Guardians notes: Cleveland off to good start against good competition

CLEVELAND — The Guardians won 12 of their first 22 games against some formidable opponents, including the reigning World Series champion Dodgers and 2025 AL West Division winners Seattle. Team president Chris Antonetti can't complain. "I think overall it's been an encouraging start to the season, especially when you factor in the quality of the competition we're playing," Antonetti said prior to the series finale against Baltimore on Sunday afternoon. "Coming out of spring training, we knew we were going to be tested early by facing some really good teams. And so our guys have done a good job of working through that first part of our schedule and putting us in a good position moving forward." The first-place Guardians have received ample offense and timely hits to back elite starting pitching and defense. The sore spot has been a reworked bullpen that ranks near the bottom of the majors in ERA. "We still like the group of guys that we have," Antonetti said of the relief corps, which includes offseason additions and a new closer in right-hander Cade Smith. "It obviously hasn't performed as a group as consistently as we think it's capable of, but I'm optimistic that that group will develop into a strength of the team over time, even if we're not quite there yet." There are a couple viable relief options at Triple-A Columbus in right-hander Andrew Walters, who pitched for Cleveland in the postseason two years ago, and oft-injured mega prospect Daniel Espino. Walters had made four appearances for the Clippers through Saturday, allowing three runs (2 homers) and striking out nine. Espino had appeared in six games, posting a 1.59 ERA with six strikeouts over 5⅔ innings. "They're each in a little bit of a different place," Antonetti said. "Andrew is still in the process of getting back to full health. We've been really encouraged by what we've seen, but he's still building back up his volume and intensity. Daniel's fully healthy. We're just trying to work with him on getting him re-acclimated to the demands of the season and transitioning into a bullpen role and building some of those routines that he just hasn't had exposure to in the past. "We think both guys are capable of helping us at the major league level this year, but we will definitely have to balance not only their individual situations, but how do they fit into the entirety of the bullpen?" Espino, a top prospect since Cleveland drafted him in the first round in 2019, has pitched in only 34 games since, missing the majority of 2022-24 with shoulder and elbow issues. He returned to the mound for one game for Columbus last year and has remained healthy to this point. "It continues to be one of the highlights for us," Antonetti said. "He's put in a lot of work over the last few years to get to this point and it's exciting to see the progress. His most recent outing, he had electric stuff. And as encouraging, he bounced back really well the next day. So he's heading in a good direction." I, Robot Despite his team's low success rate on challenges, Antonetti has embraced the new ABS system. "I like it," he said. "League-wide, when I take the zoomed out view, I think it's functioned largely as intended. And I think in time, as people continue to get familiarized with it, it will just feel normal to us. That said, I still think there's a learning curve for each team and each player on how to best utilize that. And I think that's a learning process we ourselves are in the middle of." Entering Sunday, the Guardians were last in the majors on challenges, with an overall success rate of 37.8 percent — batter (31.8 percent) and catcher (46.7 percent). "Success rate isn't the ultimate barometer," Antonetti said. "I think what you're trying to do is, 'How do you get the most calls right?' And there's a lot of things that go into that. First, it starts with how many calls were borderline calls or calls that were missed, because there's a lot of variation in that. You may have been with a set of umpires that called some really good games. There were just fewer opportunities to challenge compared to maybe some opportunities that other teams had. "So you want to look at the total opportunities and the challenge percentage. 'How many of those did you challenge in addition to success rates?' So it's not as simple as just looking at either total number of successes or even success rate." Next up The Guardians wrap the homestand with a three-game series against the Astros that begins tonight at 6:10. RHP Slade Cecconi (0-2, 5.03 ERA) opens the set for Cleveland, while LHP Parker Messick (3-0, 1.05) goes on Tuesday night (6:10). RHP Tanner Bibee (0-2, 4.81) starts the series finale Wednesday afternoon (1:10). Houston will start RHP Spencer Arrighetti (1-0, 1.50) in the opener but has not named starters for the final two games. Roundin' third After Sunday's win, catcher Austin Hedges proposed to his girlfriend Lexi via a message on the Progressive Field scoreboard that had her name on top and a heart on the bottom and read, "WILL YOU MARRY ME?" She accepted the proposal. Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @CAwesomeheimer on X.