{"id":628452,"date":"2026-04-25T20:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T20:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/628452\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T20:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T20:52:10","slug":"cleveland-guardians-reliever-edmonton-native-savouring-canadian-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/628452\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland Guardians reliever, Edmonton native savouring Canadian return"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Guardians reliever Erik Sabrowski<\/a> turned a corner in the Cleveland locker room Saturday afternoon and playfully pointed at the white Maple Leaf emblazoned on a teammate\u2019s coffee cup.<\/p>\n

The Edmonton native is playing in his home country for the first time in nearly a decade and loving every minute of it. <\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up watching tons of games on TV here and so just the emotions of that, right? How did I get here? I\u2019m on the field now,\u201d Sabrowski said. \u201cBut it\u2019s still the same job, same game, but a little more emotional.<\/p>\n

\u201c(I\u2019m) a little more amped up just being in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now in his third big-league season with Cleveland, Sabrowski delivered in his first appearance at Rogers Centre on Friday night.<\/p>\n

He earned the hold with a clean eighth inning before Vancouver native Cade Smith<\/a> closed out the 8-6 victory. Another Canadian, Bo Naylor<\/a> of Mississauga, Ont., was behind the plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun to watch Erik and Cade throwing to Bo in Toronto, it\u2019s just a pretty cool thing,\u201d said Guardians manager Stephen Vogt. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of Canadians on our team since I\u2019ve been here, and it\u2019s just a fun nugget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabrowski, who has about 20 friends and family members on hand for the weekend series, raised his arms in the air when he got Daulton Varsho<\/a> to line out to end the eighth inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven just before the game, hearing the Canadian anthem, that\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve heard that in my professional baseball career,\u201d he said. \u201cSo that was pretty cool. And yeah, definitely just a little more emotional being here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabrowski played both ways for the Edmonton Prospects of the Western Canadian Baseball League back in 2017.<\/p>\n

The six-foot-four, 230-pound southpaw was 3-2 with a 2.75 earned-run average that year and posted a .339 batting average over 35 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to play summer ball with some guys I grew up playing with and against in the area, those were some of the best years of my life,\u201d he said before the Guardians\u2019 matinee against the Blue Jays.<\/p>\n

A year later, the Cloud County Community College product was selected in the 14th round of the MLB Draft (No. 411 overall) by the San Diego Padres<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He missed the 2019 campaign after undergoing Tommy John surgery, a procedure that was required again in the fall of 2021.<\/p>\n

The Guardians selected him in the minor-league phase of the Rule 5 Draft that year and Sabrowski spent the 2023 season at double-A Akron before his shot at the big leagues came in September 2024.<\/p>\n

Sabrowski earned his first major-league save that month and posted a 1.69 ERA over five post-season games, striking out eight batters while giving up only five hits.<\/p>\n

\u201cA dominant left-handed reliever,\u201d Vogt said. \u201cHe\u2019s got one of the best fastballs in the league and he\u2019s got two very good breaking balls to complement it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Erik\u2019s in the strike zone, he\u2019s tough to hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Left elbow inflammation forced him to the injured list for three months last season, but he was effective when he returned with a 1.84 ERA and 12 holds over 33 games.<\/p>\n

Entering play Saturday, Sabrowski was 0-1 with a 2.84 ERA this year. Opponents have been held to a .140 average against him. <\/p>\n

Now 28, the southpaw said he sometimes reflects on a baseball journey that has had a few challenges along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s what helps me not take these days for granted,\u201d he said. \u201cA bad day while playing is a lot better than a good day while rehabbing an injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really fortunate to be in the spot I\u2019m in and hope to keep building off success.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25, 2026. <\/p>\n

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Guardians reliever Erik Sabrowski turned a corner in the Cleveland locker room Saturday afternoon and playfully…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752,82],"class_list":["post-628452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}