The Cleveland Guardians still have some holes on their roster heading into Opening Day, but not at this position.
A lot can, and will, happen during Spring Training that could affect the way a team looks at a certain position group. Sometimes that’s for the better and sometimes for the worse.
As the Cleveland Guardians are just weeks away from Opening Day, the team still feels very good about their depth in their rotation, and they have good reason to be confident.
Cleveland still has to make the decision of how to give their six-man rotation down to five before the start of the season. The candidates haven’t changed: Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee, Joey Cantillo, Slade Cecconi, Logan Allen, and Parker Messick.
It won’t be easier for the Guardians to narrow down those final four spots, assuming Williams and Bibee are the top two of the group, but Stephen Vogt pointed out, “It’s a good problem to have. You never know what’s going to happen, so we need to have six guys ready to start, and more than that.”
That said, it’s not just this group of six guys that Cleveland feels it could put in a starting situation atthe Major League level and feel comfortable with.
Even after Austin Peterson’s injury news, the Guardians still have other starting options they feel confident in.
“We still feel good about our depth,” continued Vogt. “The six, Doug Nikhazy, is a very solid starting option for us. Kobly Allard is getting built up to be a starter as well. We feel we’ve got eight, nine starting pitchers deep.”
Some other starting options the Guardians could turn to later in the season include prospects Kahl Stephen (No. 7 prospect), Yoram Gomez, Ryan Webb, Will Dion, and Aaron Davenport.
Cleveland’s rotation depth was one of the key reasons it made the playoffs in 2025, and that could be the same case for the upcoming season, too.
It may be a cliché for a manager of a team to say, but it's the truth: the five members of rotation that start a season are rarely the same group that finishes it. That could be the case for a variety of reasons, and the Guardians' rotation depth is clearly prepared for whatever the 2026 season throws at it.
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