If I were to ask you who you thought the Cleveland Guardians’ most successful bullpen pitchers would be going into the 2025 season, who would you have said? Hunter Gaddis? Cade Smith? Or maybe someone
less obvious like Joey Cantillo? What if your magic eight ball told you it would be Erik Sabrowski? If you’re a casual fan, you’d either say “I don’t believe that for a second”, or maybe even “Who?”. If you’ve got an eye for pitchers, though, you might say “That makes sense”.
Erik Sabrowski was drafted in the 14th round of the 2018 draft by the San Diego Padres. On December 8, 2021, he was claimed off of waivers by the Columbus Clippers. While that move certainly didn’t make any headlines, it was most definitely a smart one. While he did not play in 2022, he had a solid 2023 in Double-A Akron before moving up to Triple-A in 2024. While his ERA nearly doubled after the move up, the Guardians saw something in him.
Sabrowski made his Major League debut on September 4, 2024 and put those Triple-A numbers far behind him. He pitched 12.2 innings in late 2024 without giving up a single run. If you’d watched any of those 12 innings, you’d be in the “That makes sense” camp listed above.
While Sabrowski started the 2025 season on the Injured List due to left elbow inflammation, he was back with the team on June 27th. His first appearance was the perfect preview of what the 2025 season would bring. He struck out two of the three batters he faced and did not allow any runners on base. His next outing was a bit rougher, giving up his first run in the Majors and inflating his ERA to 4.50. Across his next five appearances, he gave up just one run and brought his ERA down to 1.17.
He hit another slight road bump on July 22nd when he gave up a run on two hits and bumped his ERA up 0.76 points. Imagine that – your worst “bump in the road” of the month coming in the form of one run.
Sabrowski opened the month of August with another one of those “road bump” starts, giving up two unearned runs. On paper, that was no problem since his ERA didn’t go up and the Guards won the game. Over his next eight appearances, he gave up just one hit and zero runs.
His ERA was just about to dip under the 1.00 mark on August 24th when he gave up two walks and a run. While his half-season of Major League experience doesn’t give us an ideal comparison, Baseball Reference does show that this game took place on his least successful stretch of days off. When he had four days off in a row this season, he gave up the highest number of runs and stolen bases as well as the second highest number of walks.
That theory was tested again on September 1st when, after another four days off, he gave up two runs, two hits, and two walks. Carl Willis learned his lesson after that, and Sabrowski did not see more than three days off for the rest of the season. Over the last 11 games of the regular season, Sabrowski gave up just one run in 10 innings. He ended the season with a 0-1 record which does not look impressive, but the 12 holds that he earned in his 33 appearances are the reason why he was so important to this team.
For the Wild Card series against the Detroit Tigers, Sabrowski appeared in every game. The first two games were exactly what you would expect from the young pitcher. He faced five batters across 1.1 innings, striking out two and allowing just one walk. Unfortunately, the win-or-go-home game three was what most casual fans will remember from Sabrowski’s 2025 season. In 0.1 innings, he gave up two runs on two hits in what would eventually be a 6-3 loss.
Sabrowski struck out nearly 13 batters per 9, but his 6.44 walks per 9 pushed his FIP up to 3.61. If he can find a little more control as he had in 2024 (2.84 walks per 9), he should be even more reliably dominant in 2026. For his career, Sabrowski has a 2.32 FIP vs LHH and a 3.27 FIP vs RHP. That’ll play.
If you put that final uncharacteristic appearance behind you because it was his third day in a row – which most fans will easily do – you’ll have Erik Sabrowski at the top of your “What to Watch” list in 2026. I know I sure do. So mark your calendars, start counting down the days to when pitchers and catchers report to Goodyear, Arizona, and remember the name Erik Sabrowski.
