Guardians welcome back versatile righty reliever as bullpen buildup continues

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1:15Back to the Cleveland baseball talk podcast. I'm Joe Noga joined by Paul Hoynes. Hoynes, a nice little holiday break there for the podcast and for the guardians who I didn't do much over the holidays over the Christmas and New Year's break. But there's some business in front of them. There's some things to be taken care of. We'll get into sort of the paperwork aspect of that. One move they did make over the last couple of weeks that we haven't talked about here on the podcast. A familiar face coming back to the club Pedro Avila is reportedly signing a split contract between the minors and a major league deal that would pay him, you know, a pro-rated salary if he's with the the big league club. But he gets an invite to spring training and Steven vote gets back sort of one of the glue guys in the bullpen that really helped things together in 2024. Pedro Avila, you know, we talked about it before last season how it would have made a lot of sense to bring him back in 2025. He spent the season in Japan. But, you know,

2:21what do you think of the move to bring back Pedro Avila and add him to an already very crowded bullpen mix for the the upcoming spring training? Joe, I like the move. Pedro, you know, really came was really as you said was a big part of that bullpen in 2024. Came in kind of as a mop up guy pitched in blowouts or lopsided losses. And then really worked himself into some leverage situations. He made 50 appearances. He pitched over 73 strikeouts, 30 walks. So, well, you know, he, I think he earned his first second big league save. He was a valuable guy. He signed with Japan. And I'm not sure whether they're going to fit all these relievers, Joe. I mean, when the season ended, we all knew Cleveland needed bullpen. I mean offensive hell. We thought the bullpen was okay. They needed some a little, you know, adjustment, but not the kind of adjustment. The guardians of me. Yeah. It almost seems like they're, they're just, you know, hitting

3:25with a fire hose just as much as as many options as they can possibly have all these right handed relievers are coming out. And and Avila, you know, really just feels like the most guardians kind of signing that you could make. This is a guy who, you know, isn't a big name, but he's had some success with the club. And they're very comfortable with him. I think in this role, he pitched last season in Japan with the Yakult Swallows. He pitched as a starter. So he's built up. He's, you know, got that sort of durability and that, that of flexibility enough to be able to pitch in a variety of different roles. How do you think that makes him more attractive to Stephen vote and his staff as they get closer to the season? Yeah. I think versatility always helps, especially a reliever and, you know, vote knows him now, Joe. It's, it's anything, you know, with when he was a rookie manager, he really didn't have the feel for Avila, but, you know, he kind of, you know, used him sparingly. And then as, you know, he got, is Avila pitch better and, and vote grew more

4:33confident in his performance. You know, he let him into more, you know, difficult situations. And it seemed like every time they needed him to come through or they needed him to eat some meanings, they needed him to rest the rest of the bullpen. That's exactly what he did. I think, you know, that plays a big role right now and in that comfort zone that, that zone that vote has with Avila. And, you know, no matter how this works out, if he opens a year at, at AAA or he makes a big league club out of spring training, vote knows what he's getting. You know, you bring up a good point there. How many times were we sitting there in the second or third game of a series after, you know, either a win or a loss the night before, but Avila had come in the night before and, you know, given them three, four innings and, you know, two or three innings, I'm sorry. And, and then, you know, after the next game vote says, you know, the reason why we were rested enough and had our guys had our big guns and the bullpen available was because of the work

5:37the Pedro Avila did and how important that was, you know, he, he, he always pointed out and he always sort of had in his mind that there's, there's real value in the guys who come in in those games that are sort of lopsided or in non leverage situations and really step up for their teammates. And that was a point that was illustrated in the first round of the playoffs in 2024 in the division series against the Tigers when Avila was left off the roster. He wasn't on the, the active roster for the first round of the postseason run, but he was the first guy jumping out of the dugout and swinging the towel around his head and pumping up his teammates. And I think that, that definitely left an impression on vote and, and on the rest of the, the Guardians organization. He was a perfect kind of, you know, Cleveland reliever, you know, kind of a diamond in the rough, a guy they'd had their eye on and they brought him over and were able to get the most out of him while probably other organizations didn't value him that much and meant to got him a good contract

