<p>Canadian baseball certainly seems like it has been on the rise over the last couple of seasons. Even with the retirement of Joey Votto, the next wave of talent has the opportunity to keep Canada competitive at future international tournaments like the World Baseball Classic.</p>
<p>Looking ahead to the future of baseball in Canada was the inspiration for Blue Jays Nation&#8217;s countdown of the <a href="https://bluejaysnation.com/news/blue-jays-nations-top-20-canadian-baseball-prospects-for-2025-9-dylan-orae">top 20 Canadian baseball prospects</a>. Coming in at <a href="https://bluejaysnation.com/news/blue-jays-nations-top-20-canadian-baseball-prospects-for-2025-11-erik-sabrowski">#11 on the countdown</a> was Guardians reliever Erik Sabrowski, a guy who made it up to the major leagues in 2024 and even held a key role in the playoffs for the club.</p>
<p></p>
<p>After starting his college career as a hitter at Cisco College in Texas, Sabrowski transferred to Cloud County Community College to focus more on pitching. After posting eye-popping strikeout numbers (16.0 K/9), he was drafted in the 14th round of the 2018 draft by the San Diego Padres. However, injuries and the pandemic considerably delayed the start of his pro career.</p>
<p>&#8220;No one dreams of starting their pro career by getting told you need surgery, let alone spending three years away from the field,&#8221; Sabrowski explains to Blue Jays Nation. &#8220;I&#8217;d always played baseball, and now I&#8217;ve reached a goal of being a professional baseball player, but I&#8217;m not actually playing. I used to say I was a professional rehabber for a while.&#8221;</p>
<div class="bam-inline-promotion-block" data-max-length="2" data-placement-id="2110" data-context="web-content-promocard" data-property-id="330"></div>
<p>When he finally debuted in 2021, the Edmonton native impressed enough in limited action to get the attention of the Guardians, who took him in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft. Sabrowski would miss the entire 2022 season after a second Tommy John surgery but pitched well in his return to the mound in 2023. He held a 2.49 ERA across 20 double-A outings and a 1.86 ERA through nine Arizona Fall League appearances. As 2024 approached, he had his sights on the big leagues.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Erik Sabrowski picks up his first Major League strikeout for the <a href="https://twitter.com/CleGuardians?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CleGuardians</a>!</p>
<p>The 26-year-old Canada native becomes just the second pitcher from Cloud County CC (Jake Diekman) to debut in The Show. <a href="https://t.co/pYTP8XlMbR">pic.twitter.com/pYTP8XlMbR</a></p>
<p>&mdash; MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLBPipeline/status/1831533221927858619?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 5, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>&#8220;It was definitely on my mind. That was my ultimate goal for the end of the year. But there&#8217;s also a bunch of stepping stones in between,&#8221; explains Sabrowski. &#8220;First it was trying to make the triple-A roster. Then from there, I&#8217;ve never pitched more than 30 innings before in a season, so let&#8217;s try and get to 50. And then some more pitch and delivery-related goals that I felt like if I combine all of those, I&#8217;d have a good shot at making the big leagues.&#8221;</p>
<h3>Sabrowski talks to Blue Jays Nation about making his major league debut</h3>
<p>Despite struggling with some command issues in triple-A, his electric strikeout stuff got him the call to Cleveland towards the end of the year. He made his major league debut on September 4th, but not after anxiously awaiting his turn for more than a week.</p>
<p>&#8220;I actually got called up on the 27th of August. So it was a good seven or eight days before I finally got in. The first few days felt like the world&#8217;s coolest vacation. I&#8217;m across the locker room from Jose Ramirez. He&#8217;s going to be a Hall of Famer one day,&#8221; Said Sabrowski. &#8220;You saw what that bullpen did all season, and someone in the Cleveland front office felt like I belonged there. There&#8217;s no better confidence boost than that. I&#8217;m in a big league locker room getting treated like a big leaguer, but there was still that step of actually pitching in a game. And so during that time, I just did everything I could to stay mentally and physically ready.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">It will be a night he&#39;ll never forget 🥹</p>
<p>An emotional Erik Sabrowski made his MLB debut and was able to record his first big league strike out. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ForTheLand?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ForTheLand</a> <a href="https://t.co/zjqGO3B4Sj">pic.twitter.com/zjqGO3B4Sj</a></p>
<p>&mdash; FanDuel Sports Network Cleveland (@FanDuelSN_CLE) <a href="https://twitter.com/FanDuelSN_CLE/status/1831519411779571781?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 5, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The six-foot-four southpaw Sabrowski dominated throughout the rest of the regular season, striking out 19 in 12 2/3 innings across eight scoreless appearances. He contributed to a <a href="https://www.si.com/fannation/mlb/fastball/history/cleveland-guardians-bullpen-joins-extremely-rare-history-in-2024-season-with-fourth-lowest-era-of-wild-card-era">historically good</a> Guardians bullpen led by Emmanuel Clase and fellow Canadian Cade Smith. Despite only spending a few weeks with the team, he was able to pick up some valuable insights from his teammates about staying consistent.</p>
<p>&#8220;From Cade, I learned so much about his preparation,&#8221; Sabrowski explains. &#8220;That guy has everything dialled in. He&#8217;s a robot in the nicest way possible, but he doesn&#8217;t ride the highs too high and he doesn&#8217;t get too low after a bad outing. I don&#8217;t remember who it was, but we got blown out in one of the games where I was there, and I was wondering what the locker would be like afterwards. 20 minutes after the final out, it was the same as if we had won 10-0. No one&#8217;s celebrating the fact that we lost, but it was like, okay, it&#8217;s done. Let&#8217;s turn the page.&#8221;</p>
<p>Sabrowski&#8217;s late-season success led to him getting added to the playoff roster after the Guardians clinched the AL Central pennant. He appeared in five games against the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees collectively, allowing just one run while striking out eight. Despite the increased importance of the games, he was unfazed by the atmosphere change that the postseason brought.</p>
<p>&#8220;My second [regular season] outing was at Dodgers stadium on a Saturday night and there were about 45,000 people there. I&#8217;d say that atmosphere was pretty close to some of the playoff atmospheres we had in Detroit and New York. Cleveland was something else. Those people love that team and we love their support, so it wasn&#8217;t totally unfamiliar.&#8221;</p>
<h3>Sabrowski&#8217;s three-pitch mix has fueled his high strikeout numbers</h3>
