Guardians address Tanner Bibee's lack of usage in 2026 MLB playoffs

CLEVELAND — One of the main storylines of the Guardians’ 2026 postseason run wasn’t just how they leaned on certain pitchers, but how their opening day starter was left to mostly sit on the bench through it all.  The Guardians fell two wins shy of a trip to the World Series, eventually losing in the ALCS to the Tampa Bay Rays after coming back from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Chicago White Sox in the ALDS.  Through that 11-game run, the Guardians heavily leaned on Gavin Williams , Parker Messick , Cade Smith , Shawn Armstrong, Hunter Gaddis, Daniel Espino and several others to piece together each game. Weather threw another wrench into those plans, leading to the unpredictable outcome that Armstrong would start multiple games in the ALCS as an opener.  As the Guardians reached further and further into their pitching staff for innings, one name was almost left off the call sheet entirely: Tanner Bibee , who started for the Guardians on Opening Day and led the team in innings during the regular season.  Tanner Bibee playoff stats Throughout the playoffs, Bibee only entered Game 4 of the ALDS in Chicago . He faced three batters, walking two and striking out one, before being quickly taken out. He never pitched in the ALCS across six games.  It was a startling role-reversal from what would have been expected a few months prior, but the Guardians primarily saw it as Bibee being a victim of circumstance on multiple fronts.  The first factor: the matchups. Both the White Sox and Rays lineups lent themselves to Cleveland prioritizing left-handed pitching, which meant Foster Griffin became the clear-cut No. 3 playoff starter and Joey Cantillo became a key multi-inning option out of the bullpen.  With Williams and Messick being able to each start two games in the best-of-five ALDS, that left only Game 3 as a bullpen game in their first series.  The ALCS , which featured six games and a rainout that altered the schedule, opened the door to a much bigger opportunity for Bibee to pitch, but the Guardians instead opted to save him for a bulk situation that might pop up if extra innings were needed.  And when in need of a righty to face the top of the Tampa Bay lineup, they opted for other options to handle those 3-4 batters, instead turning to Espino and Armstrong, who both pitched well throughout the playoffs.  All of those factors pushed Bibee’s role further and further from the mound barring extra innings in one of the games. Had that scenario arisen, Bibee likely would have gotten the call to try to win a playoff game. But it never did.  “Going into the ALCS, it was kind of a similar path,” said manager Stephen Vogt, who also reiterated his interest to return to Cleveland for 2027 and beyond . “We knew we wanted to lean on our left-handed pitching. So Foster started Game 1, and then with the rainout and four in a row, it just presented a [playoff] schedule that we had never really encountered.  “It wasn’t our intent for Tanner to throw to three hitters throughout the postseason. It’s just kind of the way it played out.”  Had the Guardians won Game 6 of the ALCS, Williams would have started Game 7 in Tampa Bay. Had they won the series and advanced to the World Series to face the Milwaukee Brewers, even with the days off, president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti noted that Bibee likely would have had his number called considering the high number of innings Williams, Messick and even Griffin would have thrown by that point.  “When we kind of gave Foster that third starter spot, that pushed Tanner to the fourth starter, which made him more likely in bulk scenarios [extra innings], at least with the way these rosters and the way the series took shape,” Antonetti said. “There was a very real possibility that if we advanced to the World Series, Tanner was going to start Game 1 or Game 2 for us because that would have been a different set of pitching circumstances.”  Tanner Bibee contract While all of that is certainly fair, having an Opening Day starter only face three batters across 11 playoff games does raise questions as to how much the team felt they could trust him in a postseason setting, even if they needed insurance for extra innings (which in the playoffs do not include the extra runner and can go on longer than regular season games). In the very least, it’s noteworthy to see the regular-season leader in innings have his role pushed so far back by others.  Bibee was often a bit unlucky with run support and timing during the regular season, so his 7-15 record is mostly irrelevant. He finished the season with a 4.36 ERA in a team-high 188 innings.  The issue was with how Bibee finished the season. In his last four outings, a span of 25 2/3 innings, Bibee was tagged for 21 earned runs on 33 hits and nine walks for an ERA of 7.36 and a WHIP of 1.636. When he walked two of the first three hitters he faced in Game 4 of the ALDS, the Guardians felt they had seen enough in what was an elimination game.  It reached the point that Vogt went on a walk with Bibee before Game 6 of the ALCS so the two could talk, something that the Cleveland manager does on occasion, so it wasn’t entirely out of the ordinary. The two ended up talking for around 40 minutes.  “We went for a walk — just normally do that with players from time to time — and allowed him to ask any questions he may have and allowed him the space to tell me how he’s feeling,” Vogt said. “Obviously he was upset, and I empathized with that and I gave him the reasoning for what was going on.  “Tanner and I came to a really good place and we ended up talking about a lot more than just baseball and had a similar conversation in his exit interview. It was very candid. It was very open. He spoke his mind and we gave him our reasoning.”  Bibee is in the midst of a five-year, $48 million extension that runs through the 2029 season and includes a 2030 option. After having his role pushed back all the way to an extra-innings insurance option, he now enters a critical offseason.  It appears as though Bibee safely has his spot in the 2027 Opening Day rotation secured. But it also appears as though he has a long way to go on his road back to his top form.  “I mean, everyone has their ideas on what it looks like,” Vogt said. “This is Tanner, and we’re here to support him and help him and guide him. This pitching team is elite and they’re going to be talking with him as long as they possibly can throughout the offseason.  “I think Tanner’s focus this winter is getting back to finding, ‘What’s that Plan A version and how can I get myself to where I can stick to that and be that person for a full six-, seven-month season?’” Ryan Lewis covers the Guardians for the Beacon Journal. He can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com.