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All eyes are on the Guardians’ pitching staff -- at least for now.

Aaron Civale is set to return to the rotation on Friday. Prior to Triston McKenzie’s third rehab appearance getting cut short by rain, he was on track to be back in the rotation as early as Sunday. Now, that may get pushed back so McKenzie has a chance to throw more than 80 pitches in a start for the first time this year.

Regardless of whether he’s back on Sunday or five days later, difficult decisions are coming. The question of who will remain in the starting five persists, but Cleveland also has other situations to address. Is Emmanuel Clase able to find the groove he was in last year? Is James Karinchak going to be reliable in high-leverage situations?

Guardians pitching coach Carl Willis gave his opinions on all of these things earlier this week:

Q: How tough are the conversations you’re having about what to do with the rotation when McKenzie and Civale return?

Willis: Tough’s a good word. I guess the best answer I can give you is tough enough that I still don’t know if we’re really sure what we’re going to do. … It’s a great situation to be in to have the type of depth we have and potential. But definitely tough decisions are in front of us.

Q: What’s impressed you the most about Tanner Bibee and Logan Allen?

Willis: Obviously the stuff from both of them, and the pitchability, but I honestly believe their dedication to their routines and the consistency of their routines allows them to prepare in a way that they bring a lot of confidence to the mound on game day.

Q: Is there anything different you’re seeing with Karinchak this year as opposed to last?

Willis: I think [from Saturday’s outing] strike-throwing. I think there have been times earlier in his career, we saw that before, and have a good idea of the message that worked for him before to kind of get that back on track. The home runs earlier in the season. I think for the most part, we’ve dug in, tried to identify the best target zones and if he was attempting to go to that target zone, was he executing it? As most home runs are, when mistakes are made, that’s what happens. So, we’ve really been able to focus on, 'Hey, let’s really try to focus, particularly in certain counts, on this area of the strike zone.' And, hopefully, that’s going to help that problem.

Q: What do all of these close games do to a pitching staff?

Willis: I look at it like this: We’re the first line of run prevention. Regardless of the score, we’re trying to keep the other team at zero as long as we can. … We want to prevent runs. If we take that approach, you kind of take the score out of it and just go out and try to get outs. Sure, there’s more pressure, more particularly later in games, but starters as well. … So, we don’t want to pitch to not lose. We want to pitch to win and we can’t let that get in our way.

Q: Are teams taking a different approach to Clase this year?

Willis: I think they’ve always been somewhat aggressive against him. I think they still are. I feel like he’s shown some signs, he’s created a little more depth that we were accustomed to with the slider. That’s improved. I don’t necessarily think there has been a different approach. It’s been more execution.