<p>Sabrowski relies on three pitches to get batters out: a four-seam fastball, a curveball, and a slider. He&#8217;s proven that he can miss bats at any level, as his career 13.4 career minor league K/9 mirrored his major league mark of 13.5, albeit in a smaller sample size. His fastball sits in the mid-90s and it&#8217;s thrown around 50% of the time. Despite not lighting up the radar gun (by today&#8217;s standards), the lefthander explains what makes it so difficult for batters to hit it.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s a combination of vertical break and location,&#8221; said Sabrowski. &#8220;I have a higher-than-average vertical break on my fastball. So that paired with trying to live in the upper half of the zone. I think I do a pretty good job at missing bats or generating weak contact.&#8221;</p>
<p>As far as his breaking balls go, the 27-year-old typically throws his curveball and slider at a similar rate, but new information regarding the success of his slider may lead to him tinkering with his usage going forward.</p>
<p>&#8220;The curveball is a little more batter dependent, definitely more to righties than lefties,&#8221; Sabrowski explains. &#8220;But the slider, Cleveland showed me that the slider is the best-performing pitch against either batter, no matter which way you hit. So I&#8217;m definitely trying to work that in a little more.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Eric Sabrowski is a brave man throwing a 4-seamer down the middle to Giancarlo Stanton. But it&#39;s a K! 🔥</p>
<p>We get a good look at the spin on it here. All 2594 RPMs.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GuardsBall?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GuardsBall</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RepBX?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RepBX</a> <a href="https://t.co/wqjaJDthFR">pic.twitter.com/wqjaJDthFR</a></p>
<p>&mdash; FTD (@FromTheDish) <a href="https://twitter.com/FromTheDish/status/1847454962667966515?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>One thing that has held Sabrowski back has been his command, as he&#8217;s run into some issues with walking batters at times. After initially struggling at triple-A Columbus in 2024, he was sent down to double-A, which allowed him to refocus his approach on the mound.</p>
<p>&#8220;I was trying to be too fine. I was trying to be Greg Maddux when I first got up to triple-A. Those hitters in triple-A or at any level of professional baseball, they&#8217;re really good, but I was giving them too much credit. I was throwing a pitch while in the back of my mind thinking, &#8216;I hope he doesn&#8217;t rope this down the line.&#8217; And so then, all of a sudden you&#8217;re down 2-0 to a guy and you&#8217;re trying to throw the perfect fastball on the outer third.&#8221;</p>
<p>When you have the kind of nasty stuff that Sabrowski has, simply being around the zone is enough to be effective. The call-up to Cleveland may have given him the confidence boost to believe in his stuff while worrying less about being too fine. Across 18 major league innings (including postseason), he held a 3.5 BB/9, down from 7.3 in triple-A.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just a matter of mentality,&#8221; said Sabrowski. &#8220;It&#8217;s trusting that even if I leave a fastball down the middle, it won&#8217;t get hit a million miles. And that&#8217;s going to happen. [Giancarlo] Stanton hit one a hundred thousand feet off me in the playoffs. And that&#8217;s going to happen. They get paid to hit the ball out of the yard, just like I get paid to get them out. But it&#8217;s knowing that as a pitcher, you have all the advantages in the world. You&#8217;re standing on the mound with the ball. You have most of the power.&#8221;</p>
<h3>Playing for Canada in the WBC and representing his hometown</h3>
<p>With the 2026 World Baseball Classic in the not-so-distant future, it&#8217;s easy to speculate on what rosters may look like. Having never represented his country before, Sabrowski made it clear that he would love to be a part of Canada&#8217;s bullpen.</p>
<p>&#8220;I grew up like many Canadians watching hockey, especially watching the World Juniors every Christmas. I&#8217;ve spent my whole life idolizing guys who I get to watch on TV wearing Canada across their chests. I think that would be a pretty special moment. Something that, if I&#8217;m lucky enough to get to that point, I would love to do it.&#8221;</p>
<p>The opportunity to play against the Blue Jays in Toronto also offers up an opportunity for Sabrowski to do something he&#8217;s never done before: playing a professional game on Canadian soil. Toronto will host the Guardians from May 2nd to 4th.</p>
<p>&#8220;Just like playing for Canada in the WBC, I&#8217;ve thought about playing in Toronto. I grew up watching the Jays back when they were on TSN. That would be pretty fun.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@oilersnation/video/7433111366065556742" data-video-id="7433111366065556742" data-embed-from="oembed" style="max-width:605px; min-width:325px;">
<section> <a target="_blank" title="@oilersnation" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@oilersnation?refer=embed">@oilersnation</a> </p>
<p>MLB Pitcher, Erik Sabrowski loves his hometown ❤️ &#8211; Oilersnation Everyday Presented by @Sherwood Ford <a title="yeg" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/yeg?refer=embed">#yeg</a> <a title="edmonton" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/edmonton?refer=embed">#edmonton</a> <a title="baseball" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/baseball?refer=embed">#baseball</a> </p>
<p> <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Oilersnation.com" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7433111377121790725?refer=embed">♬ original sound &#8211; Oilersnation.com</a> </section>
</blockquote>
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<p>Hailing from Edmonton means that Sabrowski has always been a diehard Oilers fan. He mentioned that he was able to go to nine Oilers games this season before he left for Arizona to get ready for the upcoming season. The only problem with being a professional baseball player is that the season overlaps with the most important part of the hockey season, making it hard to watch games.</p>
<p>&#8220;I kind of ran through that problem last summer [in Columbus] with them going on the run,&#8221; laughed Sabrowski. &#8220;It was a lot of getting fans in the stands to check the score for me and missing the last bus out of the clubhouse &#8217;cause I was in there watching the game on TV. So I made it work.&#8221;</p>
<p>Despite his success at the end of last season, Sabrowski knows that he has to go out and earn his roster spot this spring. Although it may be highly unlikely that he can attend an Oilers playoff game in person this summer, he should be able to take in the action from the comfort of a <em>major league</em> clubhouse this time around.</p>
<hr />
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Canadian baseball certainly seems like it has been on the rise over the last couple of seasons. Even with the retirement of Joey Votto, the next wave of talent has the opportunity to keep Canada competitive at future international tournaments like the World Baseball Classic.

