Guardians' Hunter Gaddis: Quickly ascending leverage ladder

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Gaddis walked one and struck out two in a scoreless and hitless inning to earn his fifth hold of the season Saturday versus the Athletics.

Gaddis had struggled primarily as a starter over parts of the last two seasons, but he's thriving as a reliever so far. He's got a 15:3 K:BB while allowing just four hits and no runs over 10.2 innings to begin the campaign. Gaddis was expected to be more of a middle reliever initially, but he's looking more like a setup man after his hot start, which is especially impressive considering how strong the Guardians' bullpen has been. Gaddis has also been able to unlock more velocity in shorter outings -- per Statcast, his fastball is averaging 96.3 mph this year after sitting at 93.4 mph over the previous two years. He's also tightened his pitch arsenal, dropping his curveball and cutter while using his slider and changeup as his offspeed offerings.