6:37in Japan. And now he's coming back and hopefully he's able to pitch just as well. If he gets a chance with Cleveland in 2026, Joe, and it's just another arm in that kind of rebuild bullpen and we were talking about it. But where do these guys fit, Joe? Where do all these guys? Where do they, are they all going to make the club or, you know, I mean, if they do, there's going to be a serious adjustment in the, in that eight man pan. Yeah, there's, you look through the list of guys that they've signed, Connor Brock and Collar, Colin Holderman, Sean Armstrong gets sort of the biggest contract out of any of those guys. And then they go out and they, they use the rule five draft pick on Peyton Palette. These are, these are all going to be options going into spring training along with Avila and Cody Hewer, who signed a minor league deal. You know, out of those guys, what six guys, how many do you think, how many spots do you think will be available? Three, four maybe spots in the bullpen if everybody stays healthy. So you, you basically got to pick from that group. I would think Armstrong has the, the inside track on, on being the first guy

7:42out of that group to definitely make the club. For sure. Yeah. I mean, they paid him what, over just almost six million. They've got, he's got an mutual option for 2027. So I think he, you know, he is, if he's healthy, he's on the ball club. You know, if he gets through spring training, but, uh, yeah, I mean, you know, you've got to, you've got, you know, you've got your two guys at the back end, obviously in a cage Smith and a hundred gattas. And I think then you work back from there, Joe. I mean, Tim Heron, Matt Festa, Eric Sbrowski, Eric Sbrowski, you know, so you, you kind of work back from there. And then you see how these other arms fit in that pan. Yeah, I, I'm, I'm curious. I'm sort of anxious to see Colin Holderman and Connor Braggden. Again, these are big tall six foot six, 200 plus pound. They fit the physical profile of the Cleveland bullpen right now. Just, uh, you know, I'm, I'm curious to see what kind of tweaks that Carl Willis and the pitching group can make for these guys to see, like you said, to see if they can be that

8:45diamond in the rough, the guy that you get a little extra out of. And if coming over and joining, the guardians bullpen is, is going to be enough to, to get these guys to have a big effective seasons. And if that's going to be the case, then, you know, this has a chance to be a really good bullpen again. It's, you really never know until you get out there and, and you get going and, and you see what kind of chemistry these guys have together and what kind of roles they sort of settle into. How long do you think it's going to take before we know what kind of bullpen these guys are going to be? It always takes at least a month, Joe, right? A month and a half of the regular season. You know, you've, you know, all bullpen started the back end. You know, you've got Kate Smith there, you know, you've got Hunter Gattis, you know, you know, Festus in the 6th, 7th inning, he'll compete there. But then, you know, it just takes guys a while to settle into what roles they, they take. And it seems like, you know, vote as, has always says that he likes to pitch

9:46any guy in any situation. He wants a bullpen where he can do that. The last couple of years he's been fortunate enough to have a real good bullpen with a lot of versatility and a lot of different, a lot of different guys that can pitch at different points of the game. Yeah. And like you said, it might take a little while for this, these guys to sort of settle in and, and, and, and, and, and Joe. But I just think if these, these new faces, these newcomers are able to pitch effectively. Maybe that takes some of the workload. Maybe that takes some of the pressure off guys like Hunter Gattis and Kate Smith, who both pitched 70, you know, plus appearances over the last couple of seasons back to back. Oh, if you want these guys to be around for a while, you, you need to be able to preserve them a little bit better than you have been the last two years. Yeah. I mean, you know, Kate Smith and Hunter Gattis, Joe, they remind me of, you know, Brian Shaw. And, you know, those kind of relievers, Cody Allen, you know, guys that just pitched and pitched

10:46and we all know what happens after, you know, like a five six seven, you know, five or six year run of that, you know, they usually something usually happens where unless you're really an exceptional reliever, you know, you kind of have to take a step back. Either there's an injury or there's, you know, you just, you know, you just need a break almost. So yeah, the more help they can find, the more, you know, innings, they can take away from Smith and Gattis, guys like that, even Tim Hare, who pitched so much two years ago, you know, the better off that bullpen is going to be. Yeah, it's a, a lot of talk about, you know, sort of putting this bullpen together this off season. This is where the Guardians have decided to focus their energy and their, their efforts during the off season. And, you know, we'll see how that pays off, but it almost feels like they've been ignoring the offensive side to a great degree. A lot of, you know, paperwork and stuff still left to be done. The guys in DFA limbo right now, John Kenzie Noel,

