How Guardians’ Tanner Bibee Performed in First Spring Start

Tanner Bibee’s 2025 season was full of ups and downs, and at times, frustrations for the starting pitcher. 

Thankfully, he finished the year on a high note and was arguably the Cleveland Guardians’ best pitcher in September, and that’s exactly what Stephen Vogt is focusing on heading into 2026 and after Bibee's first start of spring training.

“If you look at the last couple of months for Tanner, that was Tanner Bibee,” said Cleveland’s skipper after its 9-5 Spring Training win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“He had a lot to go through last year - We all did - But I think Tanner finally had a healthy offseason, like we’ve talked about, he was able to get his work in at his pace, and he looks really, really good right now.”

In many ways, Bibee picked up right where he left off last September in his 2026 Cactus League debut on Monday, throwing 32 pitches over 2.0 innings pitched.

He only logged one strikeout, but also only gave up one hit, and didn’t issue any walks in his first live action of the new year.

Overall, Bibee mixed things up a little in his arsenal for his first Cactus League start. 

Nearly half of the pitches that he threw were fastballs, which had an average velocity of 94.4 mph. For reference, Bibee’s heater had an average velocity of 94.3 mph a year ago, so in some ways it looked like the righty was in mid-season form.

Bibee also threw a cutter, curveball, changeup, sweeper, and sinker to make up over 53 percent of his pitches on the day.

Vogt said that “Bibee was great” and was encouraged by how he was able to “generate some weak contact, some early outs, some quick outs, and some really good swing and miss. Really goof first outing for Tanner.”

Getting these quick outs, generating ground balls to let his defense do the work, while mixing in some swing and miss, is exactly the blueprint Bibee has followed to be a successful pitcher in the past, and that was exactly the pitcher that was on the mound on Monday.

There’s still a lot of work to be done before Opening Day, but Vogt is clearly encouraged about the position Bibee is in during the early parts of training camp. 

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