The Guardians are moving right-hander Slade Cecconi to the bullpen, manager Stephen Vogt said on Tuesday afternoon (link via Tim Stebbins of MLB.com). He cedes his rotation spot to deadline acquisition Foster Griffin. Cleveland’s new southpaw will make his team debut on Thursday opposite Nolan McLean in their finale with the Mets.
Cecconi is currently on the mound at Progressive Field for his first relief appearance of the year. He has started 21 games and posted a 4.78 ERA through 107 1/3 innings. Cecconi has a modest 17.8% strikeout percentage against a solid 7.4% walk rate. He has allowed 1.34 home runs per nine innings. It’s slight worse production than Cecconi’s first season in Cleveland, as he pitched to a 4.30 ERA with a 20% strikeout rate over 23 starts last year.
Acquired from the Diamondbacks in the 2024 Josh Naylor deal, Cecconi is a strike-throwing fifth/sixth starter. He has fringe stuff and doesn’t miss a ton of bats, but the biggest issue is that he’s been too vulnerable to the home run. Cecconi nevertheless managed a nice run between May and June. He had an ugly July, allowing 19 runs (15 earned) over 17 innings across four starts. He was unable to complete five innings in any of his last three starts.
It’s remarkably the first change all year to the Cleveland rotation. They’ve had zero starting pitching injuries and had run a five-man group of Parker Messick, Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee, Joey Cantillo and Cecconi. Only a doubleheader on July 18 — which led them to call up lefty Logan Allen for a day — had kept them from running the same starting five all year.
Cecconi has shown enough to stick on the big league roster, as Cleveland optioned righty reliever Franco Aleman to open the necessary spot on the pitching staff. They made a couple bigger cuts on the position player side, optioning Kyle Manzardo and David Fry to Triple-A Columbus during yesterday’s off day. They gave way to lineup additions Jo Adell and Nathaniel Lowe.
Excluding injury rehabilitation assignments, it’s the first time that Fry has been sent down since his MLB debut in May 2023. Manzardo had been on the big league active roster since the start of the ’25 season. Both players have had past success hitting in the middle of the lineup but have underperformed this year.
Fry, an All-Star in 2024, has worked as a right-handed bench bat/third catcher this year. He’s hitting .182/.304/.336 with six homers but a 30% strikeout rate across 168 plate appearances. Fry only has five hits in 62 at-bats since the beginning of June. Adell should provide quite a bit more punch against left-handed pitching.
Manzardo has been Cleveland’s Opening Day designated hitter in each of the last two seasons. He hit 27 homers a season ago but is down to 13 longballs with a .215/.306/.378 slash line through 356 plate appearances this year. Manzardo has fanned at a 32% clip and had slumped in July after seemingly finding his stride in the prior two months.
Rhys Hoskins has had a similarly underwhelming year but would’ve needed to be released if the Guardians wanted to drop him from the MLB roster. Manzardo has two options remaining and can head back to Columbus without sacrificing any depth. As a right-handed hitter, Hoskins also makes for a more natural pairing with their new lefty-swinging first baseman Lowe.
