The Cleveland Guardians may no choice but to call up Tanner Bibee

Tanner Bibee is already the talk of the Cleveland Guardians minor league system.

The Cleveland Guardians are only a handful of games into their 2023 campaign, but one prospect in Triple-A Columbus is making it very hard for the team to ignore him. Tanner Bibee made his debut for the Columbus Clippers on Friday, and in doing so, he went 5.0 innings pitched, threw 78 pitches all togeherr, had seven strikeouts and gave up zero runs on just four hits.

Yes, it’s only one game, but considering it was limited innings (5.0) and limited pitches (78), it’s fair to say that Bibee has eyes on him now. Especially with how the starting pitching has struggled to start the year.

It’s very realistic that Bibee could be a mid-season callup, especially with the fact that he’s throwing some heat.

According to Sports Illustrated’s Cleveland Baseball Insider, Bibee topped out at nearly 98 miles per hour on his fastball;

"He threw 37 fastballs in the outing in which he averaged 95.1 mph on and topped out at 97.8 mph. He utilized his whole arsenal throwing 23 sliders, eight curveballs, six cutters and four changeups in the start."

At this rate when can fans expect Tanner Bibee’s callup to the Cleveland Guardians?

Let’s make some assumptions, shall we? Let’s assume Bibee keeps his producion going. He doesn’t slip, he improves, throws more innings, keeps his speed on his pitch, all that jazz. If all that goes according to plan, when is the earliest the Guardians will callup Bibee?

Well, there’s usually an unwritten rule of thumb to wait until the first week of June. Two weeks isn’t enough time to evaluate what you have, and two months isn’t great but it’s better. If guys continue to struggle, then it’s likely Bibee gets the call up around June.

That’s of course assuming players in our rotation struggle and he continues to pitch very well.