The 2026 MLB season is just months away from beginning.

And fortunately, the Cleveland Guardians won’t have to make many changes to their pitching rotation heading into the upcoming campaign.

The core group of Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee, Slade Cecconi, Logan Allen, Joey Cantillo and Parker Messick, who were the rotational starters to finish last season, all remain with the team. After the year concluded, manager Stephen Vogt praised the squad and how well they’ve all worked together.

“Those guys compete with each other, and that’s the truth,” Vogt said. “When they take the mound, they want to give us a chance to win.”

However, there are a few changes to the lineup that could ultimately produce a more effective, everyday consistency.

The Ace, Day 1: Gavin Williams

Williams deserves a chance to take hold of the Ace spot.

Bibee controlled it back in 2025, doing well on the mound, but Williams took a ginormous leap in comparison to everyone else in the clubhouse. He finished with 31 starts under his belt with a 3.06 ERA, both career-highs. He also tacked on 9.3 strikeouts per nine innings with a 1.270 WHIP.

His efforts were good enough for a pWAR of 3.8 in 2025.

He’s currently playing the best baseball of his career and deserves to be the Guardians’ lead guy on the mound for 2026’s Opening Day.

Day 2: Tanner Bibee

This just makes sense, especially if Williams jumps him for the role of Ace in 2026.

Having Bibee as your No. 2 pitcher would be incredible, especially for those series where the Guardians are attempting to take a commanding 2-0 lead. He’s one of the most dynamic pitchers in the American League, especially at the age of 26, with an ERA of 4.24 in 2025 and a WHIP of 1.229

However, in comparison to years prior, he took a major step down.

His pWAR fell from 3.9 in 2023 to 1.1 in 2025. His strikeouts per nine innings also dropped from 9.7 in 2024 to 8.0 in 2025.

Slotting him in the Day 2 role would help him get more comfortable in his abilities and reestablish that dominant pitching rhyhtm that made him so special in years past.

Day 3: Logan Allen

Allen surged for the Guardians in September.

He was one of the driving forces on the mound for Cleveland that helped them complete the improbable comeback of a 15.5 game deficit to take the No. 1 spot in the AL Central. He had his best month of action with a 3.22 ERA across 22 innings of pitching.

One of his best attributes was not allowing home runs, something he truly got better at as the year continued on.

In the Day 3 spot, Allen would serve as a control pitcher for mid-series matchups. The Guardians would hope to get him out there for a really strong 4-6 innings before turning to the bullpen. With Williams and Bibee, hopefully, eating up a majority of the innings days prior the bullpen should be ready to go.

Day 4: Parker Messick

Through seven starts to his MLB career, Messick brought similar excitement to that of Bibee and Allen’s debuts to the Cleveland faithful.

He went 3-1 with a 2.72 ERA, being yet another prominent arm for the Guardians when they needed it the most late in the 2025 season.

Messick deserves a lot more time on the mound to continue growing for the Guardians. Sliding him into the Day 4 spot would allow him to get time under his belt to watch the three ahead of him work.

He’s not going to allow a lot of guys on base either and due to his strikeout rate, he should be able to get the Guardians out of innings quick and efficiently. When the rest of the team is tired, he’d be the guy to get the defense off the field.

Day 5: Slade Cecconi

Cecconi is still somewhat unreliable, but his leadership and voice in the locker room alone makes him worthy of the No. 5 role.

Across his three seasons in the league, he’s never been the best arm to have starting, but he showed bounce-back ability in 2025. He finished with a 7-7 record and a 4.30 ERA, the best marks of his career.

With him being such a toss-up, a late-starter role makes sense in case he struggles. If he does hit bumps in the road, Cleveland can easily change him out with little-to-no issues arising elsewhere.