Cade Smith Is Getting a Chance To Flex His Closer Muscles
Smith looks like the obvious successor to Emmanuel Clase in Cleveland. With the way he's pitching, he has more than earned the opportunity.
The Cleveland Guardians have a perennially good bullpen. Their relief corps has ranked among the best in the league for several years now, leading the way in 2024 as the best in baseball. Much of that dominance has been thanks to shutdown closer Emmanuel Clase anchoring the ninth inning.
But now that Clase is gone until at least Aug. 31, the Guardians no longer have the luxury of turning to the right-hander in save situations.
On paid leave while MLB conducts its sports betting investigation, it’s anyone’s guess how long Cleveland will have to survive the ninth without Clase. He could be back in September. He could be gone for the rest of the season. Is there perhaps a chance he never pitches in the majors again?
We don’t know the answer to that question. In the immediate fallout, the question in Cleveland becomes, who will take over the closing duties?
Luckily for the Guardians and their fans, it wasn’t just Clase who was carrying the bullpen this season. One pitcher, no matter how good they are, can’t achieve such a feat. It takes a special group of relief pitchers to create one of the best bullpens in Major League Baseball. One of those relievers can surely step up as the closer.
Enter Cade Smith.
Smith Seems Like the Obvious Successor to Clase
The 26-year-old Canadian right-hander seemed like everyone’s favorite bet to inherit the ninth inning. His performance so far in his young MLB career has been impressive, to say the least. In 127 2/3 innings since debuting at the beginning of the 2024 season, he has a 2.26 ERA, a 0.99 WHIP and a 34.5% strikeout rate.
This season, he sports a 2.75 ERA, a 1.13 WHIP and a 33% strikeout rate. That’s 73 strikeouts in 52 1/3 innings so far. Before Clase was sidelined, he had racked up 19 holds and three saves.
Despite having an obvious successor under their noses, the Guardians are going with a closer by committee; manager Stephen Vogt opted not to name a closer, per MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins. Things got bumpy in their first game without Clase. Cleveland’s bullpen combined to blow a lead to the Colorado Rockies. Smith topped it off with a blown save in his first attempt in a post-Clase world.
Smartly, that bad outing didn’t deter the Guardians’ skipper from going back to Smith for ninth-inning duties.
“He’s thrown in the ninth multiple times already in his career,” Vogt said, per Stebbins. “It happens. These things happen. I still have full confidence in Cade and all of our guys.”
Since that blown save on July 28, when he gave up four runs (only one earned) in one-third of an inning, Smith has been lights out.
Smith Is Proving He Has the Stuff To Be the Guardians’ Closer
He has gone 2-0 and 2-for-2 in save chances without allowing a run in six straight appearances. Over 7 1/3 innings, he has eight strikeouts with just three hits and one walk. He’s thriving.
Smith’s Statcast metrics agree with the results we’re seeing on the field. He’s already tall, checking in at 6-foot-5, but he delivers with a 98th-percentile 7.4 feet of extension. His whiff rate (34.1%) and strikeout rate (33%) are both in the 95th percentile. When hitters do make contact, they have a hard time squaring up the ball, as evidenced by his 3.9% barrel rate, which is in the 96th percentile.
Helped by that low barrel rate and better-than-average hard-hit rate, Smith is also freakishly good at suppressing home runs. He just doesn’t give up the long ball and apparently hates the rare occasions when he does, according to Stebbins.
Since the start of 2024, he has allowed only three home runs in his 127 2/3 innings. That’s the fewest among all relief pitchers with at least 120 innings pitched since the beginning of last year.
All of that has helped the undrafted free agent signing accumulate the most fWAR (4.6) among that same group of relievers with a minimum of 120 innings. Yes, he’s even ahead of Clase’s 3.3.
Who Is Competing With Cade Smith for the Ninth?
Unfortunately for Smith, even though he seems like a no-brainer solution for the Guardians’ vacant closer job, he has some competition.
Right-hander Hunter Gaddis has also been handed ninth-inning chances. He has picked up two saves but also blown two since Clase’s departure.
Erik Sabrowski could also get a shot, despite limited MLB experience. The lefty has six holds since joining the bullpen in late June. He has big strikeout stuff (38.3% strikeout rate) but still walks too many (13.3% walk rate).
Even right-hander Nic Enright, with a 1.96 ERA in all of his 23 innings of MLB experience, has picked up a save recently.
Smith’s contract situation makes his ascension even more appetizing for the Guardians. He’s still pre-arbitration for one more year and won’t hit free agency until 2030. But Gaddis and Sabrowski are in similar contract situations. Enright still has two years of options remaining after 2025.
If Clase returns to the Guardians’ bullpen, then this is all a moot point. If he doesn’t, it looks like Smith could have his work cut out for him in the battle for the ninth-inning job.
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