A Deeper Dive into the Guardians 40-man Roster Adjustment

The Guardians removed three players from their roster and added four on Tuesday night – let’s take a look at why these moves were made.

Be sure to check out Zach’s preview of these selections from yesterday with plenty of useful info fun to read in hindsight now.

First, pitchers Peter Strzelecki, Connor Gillispie and outfielder George Valera were designated for assignment. Both pitchers were touched by the Guardians’ pitching magic dust, as Strzelecki had a 2.31 ERA and Gillispie had a 2.25 ERA, but both had a good bit of luck involved in that outcome (with Gillispie not giving up a home run at the major league level and not getting hurt by a high walk-rate, and Strzelecki stranding runners at an unsustainable 90% rate). At 30 years old and 27 years old, respectively, both seem pretty well established in their roles, with Strzelecki as a decent middle relief option who throws a good slider and Gillispie as a swing starter or longman you don’t have to worry about designating for assignment in a pinch. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gillispie make it through waivers and end up back in Cleveland’s system as a depth guy in a continued attempt to build out their rotation, but I’d guess someone else will give Strzelecki a chance at making the pen for an organization thinner in relief options.

Valera is the more noteworthy name, simply in terms of what he represents for fans’ dashed hopes. Once a top five prospect in the system, Valera has sadly become a chronically injured player, his last setback coming in a late season tear of his patella tendon. The injury is often a death knell for players looking to play outfield and the Guardians likely recognized they have plenty of possibilities for left-handed DH’s. Valera hasn’t been able to hit LHP in the minors so there is significant platoon risk there, even if he can regain health. His story coming from the Dominican Republic is a good one, and when healthy, he puts up great at-bats with lots of loud contact. Hopefully, he finds a place where he can eventually make the big leagues (who knows, maybe it’s back in Cleveland if he somehow clears waivers).

The newcomers are, first of all, a starting pitcher in Doug Nikhazy, a left-hander who put up a 2.87 ERA in Columbus last year in 13 starts and a 3.17 ERA in 11 starts in Double-A Akron. A second round pick in 2021, the word is that the Guardians love the 25 year old’s makeup and work ethic. His 9/3.75 K/BB/9 won’t make anyone start salivating for him to start sometime soon in Cleveland but his 42% groundball rate in Columbus was nice to see. He’s only six foot tall so Cleveland is again betting on a guy shorter than the average major league starting pitcher. I can’t really doubt the Guardians on their pitching evaluation so I guess we’ll see how Nikhazy responds to a chance to help out in the bigs in 2025. He’ll be in the top 8 or 9 starters so chances are he will debut at some point if he stays healthy.

Franco Aleman was an obvious choice, as the 6’6″ 235 lb RHP has been posting K-rates in the +13 per 9 range from the time he started pro ball. Last year in Columbus, while navigating some injury issues (a lat strain), he had a 1.99 ERA and 13.5/3.97 K/BB/9. He’s got a fastball that sits at about 97 mph and comes out of a low arm slot that makes it look even faster. He’s also got a pretty darn good slider. He is a guard against any bullpen regression from last year’s amazing relief corps if he can stay healthy.

Nic Enright was an interesting choice simply because he was selected from the Guardians in a previous Rule 5 draft in the fall of 2022 and then returned in June 2023 by the Marlins. In the meantime, he beat a cancer diagnosis which speaks to his incredible will to overcome obstacles. Enright has a good fastball even though it is only 93 mph in average because it has a high iVB, a very good slider, an average changeup and a usable curve. It’s a little surprising the Guardians added another reliever to their roster of bullpen arms but the calculus here is that Enright is better than Strzelecki or Gillispie, or possibly more likely to be again picked in the Rule 5 draft than either of those players are to be claimed on waivers. In 11 innings at Columbus, Enright struck out 16.41 per 9 and walked fewer than 3 per 9, putting up a 1.06 ERA.

Finally, the surprise addition was Petey Halpin. Not because Halpin is a bad prospect but because it seemed surprising that any team would be considering rostering the 22 year old who has yet to play above Double-A. This is where I generally trust that teams like the Guardians have got a credible reason to believe someone was going to pick Halpin. So, why did Cleveland want to protect a player who repeated Double-A last year and only put up a 105 wRC+ with a 23.5/10.6% K/BB%, who appears to be clearly a platoon bat given dismal professional numbers vs LHP, and who also got caught stealing 7 out of 19 times? I think it’s probably a combination of belief in Halpin as a defender in centerfield and recognition that he managed to increase his ability to pull fly balls last season (42.1 FB/41.2 Pull). Halpin’s BABIP was also about 30 percentage points lower than his norm, so he was unlucky in 2024, also. It’s at least somewhat possible another team sees a player like that as a good 26th man/5th outfielder, or that someone is interested in Halpin as a piece of a potential trade the Guardians are trying to finalize. Or this simply means the Guardians believe in their ability to develop further this left-handed hitting, 6 foot, 200 lb 3rd round pick from 2020… I’m just not as confident in their abilities here as I am with pitchers. Wishing Halpin all the best, though, and excited to see what he can do at Columbus.

The most interesting omission was left-handed starter Ryan Webb, who put up a 2.80 ERA and 9.62/3.31 K/BB/9 between Akron and Columbus last year, throwing 140 innings. The numbers are pretty similar to Nikhazy as is Webb’s age. I had rumors that the Guardians liked Nikhazy better, but I am not 100% sure why that is the case. Again, I don’t have a really good reason to doubt the Guardians when it comes to pitching so I guess I will just trust them on this one and hope Webb makes it through the draft. I also hope Tommy Mace, a groundball specialist favorite of mine, makes it through, but it feels that’s far less likely to be a concern than it is that Webb is selected.

Overall, some very interesting choices by the Guardians yesterday. Now, we wait to see what else unfolds with the Guardians’ roster as the offseason continues to unfold.