11:49who was designated for assignment before the holidays. And usually you have what a week, five days, something like that to seven days, seven days to outright trade or release them. But Noel's situation still unresolved, as with Justin Bruehl, who was, you know, acquired in a trade, but then released from Toronto. So, you know, what's the latest on these guys and what could happen here, even as soon as the end of the day of the day today? Yeah, I think we'll find out something by the end of the date on today Monday, Joe. We'll find out whether, you know, someone, a team, whether the guardians were able to trade Noel or Bruehl, whether they, some a team claim them on waivers, or whether they were able to get them to outright waivers, and see if perhaps they accepted the outright to the miners to stay in the Cleveland organization. Yeah, those are the options for these guys, particularly Noel, if there's an opportunity to maybe sneak him through and get him

12:51back to Columbus, if that's the path that he would choose, it would be nice to have the option to be able to keep a big right hand at bat, and maybe this is a guy who eventually the lake goes off for him, but as of right now, it's not looking good for Noel rejoining the ball club. He's got an unusual kind of stance at the plate, Joe, you know, he kind of keeps his hands really close to his body, and kind of looks like to me at least, exposes them to pitches on the outs, off-speed stuff on the outside part of the plate, but as you indicate, as we've all seen, he's got massive power, and boy, if he ever unlocks it and can get into a rhythm and can get, you know, regular playing time, I mean, he could be very, very dangerous hitter. Some other news around the league, another former guardian who was released around the 40-man roster crunch time, Nick N. Wright, this is a guy who came up, made his debut in 2025, had some ups and downs, but was a guy that, you know, it looked like the guardians were sort of had a good

13:54good feeling about. Also, there's more to Nick N. Wright's story than just, you know, him coming up and making his debut, obviously, you know, beating the Hodgkin's lymphoma, you know, cancer diagnosis, and you know, he was going into this off-season, still needing to do one more cancer treatment, but on top of that, he had Tommy John surgery, elbow reconstruction, so he was going to miss the entire 20-26 season anyways. They designated him for assignment back in November, and the Blue Jays decided to take a flyer on him. He's signed a two-year minor league extent, a minor league contract with the Toronto organization, so good to see Nick N. Wright, you know, and land on his feet, and he's, you know, joining an organization that's been making some moves lately. Oh my goodness, Joe. I mean, that's great news for Nick N. Wright. What a good guy, you know, and it's encouraging, I guess, that he signed a two-year deal that maybe, you know, he's gotten through that last treatment for his cancer treatment, and perhaps that's good news,

15:00obviously, that the Blue Jays are willing to invest the two-year deal in him, you know, he recovers from the Tommy John surgery, and hopefully he's able to pitch in, you know, 20-20-20-27 for them. This is a guy with really, you know, he really kind of came to the forefront of this past off-season, you know, strong right, you know, he really impressed the Guardians. He's another guy that kind of pitched his way into some leverage situations, earned his first big league save, and, you know, really, it seemed to me, Joe, like he was on the upswing of his career when he heard his elbow, and really, that was the end of the season for him. Yeah, and, you know, it's probably one of the reasons why the Guardians had gone hog wild this off-season, signing right-handed relievers is because he's another one of those guys that left an open space in the bullpen by getting hurt and not being there, you know, long, or Trevor Stefan, and, you know, obviously,

