American League have more victories from their starters.
Gavin Williams, who suffered an elbow injury in spring training, finally made his 2024 debut July 3 in the 84th game of the season. Earlier this week, starter Triston McKenzie (3-5, 5.11 ERA in 16 starts) was optioned to Triple-A Columbus.
“One of our goals is to get more consistency out of the starting rotation,” Antonetti said. “And the ways to do that are, first and foremost, help the guys that are here continue to get better and become more consistent.
“Hopefully introducing Gavin back into the rotation can be one step in that process. The other is, what external opportunities are there for us to add to the group we have? That was part of the impetus behind signing Matt Boyd because we think he’s got a chance to come back and help us later in the year. Now it’s not today, but about a month from now, at some point in August, we think Matt will be ready to rejoin and hopefully bolster our rotation and provide another option.”
Boyd, a 33-year-old lefty, has a career record of 44-67. He has never had a winning record. He was 5-5 with the Tigers last year and then underwent Tommy John surgery in June. The Guardians signed him for the remainder of 2024 for a prorated $3.5 million.
“The pick me up that he could bring here when he does get healthy is huge,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said on July 2. “To get him around the group, getting to know the guys, starting to immerse himself into our culture is going to be really important.”
The trade deadline is July 30. The Guardians are in position to be buyers, but with them it is always a question of cost — financially for the player and what talent they would have to give up to get another starter.
“What we try to do in years in which we’re competitive, we want to try to improve the team and help us create a push for the postseason,” Antonetti said. “Now we always have to be mindful of what’s the cost of improving the present and how much future value are we giving up to try to improve this year? And it’s a very delicate balance to strike.
“There have been years in which we’ve been able to do that and it brought players in and other years we found the cost to be just too high and not to make sense. So exactly how this market will play out, impossible to predict. But we do expect there to be a lot of demand for some of the better players on the market. And that was actually one of the reasons why we wanted to try to get ahead of things and sign Matt Boyd.”
The Guardians have not given up on McKenzie. The slender right-hander has said he is dealing with an elbow injury, but Antonetti said health isn’t the issue.
“If you look at all of the metrics on him, even the most recent ones, they’re as good as they’ve been,” Antonetti said. “His velocity was up to 96 and a half (MPH) in his last outing. He had the best average fastball that he’s had over the last couple of seasons.
“So the good news is Triston’s healthy and feeling good. We just need to get him to be more consistent with his pitch execution and the strike zone.”
A shoulder injury and then an elbow injury limited McKenzie to three starts (0-3) last year. His best season was 2022 when he was 11-11 with a 2.96 ERA.
The Guardians are in this predicament because they have been without their best pitcher since early April. Shane Bieber pitched six shutout innings on March 8 and again on April 2, but he needed Tommy John surgery and won’t be able to pitch again until 2025.
