The Cleveland Guardians are clinging to a 4.5-game lead in the AL Central while sporting the best record in the American League at 62-42 and are looking to solidify the roster before the trade deadline for the stretch run.
One of the team’s roster additions is reportedly coming in-house as the Guardians are calling up one of their top pitching prospects to make his big-league debut on Sunday.
Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes announced on X that the Guardians are calling up left-handed starter Joey Cantillo from Triple-A Columbus to make his debut against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday.
Joey Cantillo will make his big-league debut on Sunday for the Guardians when he starts against the Phillies. G’s need to make a move to clear a spot for him on the 26-man roster.
Cantillo is 24 years old and has a 2.79 ERA in seven starts at Columbus so far this season, and the strikeout artist has 39 Ks through 29 innings.
MLB.com has Cantillo ranked as the team’s 10th-ranked prospect and paints Cantillo as having much-improved stuff since he was drafted, but points out his control can still be an issue at times, as evidenced by his 21 walks in 30.1 innings in the minors this year.
Cleveland has to make a move to clear a spot for Cantillo on the 26-man roster and it’s unclear if this will be just a spot start for Cantillo, as the Guardians have struggled to fill the 5th spot in the rotation all year due to Triston McKenzie and Logan Allen both struggling and being sent down to the minors at times.
Cantillo was a 16th-round pick by the San Diego Padres in 2017 and was flipped to the Guardians in the Mike Clevinger trade in 2020.