Guardians’ path to a long-awaited World Series starts with their dominant bullpen

CLEVELAND — Moments before first pitch, David Fry and Austin Hedges find their spots on the Guardians’ bench. Fry turns to his fellow catcher and mimics their manager.

Hey, how soon do you want to go to Cade Smith? Second inning? Let’s do it.

It’s become a regular gimmick, two players tasked with keeping their teammates relaxed, loose and, often, cackling, imitating their boss to defuse any pregame tension.

There’s plenty of truth behind the parody. For Stephen Vogt, a first-year manager navigating a playoff season, the Guardians’ bullpen has been his best friend.

It was supposed to be Emmanuel Clase rebounding from an erratic year, with James Karinchak, Trevor Stephan and Sam Hentges bridging the gap to the ninth inning. Clase did submit one of the most dominant relief seasons in the sport’s history, but the other three spent most or all of the season on the injured list. Instead, a few first-timers breezed through the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to help construct baseball’s best bullpen.

Just as everyone predicted, the greatest threat to the franchise’s 76-year title drought is a cadre of inexperienced yet undaunted relievers named Cade Smith, Tim Herrin and Hunter Gaddis.

Cleveland’s bullpen registered a 2.57 ERA, more than a half-run better than any other team and a full run better than 25 other clubs. It’s the fourth-lowest bullpen ERA of the wild-card era, which stretches back 30 years, and this group covered 150 innings more than the ones ahead of it on that list.

With an abundance of off days and urgency in October, the Guardians will lean on their bullpen early, late and often. They haven’t won the World Series since 1948, when bullpens were the last resort, not the first line of defense.

Their quest to end their championship hex starts with their stars, José Ramírez and Steven Kwan fueling the lineup and Tanner Bibee anchoring the rotation. But it involves significant participation from those relatively anonymous executioners in the bullpen. At least, that’s how any manager would approach it.

“If I were managing,” Fry said, “I’d just say, ‘Let’s go. Let’s go to the bullpen.’ They’re so stinking good. It’s incredible.”

On Aug. 11, Clase loaded the bases in the ninth inning of a game the Guardians desperately needed. In the visitors’ dugout at Target Field, Vogt’s anxiety was swallowing him whole. At least, until he fixated on Clase and noticed how unmoved the closer was.

The Guardians had snapped a seven-game skid the night before. Their AL Central lead had all but evaporated. Clase was teetering on the brink of disaster. But he wasn’t sweating it, so why should Vogt?

“That dude didn’t take a deep breath,” Vogt said. “He didn’t gather himself. He didn’t flinch. He just reared back and hit 102 (mph).”

First, Clase emerged triumphant in an eight-pitch war with Willi Castro, who struck out on a 102.2 mph cutter. Then he induced a game-ending double play. Another scoreless frame. Another save secured.

Clase allowed one earned run after the All-Star break. Opponents mustered a .392 OPS against him this season. He sapped the suspense out of ninth innings.

The last time a Cleveland club featured such an advantage with its late-inning pitching setup, Andrew Miller was the reliever who jogged to the mound as virtual flames filled the Progressive Field scoreboard. Miller’s barely mortal effort in October 2016 guided the Indians to within one win — one run, really — of vanquishing that World Series drought. And he has taken notice of what Clase and the current Cleveland bunch can achieve.

“Incredible,” Miller said. “His stuff is insane.”

Clase can deploy that triple-digit cutter and wicked slider more often. There won’t be as many restrictions with the season on the line, especially with off-days scheduled between Games 1 and 2, Games 2 and 3 and, if necessary, Games 4 and 5 of the ALDS.

Clase made only one multi-inning appearance this season, a two-frame cameo at Yankee Stadium in a late August clash that reeked of playoff baseball. He pitched the ninth, returned to the dugout and assured Vogt he was fine to log another inning. He pitched the 10th, returned to the dugout and Vogt delivered a different message.

“He said, ‘I can’t go three?’” Vogt said. “I said, ‘No, absolutely not.’”

In October, though, rules are meant to be broken.

Clase won’t be alone, either. Fry was joking about summoning Smith in the second inning of a game, but Vogt will call upon his chief stopper whenever danger arises. Smith became the first Cleveland reliever in a quarter century to eclipse the 100-strikeout mark. His fastball, per Statcast, was the most lethal pitch in the league this season. He entered games in the fourth or fifth innings to neutralize opponents’ threats. He covered the sixth, seventh or eighth in tight games. He gained plenty of experience pitching more than one inning. And nothing ever seemed to faze him.

“He’s a machine,” said fellow reliever Erik Sabrowski, “in a nice way.”

Because of the flashy numbers Clase and Smith posted, Gaddis almost flew under the radar, concealed behind his bushy, chestnut-colored beard. Gaddis allowed an earned run in only 10 of his 78 appearances. (Only Oakland’s T.J. McFarland logged more outings.) He kept his ERA below 2.00 from late May until the end of the season.