16:02the Emanuel Class A situation leaves a hole there, you know, with those guys being absent is sort of why the Guardians went on the red-handed reliever buying spree, I guess, this off-season. But, and right, yeah, again, he had worked his way into a great position, then the unfortunate injury, but good to see him bounce back and get an opportunity with the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays, who signed Japanese Third Basement, Kazuma Okamoto this past weekend to a four-year contract. This is a guy who he can hit home runs. He signed a four-year, 60 million deal with a five-million dollar signing bonus, and this is what a power bat guy that, you know, adds to Toronto's huge off-season. They've gone out and signed Dylan Seas to a $210 million deal. Starter Cody Ponce comes back from Japan, I believe, a $30 million deal. Tyler Rogers, $37 million, and of course, they picked up the option on, or what, Shane Bieber for 2026. So, yeah, this is a big off-season for Toronto,

17:10and it's gotten even bigger with Okamoto signing. Yeah, the Okamoto signing, Joe, you know, if he's able to settle in a third base, if they feel he can plate third base, perhaps they, you know, it means the end of Bo Bichette's staying in Toronto, and if that's so, it opens the door for two former guardians and fielders. Andres Jimenez, who replaced Bichette late in the season when Bichette injured his foot, he moved over from second to short, and Ernie Clement could go to second base to replace Jimenez, and what Clement had 30 hits in the postseason. So, you know, that's, you know, Cleveland, Cleveland is well represented in a great white north. And, you know, Clement really just has sort of hit his way into and claimed his spot, and starting spot for the blue jays, whether it was going to be at third base or second base or wherever, you know, he's, he's personal, and he's,

18:12you know, just really had that postseason of those numbers that he put up were pretty impressive. Bookamoto 11 seasons in Japan for the Yomu Yuri Giants, who are 77 home runs, and 872 RBI's. So, this is a right-handed hitter guy that you're going to be able to put at third base, maybe for the next four years, he can, you know, see if he makes the adjustments, he's 29 years old, seems like a good fit there for the Giants. The guardians aren't necessarily looking for a third basement at all, but they are looking for a right-handed stick that can hit home runs. A Yohaneo Suarez still out there rumored to be interested or have interest from the pirates for a guy who hit 49 home runs last year. What do you think the chances are Suarez joins Pittsburgh or maybe even lands back in Seattle where he finished the season? And Suarez is really kind of an interesting guy, always had a huge power, you know, but a big strikeout guy, you know, I,

19:14you know, I think someone will take a chance on him. He only, he only played 53, or 53, get, well, I'm sorry, he still had 49 home runs with 118 RBI's for Arizona and Seattle that year. You know, he's, what, 33 years old, I think, you know, he's going to fit somewhere, Joe. I mean, he's going to strike out a lot. He struck out what, 96 times last season, but he's also going to hit 40, you know, he's also going to hit some with power and drive in some runs. So, you know, really an interesting guy. And I think the question is, can you pay him, you know, can you afford him and can you live with the strikeouts because it's a two-edged sword with him. One of the things he's got going for him is Scott Boris is not his agent, you know, maybe there's a little bit more flexibility as to where he'll sign. I wonder if a sticking point negotiations for him would be the number of years that you would get on a contract. I mean, he's going to play

20:14at age 34 this year, like you said, you know, probably looking for more than a three-year deal to sort of lock up that security. I can't imagine teams are offering more than a three-year deal. At this point, so we'll see what transpires, what he gets. Career year for him last year, 3.6 war, a 126 OPS plus. Asuar is a guy who, when he figures things out at the play, like you said, we can get over the massive strikeout numbers that he's posted in his career. He's led the league, he's led baseball once and led the league that he's been in, three times, three different times in his career, a high of 214 strikeouts in the 2023 season. That's a lot of strikeouts. Joe, in 2022, the Guardians were interested in Jesse Winker from the Reds, the Reds ended up trading Winker and Suarez to Seattle. They attached Suarez's deal, Suarez's contract, which was,

21:20you know, a big, big contract at the time to Winker that, you know, you had to take them both, or you weren't going to get Winker alone. And Seattle did it, and Cleveland kind of backed off, they did not want Suarez's contract. So I don't know. I think he still looked pretty good hit in the middle of that lineup. Yeah, well, you know, the Guardians in 2022 had a pretty good third baseman at the time anyways. So, you know, I can't really blame them for not wanting to clock things up, but you're right. The right-handed stick would have looked nice in the middle of the order there. All right, one more piece of news before we get going here. At Cattaro, the outstanding manager of the Kansas City Royals and just all-around great guy. Friend to Steven Vote is now going to be competing with Steven Vote in the American League Central Division for several years to come. He signs an extension that the Royals went ahead and announced to everybody that let people know that this actually happened, which is different than what happens with the

