CINCINNATI - Gavin Williams keeps doing his part, and the Guardians keep wasting it.
On Tuesday night, Cleveland’s right-hander delivered another dominant outing, but the Guardians were blanked 2-0 by a Reds bullpen that looked nothing like a group that should have been able to smother a lineup. Caleb Ferguson, a journeyman reliever with his sixth team in the last 30 months, Julian Garcia, a 31-year-old rookie who pitched last summer for the independent Kansas City Monarchs, Jose Franco, another rookie who was the Reds’ 27th man on Tuesday, Tejay Antone and Emilio Pagán combined to allow just three harmless singles.
That was enough to turn Williams’ latest gem into a footnote.
Over his last two starts, Williams has given up two runs on five hits in 14 innings, with one walk and 23 strikeouts. The Guardians lost both games.
In his last four outings, he has struck out at least 11 batters in each start, joining a short list of pitchers over the last 20 years that includes Shane Bieber, Gerrit Cole, Chris Sale, Trevor Bauer and Corey Kluber. Williams still has nothing to show for it in the standings.
The bigger problem is obvious and it keeps showing up in the same ugly way. Cleveland has dropped three of its last four games, and the losses have come by scores of 3-0, 2-0 and 1-0.
The pitching has done its job. The offense has not.
That has become the story again and again for this team. Last season, the Guardians finished 29th in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
The organization said it needed to be better, but the lineup hasn’t meaningfully changed, and now it sits 30th in OPS. The cycle is familiar, and it’s still going nowhere.
There are some bright spots in the rotation. Cleveland owns the sixth-best rotation ERA in the league, and all five starters have stayed off the injured list.
It’s a young group, with pitchers in their mid-20s still working toward what they can become. They need support, though, and they haven’t gotten much.
The bullpen has had its moments. The offense has had a brief stretch in May when it drew walks and stole bases, plus the three hours last week when the Guardians somehow turned Joe Ryan into a Home Run Derby tosser.
Beyond that, the lineup has mostly been empty. Cleveland ranks 29th in the league with a .676 OPS with runners in scoring position, and with two outs, it has been even worse.
The team’s recent free-agent hitter additions tell their own story. Rhys Hoskins was the lone external addition this past offseason.
Before him came Austin Hedges, Carlos Santana, Josh Bell, Mike Zunino, Luke Maile, César Hernández, Eddie Rosario, Domingo Santana, Brad Miller, Hanley Ramírez and Carlos González. Some of those bets never paid off.
A few barely got off the ground. The list stretches back to 2016-17 for the last real hits, with Mike Napoli, Rajai Davis, Edwin Encarnación and Austin Jackson among the names that actually gave Cleveland something.
That’s why the Guardians are back in the same place at trade season: looking for offense. Team president Chris Antonetti said over the winter that if internal development didn’t do the trick, the club could always add at the deadline. Now that moment is here.
Cleveland has gotten mild breakouts from Chase DeLauter, Travis Bazzana, Brayan Rocchio and Austin Hedges, but the overall production still sits near the bottom of the league. The team slash line has barely budged from last year’s .226/.296/.373 to this year’s .230/.309/.368.
The American League, for its part, has left the door open. The Guardians are still in the race, behind the upstart Chicago White Sox in a division whose winner might even stumble into a first-round bye. But being alive in the standings is not the same thing as being equipped to do something with the opportunity.
José Ramírez is approaching his 34th birthday, though he remains under team control for another six-plus seasons. Bazzana and DeLauter look like core pieces.
Ralphy Velazquez and Angel Genao are next in line as consensus top prospects. The foundation is there.
What isn’t there, once again, is enough offense.
In Other News...
Guardians Fans May Not Like Which Names Are In Deadline Talks
The Guardians deadline picture is getting more complicated by the day, and it does not stop with the obvious rental chatter. Bo Naylor has surfaced as a possible move before the August 3 deadline, which says plenty about how Cleveland is weighing its catching depth against the kind of return it might actually get, while Steven Kwan remains the sort of player front offices keep circling because he can help in so many ways even when the bat is uneven.
Kwans market is especially tricky after he was already a hot name last summer, then opened this season slowly before righting things enough to remind teams why he still stands out. Rhys Hoskins adds another layer, since his production has lagged but his right-handed power and low-cost profile could still appeal to clubs that miss on bigger bats, leaving Cleveland with a few movable pieces and no easy answers as the deadline approaches. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Just Put Serious Trade Deadline Pressure On Chris Antonetti
The trade deadline picture in the AL Central is getting a little clearer, and it is putting the Guardians in a tougher spot. Cleveland has been careful not to tip its hand beyond saying it will look at ways to improve the team, but the Twins are signaling a more aggressive posture as the deadline approaches, which matters in a division race where every move can ripple across the standings.
For Chris Antonetti, the pressure now comes not just from what Cleveland needs, but from what Minnesota is willing to do to answer it. The Twins are expected to be active and have already altered the market in ways that could affect the price of help elsewhere, leaving the Guardians to weigh whether standing pat is good enough when a direct rival appears ready to spend its way into the stretch run. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians May Be Revisiting A Trade Deadline Fix Fans Know Too Well
The Guardians are again being linked to a familiar deadline name as they look for help for a lineup that has gone cold during a losing streak. According to speculation from an insider, Cleveland may be considering a reunion with an outfielder it already knows well, a move that would fit the clubs search for a right-handed bat and some veteran stability as the deadline approaches.
It would also be a reminder of how quickly these summer fixes can come full circle. Cleveland already went this route once, and the idea now is less about splash than fit, with the front office weighing whether a short-term addition can give the order a better balance without costing too much in return. Nothing is confirmed yet, but the possibility alone says plenty about where the Guardians think the roster needs help. [Read more 🡒]