Guardians bolster pitching depth ahead of Spring Training
In the early hours of Valentines Day, the Guardians signed starting pitcher Jakob Junis to a 1-year, $4.5 million deal, pending physical.
Junis, 32, pitched for the Brewers and Reds in 2024, finding himself in a multitude of roles across 67 innings total. In Milwaukee, it was almost exclusively bullpen work. Junis made just one start for the Brewers, his first outing, before hitting the 60-day IL due to a shoulder impingement to his pitching arm. From there, Junis pitched very well out of the bullpen for Milwaukee, surrendering just six earned runs without allowing a single inherited runner to score across 22 innings.
The Trade Deadline came around, and Junis along with Joey Wiemer were flipped to Cincinnati for Frankie Montas. In Cincinnati, Junis’s role was more of the same through August. He got roughed up in his first outing against Miami, but for the rest of August, he was nails. In his final appearance in August, Junis was tabbed to start against the A’s. Junis went four perfect innings, striking out three.
In September, Junis became a reliable, 5-inning arm for the Reds, allowing just four runs across four starts over 21 innings to finish the season.
Pitch Arsenal
With Junis, his bread and butter is his slider. It generates close to 2,600 RPMs, and in 2024, his slider broke 8.3 inches more than league average against right-handed hitters. In Milwaukee, Junis attacked right-handed hitters at a near 54% clip with his slider, rolling in his sinker at 37%, four-seam fastball at 7.5%, and his changeup at just 2.2%. However, upon moving into a starting role in Cincinnati, that gap between the slider and sinker rates became much smaller. As a starter for the Reds, that split became slider 45%, sinker 41%, and he threw his four-seamer a touch more at 10%. He was now throwing his fastballs at a higher rate than his slider, something he hadn’t done since he ditched his cutter during the 2022 season.
Results
Despite the stat line looking nice, Junis got touched up in 2024. His ERA on the season was a 2.69, but his xERA overall sat around 3.80. His hard hit rate of 42.4% was 18th percentile, and he doesn’t induce much swing-and-miss. However, his xwOBA as a starter to end the season sat at .251, an extremely solid mark considering the amount of contact he allows.
Where’s the fit?
With the Guardians paying Junis $4.5 million in 2025, it makes him the sixth-highest paid player on the roster. Make of that what you will, but he’s clearly going to have some kind of role should he look formidable in Spring Training.
With the addition of Junis, these are the expected available starting pitchers to make the roster for Opening Day:
- Tanner Bibee
- Gavin Williams
- Jakob Junis
- Joey Cantillo
- Luis Ortiz
- Triston McKenzie
- Slade Cecconi
- Ben Lively
- Logan T. Allen
- Austin Peterson
With the addition of Junis, should he pass his physical, the Guardians will have to make a corresponding 40-man move as they currently sit at 41. The likely move would be to shift Shane Bieber to the 60-day IL as they are expecting Bieber back around July following his Tommy John Surgery last April.