Tanner Bibee’s frustration boils over during another miserable showing by Cleveland Guardians
Aug 25, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Tanner Bibee, left, walks off the mound beside manager Stephen Vogt during a pitching change in the seventh inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-Imagn Images
By Zack Meisel
Aug. 25, 2025Updated Aug. 26, 2025 12:25 am EDT

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CLEVELAND — After the scoreboard confusion and errant throw, after the first of two home runs by the former Cleveland prospect, after the starting pitcher struggling through his worst season shouted at teammates in the dugout, after his manager barked at him for that pep rally, after the home run by another former Cleveland prospect, after a couple of hits by a dude named Bob and during another lifeless showing by the Guardians’ offense — it rained.

For 38 minutes, it rained.

It was 38 minutes of sweet salvation for every fan or masochist in attendance who — like the dorky dad who says “we needed this” when the grass gets a break from a summer drought — probably thanked Mother Nature for interrupting the atrocity they were witnessing. During the rain delay, they got to rewatch broadcaster Tom Hamilton’s Hall of Fame speech on the scoreboard, a mid-game palate cleanser.

The Guardians have bookended a monthlong stretch in which they were the American League’s hottest team with an 0-10 stretch and now a 1-9 stretch. If their 10th consecutive loss, a gut-punch, extra-inning defeat on July 6, wasn’t rock bottom, then perhaps this is.

The Guardians sure hope it is.

Frustration boiled over in the home dugout after a sloppy fourth inning, in which an incorrect scoreboard display of the count resulted in a Junior Caminero stolen base, and a wayward throw to third later allowed Caminero to score on a walk. It was a comedy of errors, but without any laughter, just anger, as a seething Tanner Bibee returned to the dugout and voiced his dissatisfaction. The pitcher and his manager, Stephen Vogt, contended it was a rallying cry for his teammates.

“He came in trying to pump the boys up,” Vogt said.

The ever-stoic skipper, however, stormed after Bibee and shouted back at him.

“I told him, ‘Not now. Take it downstairs,’” Vogt said.

“He’s completely right,” Bibee agreed.

The two hashed out their perspectives after the game.

“Emotions are high right now,” Vogt said. “Emotions are high with everybody. Tanner is one of the most competitive, fiery people I’ve ever been around.”

It was an appropriate night for an airing of grievances.

As the Guardians slip further and further out of the wild-card picture, Monday night offered a series of reminders of everything that has gone awry, starting with Caminero, who seems destined to haunt Cleveland’s front office for years.

The Rays traded for the Cleveland prospect in November 2021. They first asked for someone else in exchange for pitcher Tobias Myers. The Guardians balked. The Rays asked for another player. The Guardians balked. The Rays asked for Caminero. The Guardians said yes.

Caminero’s 38th homer of the season traveled 412 feet at an exit velocity of 108.6 mph and disappeared into the shrubbery beyond the center-field wall. The pop off the bat, given the sparse crowd, presumably could be heard from the bottom of Lake Erie. Once play resumed after the rain delay, Caminero greeted Tim Herrin with a homer to the left-field bleachers, his 39th.

Cleveland’s executives have admitted that trade was a profound mistake. They’ve jokingly asked Rays executives if they want a redo. They laugh to hide the pain. One evaluator quipped that Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh defeated no one in the Home Run Derby final. (He beat Caminero.)

Myers, by the way, pitched poorly at Triple-A Columbus for a few months in 2022 before being cut loose. He bounced to the San Francisco Giants and Chicago White Sox later that season and wound up having a nice year for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2024, to twist the knife a bit deeper.

Teams make bad trades. It happens. The Guardians, on balance, have been on the right end of lopsided deals far more than they have been the team staring up at the ceiling at night, wondering where their process failed them. They signed Caminero, he played well in the Dominican Summer League, and then they moved him, a teenager with a limited track record and a blank canvas for the future.

The Guardians haven’t had a player hit 40 homers in a season since Travis Hafner in 2006. Caminero might get there this week, and he turned 22 on July 5. He’s precisely what this lackluster lineup needs. That one stings.

His first blast was the 24th homer Bibee has surrendered this season. Yandy Díaz’s homer in the seventh was the 25th, three more than Bibee allowed last season. You may remember Díaz as the prospect sent to the Rays in a deal that swapped Edwin Encarnación and Carlos Santana and landed Jake Bauers in Cleveland.

Díaz blossomed in Tampa. In his worst season, per OPS+, he has been 15 percent better than league average. In 2023, when he finished sixth in MVP voting and was an All-Star and Silver Slugger winner, he was 59 percent better than league average.

As for Bibee, it’s been a nightmarish season, with a 4.73 ERA and a fastball that continues to get walloped. On Monday, he said, he was not “good mentally” when it came to “letting stuff roll off my shoulders.”

“It’s been rough,” Bibee said. “We’re almost in September.”

His home run rate has nearly doubled, relative to his rookie season, in which he never endured a rough patch. Last year, after a sluggish start, he emerged as the Guardians’ ace with Shane Bieber sidelined. This season, however, he never found his footing.

Neither has Cleveland’s feeble offense. The lineup hasn’t scored a run since Friday night. The Guardians have been outscored 24-0 in their last three games. When Gabriel Arias slapped a single to center to start the eighth — the second of Cleveland’s two hits in the game — the fans offered a Bronx cheer.

Ian Seymour, a 26-year-old lefty making his first major-league start, shut the Guardians down Monday with an array of changeups and 92 mph heaters. He wasn’t the only Seymour to torture the Guardians. Bob Seymour — the first Bob in the big leagues since reliever Bob Howry in 2010 — recorded a pair of hits in his eighth career game.

All in all, it was a wretched night for a team sputtering through another dismal stretch in a season threatening to embark on an irrelevant final month. Other than that, Mr. Vogt, how was the play?

“We are frustrated,” Vogt said. “Everyone’s frustrated. We need to hit. We need to score more runs. We need to get things going on offense. We’re all aware of it. We’re all working through it.”

Here's a strategy to turn this things around today:
Return Gabriel Arias to the 6th hole in the lineup and see if he can get a single again surrounded by his many strikeouts
Find a spot in the outfield again for Nolan Jones, a much bigger prospect than Caminero who may be just ready to come into his own
Let Bo Naylor demonstrate both his solid offensive and defensive credentials, another No. 1 draft choice who's made it big.
Angel Martinez can patrol center, or right, or second, but make sure to have his bat in the lineup, preferably hitting second.

In fact, why do anything different? If it's broke, why fix it?