The Reds and Guardians unwittingly have similar strategies right now in terms of their rotations. The front end of the rotation is all rookie-to-2nd-year guys who are playing big roles in the wake of veterans who are currently injured. The difference is that one of these second place teams is a contender and the other isn't.
The more publicized pitching situation is, of course, from the better team, the Reds. Without Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Vladimir Gutierrez and Connor Overton, the Reds have been forced to bring up multiple rookies to start games. Admittedly some, like Levi Stoudt and Lyon Richardson, haven't worked out, but there's this core of Andrew Abbott and Brandon Williamson that's somehow powering the team, even despite a recent losing stretch. Abbott was electric in his first few starts, and has mellowed into a solid, consistent, reliable starter: through 12 starts he's 6-3 with a 2.93 ERA and 74 Ks. And it's been incredible, because without Hunter Greene, the team has struggled to find a suitable ace, and Abbott is that guy.
At the same time, Brandon Williamson has come into his own since debuting earlier this year. Four of his last 5 starts have been quality outings, and three of those were 6+ inning stints. His ERA is now around 4.50 and he's finally getting the hang of MLB pitching. I don't think Williamson is meant to be a high-tier rotation piece, considering all the other ones that exist, but I also think he's a handy guy to have around to eat innings. Aside from these rookies, all the Reds have are guys like Brett Kennedy and Ben Lively, interesting stories who haven't pitched in the bigs in years and are doing better than expected.
The goal, I guess, is for all of these people to be healthy and surging at once. And you hope that we can start the 2024 season with Greene and Lodolo healthy and thriving, Abbott still pitching like this, Graham Ashcraft building off some of the starts he's had very recently, and Williamson continuing to be consistent. With the lineup this impressive, you need a rotation that excellent in concept to deliver for you, and I hope they can.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Ohio, you have the Cleveland Guardians, who are currently without Shane Bieber, Triston McKenzie and Cal Quantrill thanks to injuries, and just lost Aaron Civale to Tampa. Pretty much every second or third year pitcher to start a game for them in the past few seasons is doing much better in relief. So, pretty much 4/5ths of the Guardians' rotation is made up of rookies. Right now it is literally Noah Syndergaard babysitting, which means he's officially become the Bartolo Colon of this rotation.
Like the Reds, not every rookie the Guardians have tried has worked: Hunter Gaddis tried some starts in April and it didn't go too well. But virtually every other one has really found their comfort zone starting games. The biggest success story this year has been Tanner Bibee, who's gotten 18 starts this year, and is 8-2 with a 2.92 and 101 Ks, lapping even Bieber's season total thus far. Bibee is a solid workhorse who's doing everything right and providing the strongest innings for the team.
The flashier arm of the rookies might be Gavin Williams, a mega-prospect who's got a 2.90 ERA in 9 starts. Williams is slowly coming into his own, and while he may reach higher heights in the future, he's putting in nice work so far. Same with Logan Allen, who's got a 3.55 ERA in 17 starts. And the pleasant surprise of the year has been Xzavion Curry, who struggled in two starts last year but warmed up in the pen for the first half and has been excellent starting games. I think the team is still hesitant leaving him in for starter's lengths, but he took 5 innings last time and is slotted for another start this week, so he may be the answer this year, which isn't a bad shake of things. He strikes out more people than Thor at this point, that's for sure.
The main difference between these two teams is the Reds have a wholly effective lineup to rest on, featuring T.J. Friedl, Matt McLain, Spencer Steer and Will Benson delivering, as promised, while the Guardians only have three healthy hitters batting over .250. The Reds have the run support, which is weird to say about a team that isn't the one that out-contact-hit everybody last year. The Guardians have a few people that can get hits in [insert your own Tim Anderson joke here], but it doesn't spread to the whole squad.
Hopefully these teams can build off these rookie rotation arrangements and develop their new gameplan going forward as they recover from injuries. But, again, if the Reds are still this good without Greene and Lodolo..just imagine them reinstalled into this rotation.
Coming Tonight: Ironically a former Red. He can hit for power pretty well.
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