News Guardians Team Notes

[Cleveland Guardians]

Shane Bieber Scratched From Rehab Start Due To Elbow Soreness

Guardians righty Shane Bieber had been eyeing a return to the majors late this month, but that plan is on hold. Bieber felt discomfort in his surgically repaired elbow after a bullpen session between rehab starts this week, per Zack Meisel of The Athletic. He’s headed for a consultation with Dr. Keith Meister, who performed the right-hander’s Tommy John surgery last April.

It’s an ominous development for a Guardians club that recently lost fellow right-hander Ben Lively to Tommy John surgery. Bieber, 30, made his first rehab start with Cleveland’s Rookie-level affiliate in the Arizona Complex League on May 31 and could scarcely have performed better. While the Guards monitored his workload closely and lifted him after just 2 1/3 innings, he punched out five of the nine batters he faced and allowed only a single along the way. Bieber was throwing a bullpen session Tuesday in preparation for what was supposed to be a rehab start with Double-A Akron yesterday when the discomfort surfaced.

Presumably, the Guardians will provide more information on Bieber’s status within the next few days. In the meantime, it seems fair to expect that his return to the big league roster will be pushed back to at least some extent. Cleveland will want to proceed with caution regarding its longtime ace.

Bieber reached free agency this past offseason but returned to the Guardians on a two-year, $26MM contract — though the second season of that pact is a player option. He’s being paid $10MM in 2025, and the option comes with a $4MM buyout. So long as he’s healthy by season’s end, he seems quite likely to turn down that player option and re-test free agency, but the question of his health (or lack thereof) is once again front and center.

With Bieber’s status again up in the air, it looks as though Cleveland’s rotation for the foreseeable future will include righties Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee, Luis Ortiz and Slade Cecconi, as well as southpaw Logan Allen. It’s a solid group overall, but each has had some degree of red flag this season. Williams (13.2%), Ortiz (11.8%) and Allen (11.3%) all have problematic walk rates, while Bibee (1.82 HR/9) and Cecconi (2.66 HR/9) have both been quite homer-prone (albeit in only 20 1/3 innings for Cecconi). Cleveland starters rank 20th in the majors with a collective 4.07 ERA, but that includes 44 2/3 innings of 3.22 ERA ball for the aforementioned Lively, who’ll likely be out through the first half of next season following his UCL repair.

Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025...-bieber-setback-elbow-tommy-john-surgery.html

 

[Cleveland Guardians]

Guardians Release Cody Bolton

The Guardians released right-hander Cody Bolton, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Cleveland had designated him for assignment a week ago when they needed a 40-man roster spot to activate David Fry from the injured list.

Bolton has spent the past month on the injured list with Triple-A Columbus. The Guardians could have taken him off the 40-man roster by placing him on the MLB 60-day IL, but that would have required paying him the prorated $760K minimum salary until he was healthy. They opted to designate him for assignment instead. Teams cannot place injured players on outright waivers, so the DFA made a release a formality.

The Guardians acquired Bolton from the Mariners in a cash trade in April. The 26-year-old made one appearance in a Cleveland uniform. He tossed two innings and allowed three runs on four hits. He’d otherwise been in Triple-A, where he threw four frames of two-run ball with five strikeouts. Bolton has also logged some MLB action with the Pirates and Mariners and carries a 5.79 ERA over 42 career innings.

There aren’t any specifics on Bolton’s injury. In situations like this, teams will often try to re-sign the released player to a minor league contract. That’d keep him in the organization without costing them a 40-man roster spot or an MLB salary. Cleveland could look to go that route with Bolton, but he’ll have the option to explore other opportunities if he’d like in free agency.

Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/06/guardians-release-cody-bolton.html

 

[Cleveland Guardians]

Guardians Select Dom Nuñez

The Guardians announced that they have selected the contract of catcher Dom Nuñez. Fellow backstop Austin Hedges has been placed on the seven-day concussion-related injured list. Right-hander Andrew Walters has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot.

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt spoke on the Hedges situation today, with video relayed by Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan. Vogt says that Hedges was hit in the head by a backswing from Jazz Chisholm Jr. on Wednesday night (video of the incident from MLB.com). Vogt says that Hedges was experiencing some “low-level concussion symptoms” yesterday which have not gone away. Vogt adds that the club wants to be cautious due to previous concussions suffered by Hedges. According to his MLB.com transaction tracker, Hedges has previously gone on the IL for a concussion in 2017, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Concussions tend to get more dangerous with each subsequent incident, so the caution is understandable.

Hedges has been backing up Bo Naylor at the catcher position this year but Nuñez will now tag in and take over that job while Hedges recovers. Calling up Nuñez was necessary because the Guards previously had just Hedges and Naylor as the two catchers on their 40-man roster. David Fry has catching experience but is limited to designated hitter duties this year due to undergoing elbow surgery in November.

The 30-year-old Nuñez signed a minor league deal with the Guards in the offseason. He has been playing at the Triple-A level since then, putting up a line of .136/.266/.369 in 32 games. That’s not a pretty slash but it’s held back by a .131 batting average on balls in play. Nuñez has six home runs and has been drawing walks at a 13.6% clip, though he’s also been striking out 30.4% of the time.

His major league track record consists of 111 games with the Rockies over the 2019-22 period. He hit just .180/.280/.373 in that time but generally received solid marks for his defense. Nuñez still has one option remaining and could be easily sent back down to Triple-A when Hedges gets healthy.

As for Walters, he landed on the 15-day IL a week ago due to a lat strain. His current status is unclear but it appears that the Guardians don’t expect him back anytime soon. With this transfer, he can’t be reinstated until 60 days from his initial IL placement, which means late July.

Photo courtesy of Joe Camporeale, Imagn Images

Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/06/guardians-select-dom-nunez.html