22:22Guardians, I guess, when it comes to their managers. Cattaro, an extension through the 2029 season, he gets an extra an added three years just for being a pretty solid manager there in Kansas City. What does this tell us about what the extension reportedly that are suspectedly or rumoredly that Steven Vote did sign before last season and what it looks like and how long will be around in Cleveland? Yeah, I guess if you could use the Kansas City deal with Cattaro as a blueprint for what the Guardians deal they did with Vote before the start of the 2025 season. Both guys were signed through 2026. Kansas City adds three years on to that, which makes it basically a four year deal with a club option for 2030. So I would think Vote has to be signed for at least through 2029. His quote was, I'm going to be in Cleveland for a long time

23:29and I'm looking forward to it. Something along those lines, I think there's some speculation now, as we all know, you know, you kind of one guy gets a contract, you build off that contract, or there's a lot of copycat contracts. So I would think Cattaro's deal was probably patterned after Vote's. Yeah, and you look at, well, this guy got this, well, I want at least that much and maybe make it a little sweeter for me. And if you're Steven Vote, you're sitting there with back-to-back manager of the year awards, or at least he had just one, the first of his two manager of the year awards when he sat down to negotiate whatever extension he did before, during last last off season. Yeah, I think the security and not having to look over your shoulder and not have to manage going into the final year of a contract is a big positive, a big plus. Just sort of knowing who you are, knowing where you'll be for a while is a good thing.

24:33And this is an organization that's shown, if you're good at your job as Terry Frankona was, as Steven Vote is, you know, you can be around and you can be in this role for a good long time. Tito, the longest tenured manager in franchise history, Vote, two years in, and he looks like he could be around for a while too. You know, in my head, Joe, I'm trying to reason why they would do that. And, you know, maybe, you know, I know they've never really announced extensions for the front office guys. And you know, obviously, Anthony and Churnoff have been here for, like, forever. So they've been getting extensions. And so maybe they want to make a vote feel like part of the front office. And, you know, it's good for the goose is good for the gander. So they don't, they won't announce the link of the manager's contract. Or it could be, and we've seen this that, you know, for as, you know, good at interacting and dealing with the media and everything as, as Vote is, he's really sort of a private guy too. There are things that he doesn't want to talk

25:35about and he doesn't want to share about. And, you know, I can understand whether it's family stuff or whether anything personal that he doesn't want to talk about. There's plenty that he does share, but I can understand that, you know, not wanting to talk about a guy's, you know, job situation or contract status or anything like that. That's a personal decisions. Again, there's, there's definitely multiple sides to it. But for whatever reason, they haven't revealed what the contract looks like. And I guess we'll just, we'll keep asking the question. The worst they can tell us is we're not going to talk about it. Joe, it reminds me when Pat Corralis managed the, the Indians back in, you know, Peter Bevesi was the president of the baseball operations and gave him a perpetual contract. It was just kind of a contract that rolled over from one year to the next. And no one knew how long it would last, but, you know, eventually Corralis got fired. But people kept calling Corralis perpetual Pat Corralis. That's a great, that's lovely. There you go. All right,

26:35boys, that's going to wrap up today's edition of the Cleveland baseball talk podcast. Great to get back into the swing of things now in the new year. Plenty ahead with Hall of Fame voting coming up. We'll get into some discussions about that. And I'm anticipating a lot more moves here by the Guardians in the off season. We've got a lot to look forward to before spring training in a little over a month, though, in pictures and catchers report. That's it's coming fast, not, Joe. Yep, they have other side of the new year and it comes on like a free train. All right, Hohensie. We'll, we'll catch up with you tomorrow. Two good and co-coffee creamers are made with farm fresh cream, real milk, and contain three grams of sugar per serving. That's 40% less than the five grams per serving in leading traditional coffee creamers for a rich, delicious experience. Whether you enjoy your coffee hot,

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