Cleveland Guardians Have Clear Goal For New Pitcher

The Cleveland Guardians will have several new faces on their roster for the 2025 season.

One of those is Slade Cecconi, who Cleveland acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Josh Naylor trade at the end of December.

Cecconi is an interesting player for the Guardians to pick up. The D-Backs drafted him 33rd overall in the 2020 MLB Draft, but the right-hander has yet to find consistent success in the big leagues.

Even with the struggles, Cecconi still has a lot of potential, and there's no better place to tap into that than in the Guardians organization.

Stephen Vogt spoke about Cecconi last week and discussed a few things they hope to work on with the pitcher. Based on the manager's comments, the Guardians clearly have some specific goals and a plan in mind for helping Cecconi become a productive MLB pitcher.

"I think for Slade, he's got a lot of pitches, and so for him, it's, we need to help him and work with him to identify what your best attack is versus lefties, versus righties and keep it simple," said Vogt.

"I think sometimes, when you have that many pitches, it's easy to say, 'Oh, I haven't thrown this in a while.' So, for Slade, he's made some adjustments with his delivery, but also helping him work with us to identify what's going to be best for him moving forward."

Vogt isn't exaggerating about Cecconi's pitch arsenal. Since making his MLB debut in 2023, the righty has thrown six different pitches (four-seam fastball, slider, changeup, curveball, cutter, and split-finger.)

Being able to throw a variety of pitches is great, but as Cecconi searches for some consistency, slimming that down to the best three or four is certainly the right direction, as Vogt notes.