Slade Cecconi

The Josh Naylor for Cecconi trade worked out better than expected for Cleveland because they at least have something to show for the trade while the Diamondbacks got some prospects back from Seattle when they sent Naylor north just before the trade deadline. Cecconi strained his oblique toward the end of Spring Training which shelved him until mid-May limiting him to 23 starts on the season. Cecconi picked up where he left off with Arizona after the trade with a servicable strikeout rate, a low walk rate, but too many home runs. Cecconi has a 1.7 HR/9 through 236 major league innings and that has contributed to his 5.07 ERA in that time as well. Cleveland instruction got Cecconi to work on a sinker and cut back on his four-seamer and perhaps that work will continue as that four-seamer has led to 18 home runs and a .308 opponents' batting average. A pitcher has to have a fastball to succeed in the big leagues, but it would behoove Cecconi to avoid predictable fastball counts and leverage the rest of his diverse repertoire a bit more in 2026. Read Past Outlooks