CLEVELAND, Ohio — A year ago, Casey Mize sat in the shadows of Progressive Field, tucked away in the Guardians’ bullpen. He wasn’t loosening his arm. He was being told his season was over. No roster spot for the American League Division Series, no chance to pitch, only the sting of rejection and the long, uncertain offseason ahead.
Now, around twelve months later, he returns to the same place, no longer discarded but entrusted with the ball for Detroit in Game 2 of the wild card series. The scar of last October has become the stage for his redemption.
That moment cut deep, but it also reshaped him.
“It fueled a lot of my off-season work and the things I wanted to do to get better to never let that happen again,” Mize said. “To have this opportunity a year later in this place is pretty cool for me. Just to see that full circle.”
Now, in the same city and the same ballpark, the 28-year-old right-hander will take the mound for Detroit in Game 2 of the American League wild card series.
Hinch teased Mize about it on Monday, joking he’d bring him back to the same bullpen spot as last October, only this time with better news.
That irony isn’t lost on Mize: without Cleveland, he might not be this version of himself.
“It fueled a lot of my off-season work and the things I wanted to do to get better to never let that happen again,” Mize said about finding out he wouldn’t be on last year’s ALDS roster. “To have this opportunity a year later in this place is pretty cool for me. Just to see that full circle.
“Now when I’m doing my bands, look down and see the spot where I was sitting, sometimes bad memories for sure. It’s cool to walk by it now and say it’s that moment and that place kind of helped change the pitcher and player that I am. So, I’m glad it happened to me in a way.”
Mize isn’t the only one who’s different. The Guardians have transformed, too.
Over the last two weeks, Cleveland handed Detroit five losses in six tries, a reminder that the same relentless style that fueled their September surge to the AL Central title is alive in October.
“They just know how to manufacture runs and don’t give up on an inning,” Mize said. “You got to get three outs with these guys. They can still do some stuff with two outs and manufacture a run and steal a run from you, it feels like at times.”
That’s the puzzle Mize has been working through in his preparation.
The Guardians’ patient, grind-it-out approach at the plate has a way of dictating the terms of battle, often forcing pitchers to abandon their comfort zones. The Tigers’ Game 2 starter will be no exception, challenged to adjust his plan from the very first pitch.
“You have to realize, ‘Hey, this lineup might be tougher to go punch out ten versus another one,’” Mize said. “So we have to make decisions as a pitcher… are we just going to try to stay in the zone and get the swing and miss but also end the at-bat quicker… so you don’t have to throw 20, 25 pitches an inning against guys that are going to foul off pitches and get on base.
“This is a team that comes to mind. They’re tough to put away at times.”
That mindset stretches beyond the players on the field. In the dugout, Hinch and Guardians manager Stephen Vogt are waging their own quiet chess match, each tugging at the strings of bullpen cards and pinch-hit decisions. Every move and countermove is designed to tilt the game’s fragile balance.
“They’re willing to play a lot of different brands of baseball,” Hinch said. “Their adaptability is one of their endearing qualities. They’re momentum-based. … I’ve never seen, I think, a bench with six left-handed hitters. So things like that that they’re willing to do to put a lot of pressure on our decisions in the back end of our bullpen that’s primarily right-handed.”
But if Mize needed a test run, he got it last week in Boston, when the Tigers fought for their playoff lives. The stage wasn’t officially October, but the stakes felt the same.
“It was the biggest game of my life at the time,” he said. “The atmosphere was great. It felt similar to a postseason atmosphere, which was a good litmus test for me of how am I going to handle this. I feel like I threw the ball really well.”
Six-and-a-third innings, two earned runs, eight strikeouts. It wasn’t a win, but it was a needed experience. A glimpse of how Mize could handle pressure when the season depended on it, and what he could hope to carry over to Wednesday’s contest.
Still, no matter how well Mize commands his arsenal, the Guardians have a game-breaker in the middle of their order.
“When people ask me who are some of the toughest players you’ve ever played against, José is one of the first two, three, four that comes out of my mouth,” Mize said. “He’s such a talented guy all the way around. Steals bases, hits for power, plays excellent defense. It’s all there. And I know he’s a leader of that team, and he’s a constant.
“You think of Cleveland, you think of José. So it’s a tough challenge any time we get to play him.”
That duel — Mize’s evolution against Ramírez’s steadiness — could decide more than just Game 2. In a short series, momentum is fragile, and one swing or one mistake can flip the board. For Detroit, the irony lingers: the Guardians’ presence last October pushed Mize to reimagine himself, and now Cleveland is once again the opponent standing in his way.
Game 1 may set the tone. But Game 2, with Mize on the mound, feels like the fulcrum. One side will seize control, the other will be left teetering, clinging to October by the thinnest thread, if at all.
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