Hunter Gaddis' offseason recovery plan may not work for every pitcher, but it does for the Cleveland Guardians reliever.
Out of the relievers in MLB, there are very few pitchers who have appeared in as many games over the last two seasons, and Cleveland Gurdians set up man Hunter Gaddis. Last season, Gaddis threw 66.2 innings, and in 2024, the reliever tossed 74.2; those numbers don't include the playoffs.
With such a large workload, one would think Gaddis goes through a long recovery process over the winter to get his body in shape for the next season, but that isn’t entirely the case.
During a recent availability with Cleveland media, Gaddis detailed what his offseason work is like, and the reliever likes to keep it simple.
“I always take off, like, a good month,” Gaddis said. “I've always liked a month, and that's what I've used every off season and it's usually about a month or maybe five or six weeks. It kind of matters. Like this year, it kind of fell on, you know, Thanksgiving, so it turned into six.”
Sep 30, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians pitcher Hunter Gaddis (33) looks on against the Detroit Tigers in the eighth inning during game one of the Wildcard round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Dermer-Imagn ImagesSimply not picking up a baseball and resting may not work for everyone, but it’s the process Gaddis has always used, not just since making it to the professionals, but dating back to both high school and college.
Whatever the right-hander does to prepare for the season in the winter, it’s clearly working. The 27-year-old is coming off a 2025 campaign in which he had a 3.11 ERA and 1.19 WHIP. Gaddis also recorded a career-high strikeout rate of 26.6 percent and a whiff rate of 32.2 percent.
Even though Gaddis has been one of the most-used relievers over the last two seasons, he still reiterated that he’d be ready to pitch whenever called upon.
“I'm ready a lot of days, even, you know, when Vogt tells me I'm not gonna throw that day [and] it’s a rest day. I feel good, knock on wood. Try and be ready for every game if it was possible,” said the right-hander.
With spring training inching closer, Gaddis has started to get himself back into shape, and after taking off a little over a month, the right-hander said, “since throwing's been feeling good and, you know, recovered as much as I can.”