Cade Smith blew a save Tuesday night in St. Louis, another jarring turn for the Guardians reliever who opened 2026 as the de facto closer. Through nine appearances, Smith has already given up nine hits, posted a 5.00 ERA and blown two saves.
That line lands harder because the belief around baseball was that Smith was one of the sport’s five best relievers over the past two seasons. Cleveland spent the winter trying to make Emmanuel Clase’s absence feel like a footnote, and Smith was the arm built to carry that plan.
Instead, the early returns point to a pitcher fighting his own stuff. Smith’s slider-like sweeper is living in the heart of the zone at the highest rate of his career by nearly 10%, and it is drawing whiffs at the lowest rate of his career by more than 6%. Jonathan India produced Smith’s lone sweeper whiff in the shadow of the zone, a small but telling moment in a run that has otherwise lacked finish.
The splitter has been even more troubling. It is becoming an uncompetitive offering nearly 35% of the time it is thrown, and that has helped drive the bigger issue: Smith is behind in counts on more than 26% of his pitches this season. When he gets there, he turns to his fastball 84.3% of the time, a pattern that narrows his options and makes him easier to sit on.
Smith’s early-season woes come down to one pitch, and the gap between the stuff that made him a weapon and the version on the mound right now is plain. He has blown eight saves across the last two seasons, tied for second most in baseball over that span, and the problem is no longer a one-night hiccup in St. Louis. It is a stretch that now asks whether the Guardians’ best-laid late-inning plan can survive if the command and the splitter do not come back soon.