Two winters ago, Herrin rushed to the back of a Lululemon store to take a call from Cleveland’s director of player development, who informed him he was being added to the 40-man roster, which earned him an invite to big-league camp. Now, he’s the team’s primary lefty reliever and recorded a 1.92 ERA across 75 outings. He has gone from selling gear to runners and riders to slinging fastballs, curveballs and sliders. (Sorry.)

“He’s such a quiet, respectful, reserved kid,” Vogt said. “As he said, very monotone, ‘We’ve got that dawg in us.’”

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The bullpen has sprinkled its fairy dust on new members in recent weeks, too. Sabrowski and Andrew Walters combined for 21 1/3 innings in September. They allowed seven hits, tallied 25 strikeouts and didn’t allow an earned run.

“‘Sabrowski, go make your debut. Oh wait, you’re just not gonna give up runs,’” Fry said. “‘Walters, you look really rattled, man.’ He’s just like, (nonchalant pitch), 98 (mph), you’re out, see you later.’ … Where do we find these guys?”

In January, three weeks before the official start of spring training, Fry, Will Brennan and Bo Naylor were facing minor-league pitchers in a live batting practice session on a back field at the club’s complex in Goodyear, Ariz. The three were unfamiliar with Walters, a second-round pick the previous summer. Brennan stepped in against him, struck out on three pitches and retreated to his two teammates. “That seemed fast,” he told them. They checked the data on an iPad and noticed Walters was throwing 97-99 mph the entire outing.

“OK,” Fry remembers saying, “well, he’s gonna be good.”

Walters was destined for the majors ever since the Guardians committed nearly $1 million to him. Sabrowski’s journey to the big leagues was far more implausible.

Shortly after the Padres drafted him in the 14th round out of Cloud County Community College (Kansas) in 2018, Sabrowski underwent Tommy John surgery. He was completing his recovery when the pandemic wiped out the 2020 minor-league season. He needed another elbow reconstruction in 2021. To get through it all, he turned to what he deems “a little bit of dark humor.”

“My reaction to a lot of it,” he said, “was a sick laugh.”

He considered bailing on baseball and pursuing a career as a social studies teacher. In October 2022, after a setback in his recovery from the second surgery, he told his agent he had fallen out of love with baseball. His agent, a Toronto resident, said he would fly to Sabrowski’s home in Edmonton “and kick my ass if I quit.”

Could he actually do that?

“No,” said Sabrowski, listed at 6-foot-4, 230 pounds, “but it was enough to help me out.”

Sabrowski realized people in his corner saw his potential, even if he hadn’t had many opportunities to showcase it. The Guardians saw enough to grab him in the minor-league portion of the Rule 5 Draft that winter.

He spent this summer wondering how he could break into a relief corps that had proven invincible. But there he was, spraying champagne twice in three days as the Guardians clinched a playoff berth and an AL Central crown.

“Who’s got it better than me?” Sabrowski said. “That’s what I think. Like, first-place team, popped champagne twice, best bullpen ever. It’s been incredible.”

Hedges and pitcher Matthew Boyd have assured him this isn’t the norm. “This isn’t normal. Teams aren’t this close. Teams don’t have this much fun,’” Sabrowski said. “Teams don’t win this much. Remember what this is like. And, one day, when you’re hopefully a vet in the locker room, you can let people know this is what the expectation is, and this is what it should be like.’”

A couple of months ago, Sabrowski was at Triple A, recovering from a concussion suffered when a catcher’s throw to second base conked him in the back of the head. Now, he’s gearing up to pitch in October, and so far, he has looked the part.

This is a team — and, especially, a bullpen — that has welcomed young players into the fold and placed expectations upon them. Fry can’t fathom how they’ve thrived.

“My first at-bat,” Fry said, “I’m just thinking, ‘All right, how can I not look like an idiot? Don’t trip going to first base. Don’t throw your bat. Don’t do anything dumb.’”

Smith, meanwhile, struck out five in two scoreless innings in his debut. Sabrowski struck out a pair of Royals. Walters didn’t allow a hit in his first eight appearances.

Such is life in the Cleveland bullpen.

“When they do give up runs,” Vogt said, “we’re like, ‘What happened?’”

Last week, Fry noticed new scoreboard videos and animation at Progressive Field in preparation for October’s full crowds and frenzied atmosphere. He stood beside Bibee as Gaddis entered from the bullpen while “Hoist the Colours” blared from the ballpark speakers.

“Can you imagine him in the playoffs?” Bibee said.

Then, they daydreamed about Smith smacking Naylor’s mitt with 97 mph heaters. They thought about Clase, no longer tethered to stringent pitch counts. They thought about the best way for this Guardians team to navigate October.

“Every single guy,” Fry said. … “It’s gonna be really fun to watch.”

(Top photo of Emmanuel Clase: Jason Miller / Getty Images)