To Cobb, joining MLB-best Guards like ‘cutting a line’

This story was excerpted from Mandy Bell's Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Alex Cobb was shocked to hear from his agent leading up to the Trade Deadline.

He hadn’t pitched yet this season. He was recovering from hip surgery and then nerve issues in his right shoulder. It’s hard to predict what the results will look like when he first gets on a Major League mound again. Will he need time to settle in like many pitchers do at the start of a season? Will there be rust? Will his rehab starts get him to midseason form?

Because of these uncertainties, Cobb wasn’t expecting to go anywhere. He had just let the big league staff with the Giants know that he was ready to get back with the team when he got a blister during what should’ve been his final rehab appearance. So, his schedule got pushed back one last time.

Just days later, he was informed he had been traded to Cleveland. His next rehab appearance came with Triple-A Columbus for an organization he knew little about. He and his wife had to pack up their house in a matter of hours and move across the country just a week before his kids started school. Everything was a blur, and at this point, it probably still is.

But it’s all about to become much clearer.

The Guardians expect Cobb to join their rotation in the coming days. He shouldn’t need any more rehab starts. All of his ailments are behind him, and now, it’s time to try to bring some stability to a rotation that needs help securing the AL Central.

Cobb chatted with a few reporters about this experience and his expectations for the rest of the year. Here’s what he had to say.

Q: What was it like packing up your family and moving across the country?
Cobb: My wife has been an absolute rock star. I told her, immediately I had to go to the field to pack up my stuff, I got home and the whole house is in boxes already. And then she’s on the plane, and she’s emailing real estate agents in the area, and she found us a house today. She’s made the transition as smooth as possible.

Q: What makes you effective as a starter?
Cobb: What's really going to hopefully play well here is I usually throw strikes, try not to give up free passes, and I try to limit home runs and keep the ball on the ground. … And as long as your stuff's doing what it should be doing, certain results are going to kind of be what they are. And so you try not to do too much. You don't need to come in here feeling like you need to strike out the world or do anything that's outside of your characteristics.

Q: Do you still feel like you have a lot left in the tank?
Cobb: You read all the stuff about getting old and the injuries and stuff, and at some point, I guess it has to be kind of true. But my outlook is this is the best I've ever felt. I wake up every day, I feel great, the body doesn't hurt, the desire is still there. Knowing that there's still a lot more left in the tank, a lot more to accomplish, all that stuff's still there.

So it's tough to read that stuff just because it's not true. But at the same time, it's not not true because you have been on the IL for three-fourths of the season. But I believe that I can get back to form of where I was last year. I mean, I made my first All-Star Game last year. I felt like I was hitting a stride, and shortly after that, the hip started bugging me and I had to kind of battle through that. I fully anticipate being able to get back to healthy and get back to form. … I’m not gonna say that there’s not going to be challenges to get back to midseason form where everybody else is at, but I’m gonna do my best to jump in as quick as possible.

Q: What’s it like joining a team in contention?
Cobb: I feel like I'm cheating on an exam or cutting a line, and I got placed into a team that's put all the work in since early February to get to the point that they're at right now. And I just get kind of placed on a potential postseason team that has all the aspirations to go deep into the postseason. So I feel very fortunate that I got put in this position.