GOODYEAR, Ariz. \u2014 Lefties Joey Cantillo and Logan Allen will be the starting pitchers when the Guardians open the spring-training season Friday with split-squad games against the Reds and Brewers.<\/p>\n
They will play the Reds at Goodyear Ballpark and the Brewers in Phoenix.<\/p>\n
Manager Stephen Vogt said the decision has not been made on what team Cantillo and Allen will face.<\/p>\n
Cantillo and Allen are two of the pitchers competing for a spot in the starting rotation. The Guardians currently have six starters for five spots.<\/p>\n
Allen is getting Friday\u2019s start because he\u2019s pitching for Panama in the World Baseball Classic. Panama opens play in the WBC on March 6 in Puerto Rico. Vogt said they want to have Allen ready to throw at least 60 pitches before he leaves camp and Friday\u2019s start will help him reach that goal.<\/p>\n
Cantillo, according to Vogt, earned Friday\u2019s start \u201cbecause he\u2019s been here (in camp) longer than anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last season was an interesting one for Cantillo.<\/p>\n
He came to spring training as a starter.He made the Guardians\u2019 Opening Day roster as a reliever.The Guardians optioned him to Triple-A Columbus on May 27 to get stretched out as a starter.He was recalled on July 3 to join the rotation after Luis Ortiz was placed on non-disciplinary leave and later indicted for throwing fixed pitches in games.After making 13 starts, Cantillo was optioned to Triple-A again so the Guardians could take a look at lefty Parker Messick.When the roster was expanded on Sept. 1, he was recalled and rejoined the rotation as the sixth starter. In that role, he went 2-0 with a 1.55 ERA in his final five starts and was named AL Rookie of the Month.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the way to Game 3 of the wild card series, the game plan was, \u2018How do we get the game to Joey,\u2019\u201d said Vogt. \u201cIf you look at that journey across 2025, to handle all those things and never complain or argue. We got to see what Joey Cantillo can be as a starter in this league and it was really exciting for him and us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cantillo struck out 108 batters in 95 1\/3 innings last season. He appeared in 34 games, including 13 starts.<\/p>\n
His best pitch is a changeup.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like a fastball,\u201d said Vogt. \u201cThere\u2019s no way to pick it up. A lot of hitters sit on the changeup and now the fastball is by them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to call his changeup a stop ball. It looks like the ball just stops in midair and drops. It\u2019s definitely one of the better changeups in our game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Action players<\/p>\n
Vogt said Travis Bazzana and Stuart Fairchild are going to be busy during the early part of the Cactus League season to get ready for the WBC. Bazzana is playing for Australia and Fairchild for Chinese Taipei.<\/p>\n
Australia and Chinese Taipei play in Pool C in Tokyo starting on March 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cBazzana and Fairchild are going to play quite a bit before they leave,\u201d said Vogt. \u201cWe need to get their innings ramped up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Guardians used the No.1 pick in the 2024 draft to select Bazzana. Fairchild is a spring-training invitee, who spent last season with Atlanta.<\/p>\n
Finally<\/p>\n
Switch-hitter Juan Brito, a natural second baseman, is getting work at first and third base in camp. Vogt said he may even play some right field.<\/p>\n
Brito is one of only 11 position players in camp who can hit right-handed, including six switch-hitters.<\/p>\n
On the 40-man roster, there are only four pure right-handed hitters: David Fry, Austin Hedges, Gabriel Arias and Johnathan Rodriguez … Slade Cecconi and Daniel Espino were among the pitchers who threw to hitters on Monday … Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez is in camp. He was the last player to report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GOODYEAR, Ariz. \u2014 Lefties Joey Cantillo and Logan Allen will be the starting pitchers when the Guardians open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,3188,2565,538,4,49984],"class_list":{"0":"post-576959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-guardians","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-guardians","11":"tag-cleveland-guardians-2025","12":"tag-clevelandguardians","13":"tag-guardians","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-texas-rangers-2025"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116084473001306683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}