Cade Smith a workhorse in Guardians’ bullpen in 2024 playoffs

CLEVELAND – Through the ups and downs, the defensive miscues, the big swings, the outs made with runners in scoring position, the clubhouse celebrations and the short starts, the Guardians have had one constant: Cade Smith.

Whether it’s his durability, the results he’s getting or his ability to pitch in any inning in any scenario, Smith has been as consistent as any player could be in the postseason, let alone during his rookie year. After watching him make 74 appearances during the regular season, no one can truly say they’re surprised by what they’ve seen. This is how Smith has looked all year long.

“I’ve never seen it from a rookie coming in just that unfazed,” Guardians catcher Austin Hedges said.

His story has been told dozens of times now. Smith was the last guy waiting to find out if he made the Opening Day roster. An illness that spread through the Spring Training clubhouse left Cleveland short-staffed in the bullpen. Smith traveled with the team to Oakland for the first series, but the goal was to try to claim a more experienced hurler somewhere to help bolster this ‘pen.

Little did the Guardians know that Smith was the best option they could’ve had.

His five strikeouts in two innings during his debut put all the attention on him. It’s only escalated since. Smith’s fastball gets the headlines and at the beginning of the year, his splitter and sweeper weren’t nearly as developed. It became the “weakness” that opposing hitters could jump on. So, Smith went back to the lab.

“The split was getting inconsistent and was honestly becoming a favor for hitters,” Hedges said. “Now, this thing, if he didn’t have the best fastball in the world, you would see a lot more split-fingers because this thing is just devastating.”

His heater is what they call an invisible fastball, meaning it’s nearly impossible to hit because of a pitcher’s extension, plus the movement and location of the pitch. It helped lead him to a 1.91 ERA with 103 strikeouts in his rookie campaign.

“It’s just coming at you,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “I had a teammate who said he throws hard and fast. That’s what Cade does. The ball just gets on you. It’s from a steep angle, and he locates.”

But still, humans are bound to make a mistake at some point, right? Especially with the pressure of the playoffs on their shoulders?

Apparently, not for Smith.

The 25-year-old righty has pitched in six games between the ALDS and ALCS. He’s allowed just one earned run on two hits across eight innings. To top it all off, he’s only issued one walk alongside 14 strikeouts.

Smith pitched in all five games of the ALDS, the first time a Cleveland pitcher has done that in Division Series history. The 12 batters he fanned in those five games set a Division Series record by any reliever (previous high was Boston’s Nick Pivetta with 11 strikeouts in 2021).

“It’s like almost sometimes we take it for granted because of how good he’s been,” Guardians designated hitter David Fry said. “He’s folding a sweatshirt in between [innings] and acting like nothing’s happened. He’s setting records. He’s so good and it is so fun to watch because he’s so humble and such a good guy.”

To keep the Guardians’ hopes of reaching the World Series alive, they can’t afford for the Smith fuel to run out now. He’s been worked hard all season long, and even though he’s had three of the last four days off leading up to Game 3, Cleveland’s bullpen has totaled more innings than its rotation this postseason.

“I think it’s definitely a balance of learning how to manage the workload and especially with a different schedule,” Smith said. “But you learn by just watching the guys who have been here before and take what they do and understand their mentality and how to approach things, and you implement it into your routine, however it fits best.”

Cleveland is keeping track of how many times each pitcher faces each hitter. It knows that the more exposure opponents have, more hits are inevitable. But at this point, there’s nothing else the Guardians can do but continue turning to Smith as often as possible, considering he’s been nearly untouchable night after night so far.

It worked for five straight ALDS games. Can it work again?

“I’ve been through a lot of playoff series where the bullpen gets used a lot,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said after the ALDS. “I’m not sure I’ve quite ever seen the Cade Smith, [Hunter] Gaddis, [Emmanuel] Clase pitch at that volume and stay at that level.”