Guardians address long term pitching concerns with Rule 5 Draft

The Guardians tried to address pitching concerns with Rule 5 Draft.

The Guardians are a team that believes you can never have enough good pitching. Most teams believe this to be true, but few are able to compile talent that can throw as the Guardians can. Cleveland made sure to pick up a few new assets in the Rule 5 Draft yesterday, making sure to add as much potential to develop as possible. This should help the club out, who seem to be burning through viable starters at an increased pace due to injuries.

Whether it’s drafting guys like Shane Bieber, or trading for others like Cal Quantrill and Emmanuel Clase, the Guardians always seem to find a way to bolster their crop of pitching talent.

Cleveland did it again with selections of 23-year-old, Erick Sabrowski of the Padres, a lefty who had a 1.86 ERA with Advanced-A Fort Wayne. Their second pick was 25-year-old Brett Daniels, an Astros prospect, who had a rough season in Double-A Corpus Christie but has a career strike to walk ratio of 2.5:1.

Guardians thinking about the future of their pitching with Rule 5 selections

The Guardians selected two kids with upside, that’s for sure. Both young men are starting pitcher capable, and it’s possible that we see someone like Sabrowski in the Majors in the next two to three years depending on how he progresses in Double-A.

As for Daniels, his age and the fact that he has had a rough go of it in the minors so far may make his arrival time with the major league club a little less predictable. Both men must be on the club’s 40-man roster for the next season.

They can still trade with the player’s original club to obtain full rights to each player, allowing them to be optioned down if need be.

The Guardians lost one of their unprotected players in the draft, with reliever Dakody Clemmer going to the Nationals.