CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Guardians’ reputation as baseball’s premier pitching development factory has paid off handsomely — not just for the team, but now for the young arms themselves, thanks to MLB’s pre-arbitration bonus pool.

Three of Cleveland’s emerging pitchers scored significant financial rewards for their 2025 performances, with Gavin Williams leading the way at a whopping $347,000 in bonus money. Cade Smith ($295,000) and Tanner Bibee ($217,000) also cashed in, as revealed on the latest Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast.

“When young players perform at a high level in terms of award voting or reach certain benchmarks with WAR and their statistics, they get a cut of this bonus pool,” explained Joe Noga, cleveland.com Guardians beat reporter. This system, negotiated in the latest colle

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