Guardians Adjust Opening Day Pitching Staff Following McKenzie Injury

Hunter Gaddis will be the Cleveland Guardians new starter and Xzavion Curry will come out of the bullpen with Triston McKenzie down.

The Cleveland Guardians receiving the news that they will be without their number two starter for almost two months hurts. There's no other way around it. That was the absolute last thing anyone wanted to hear a few days before Triston McKenzie was scheduled to make his 2023 season debut.

However, that's the reality and Cleveland needs to adjust accordingly. These are the moves they reportedly made on Tuesday to accommodate for the injury:

Hunter Gaddis - Starter

The first thing that had to be addressed was who was going to enter the rotation now that McKenzie was out. I thought that they would give consideration to Konnor Pilkington because of the number of starts he had in 2022.

But the team opted to go with Hunter Gaddis who was already on the Opening Day roster. Gaddis made the team as a bullpen arm after having an incredible Spring Training where he posted a 2.77 ERA. 

Gaddis has been a starter his entire career in the Minors, so this is a familiar role for him. 

Xzavion Curry - Bullpen

The next step was figuring out who would fill Gaddis' spot in the bullpen now that he's in the rotation. This position went to Xzavion Curry.

Curry is another Guardians pitcher who had a solid Spring Training. He appeared in seven games and gave up 11 hits, but also struck out eight as well and only walked three.

Clearly, Curry is throwing strikes. The goal now will be to turn those strikes into outs which could make him an effective arm out of the bullpen

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Read More:

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