The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Starter Bibee tuned up for encore
The Guardians 2023 season will be remembered for Terry Francona retiring as manager after 11 seasons in the Cleveland dugout, the team finishing 76-86 after going 92-70 in 2022 and the rash of injuries that decimated the starting rotation.
That brief summary is for the glass half-empty crowd. The glass half-full crowd might remember 2023 as the season the heart of the future rotation emerged in the form of Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen and Gavin Williams. Especially Bibee.
Bibee, selected in the fifth round of the 2021 draft, made his major-league debut on April 26 of last year after a shoulder injury sidelined Triston McKenzie before the season started and after an oblique injury shelved Aaron Civale following just his second start of the season.
Bibee ended up leading the Guardians in victories last season.
He finished 10-4 with a tidy 2.98 ERA. He finished second in the American League Rookie of the Year voting. Gunnar Henderson, a shortstop with the Baltimore Orioles, was the unanimous choice as A.L. Rookie of the Year.
All eyes were on Bibee in Goodyear, Ariz., as the 6-foot-2 right-hander went through his first spring training as part of the bigleague club instead of being a pitcher on the minor-league roster trying to impress the Guardians coaches and front office. He had a couple bumpy outings
in early Cactus League games, but pitching coach Carl Willis, with wisdom and experience that comes with his time of being a former pitcher himself and a pitching coach since 2003, wasn’t concerned.
“You don’t want to go out in the first or second start of spring training and look like you want to look in June,” Willis told reporters covering spring training.
“Right now, he’s doing a really good job of that. He’s very, very motivated. He wants to be the guy. We want all our guys to want that. Quite frankly we have a lot of guys who could be the guy.”
Sure enough, Bibee looked like that Rookie of the Year candidate on March 23 in his final start of spring training. He hurled six shutout innings, struck out five Diamondbacks
and walked one batter in a 5-0 Guardians victory. Bibee made five Cactus League starts and went 3-1 with a 4.00 ERA. He gave up three home runs in 18 innings, but as Manager Stephen Vogt noted Bibee was sharp in his final spring tune-up.
“Command of the strike zone,” Vogt told reporters. “He pounded it. He’s getting ahead, finishing guys quickly, really efficient with his pitches. He had everything working for him.”
Shane Bieber is still the ace of the Guardians pitching staff. If there was any question on that subject, Bieber showed he is still king of the hill when he allowed only two hits, struck out eight Cincinnati batters, walked two and allowed one earned run in a 4-2 victory over the Reds on March 17.
Bieber will be a free agent in November unless the Guardians sign him to a contract extension before then.
That means the battle to be the No. 1 pitcher next spring could be between Bibee and Triston McKenzie. But that battle is a year into the future. For now, Bibee just wants to build on the success he had last year.
“I worked out with some guys, some major-league guys and they say they always got in trouble when they tried to do too much in the offseason and tried to take it to the next level,” Bibee said. “If you know you’re good enough, you can trust your stuff and eventually get to the next level with experience and time.
“So I think I’m just trying to hone in what I’m good at and try to make that stuff better and just try to make the weaknesses better, not trying to reinvent the wheel.”
The Guardians had 20 picks in the 2021 draft and used all but two of them on pitchers. The exceptions were third-round pick Jake Fox, an outfielder from Lakeland Christian School, and 12th-round pick Connor Kokx, who is an outfielder from Long Beach State.
Gavin Williams was selected with the 23rd pick in the first round of the 2021 draft after pitching for East Carolina University. Williams was a deceptive 3-5 in 16 starts as a rookie last season. His 3.29 ERA reflects he was better than his record indicated. Williams is starting 2024 on the injured list with a sore elbow.
Left-hander Doug Nikhazy was taken from Ole Miss in the second round followed by righthander Tommy Mace from Florida as a competitive balance pick. Left-hander Ryan Webb from Georgia was taken in the fourth round. Bibee pitched for Cal State before the Guardians drafted him.
Pitchers drafted after getting at least a taste of playing in college hastens their assent to the majors. Bibee pitched for the High-A Lake County Captains and Double-A Akron RubberDucks in 2022. He was with Triple-A Columbus to begin 2023 and before the season was a month old he was with the Guardians.
No stage, so far, has been too big for Bibee, who won his debut with the Guardians last April when he pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed just one run in a 4-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies. He scattered six hits and struck out eight.
“Tanner has a great mix of pitches,” Willis said early in spring training. “He’s an unbelievable worker. He’s very coachable.
“This is his first major-league spring training. Sometimes it’s difficult for a guy like that who had significant success last year to come out and still be able to have the freedom of mind to use a large portion of spring training to get ready.”
Those spring training bumps mentioned earlier were smoothed out in Bibee’s start against the White Sox on March 18. The Guardians scored six runs before Bibee threw a pitch. Bibee made the lead stand by pitching 4 1/3 innings with four strikeouts and one earned run. He walked two and allowed five hits.
One reason Bibee has been so successful so early in his career is he learned how not to put himself in a pressure cooker. He discovered he doesn’t have to be perfect to be good.
“It’s trusting that I could get guys out with my worst — not my worst stuff — but just not my best,” he said. “I think going up (to the majors), there’s always that little doubt. It’s like, ‘Am I built for this?’ We’re going to see that trend my whole life and then obviously the first couple starts showed I can. And then you could work through some bumps in the road and then eventually you get the confidence, you’re like, ‘Yeah, I can do this. Definitely.’”