Looking ahead to the future of baseball in Canada was the inspiration for Blue Jays Nation's countdown of the <a href="https://bluejaysnation.com/news/blue-jays-nations-top-20-canadian-baseball-prospects-for-2025-9-dylan-orae">top 20 Canadian baseball prospects</a>. Coming in at <a href="https://bluejaysnation.com/news/blue-jays-nations-top-20-canadian-baseball-prospects-for-2025-11-erik-sabrowski">#11 on the countdown</a> was Guardians reliever Erik Sabrowski, a guy who made it up to the major leagues in 2024 and even held a key role in the playoffs for the club.



After starting his college career as a hitter at Cisco College in Texas, Sabrowski transferred to Cloud County Community College to focus more on pitching. After posting eye-popping strikeout numbers (16.0 K/9), he was drafted in the 14th round of the 2018 draft by the San Diego Padres. However, injuries and the pandemic considerably delayed the start of his pro career.

"No one dreams of starting their pro career by getting told you need surgery, let alone spending three years away from the field," Sabrowski explains to Blue Jays Nation. "I'd always played baseball, and now I've reached a goal of being a professional baseball player, but I'm not actually playing. I used to say I was a professional rehabber for a while."
<div class="bam-inline-promotion-block" data-max-length="2" data-placement-id="2110" data-context="web-content-promocard" data-property-id="330"></div>
When he finally debuted in 2021, the Edmonton native impressed enough in limited action to get the attention of the Guardians, who took him in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft. Sabrowski would miss the entire 2022 season after a second Tommy John surgery but pitched well in his return to the mound in 2023. He held a 2.49 ERA across 20 double-A outings and a 1.86 ERA through nine Arizona Fall League appearances. As 2024 approached, he had his sights on the big leagues.

https://twitter.com/MLBPipeline/status/1831533221927858619

"It was definitely on my mind. That was my ultimate goal for the end of the year. But there's also a bunch of stepping stones in between," explains Sabrowski. "First it was trying to make the triple-A roster. Then from there, I've never pitched more than 30 innings before in a season, so let's try and get to 50. And then some more pitch and delivery-related goals that I felt like if I combine all of those, I'd have a good shot at making the big leagues."
<h3>Sabrowski talks to Blue Jays Nation about making his major league debut</h3>
Despite struggling with some command issues in triple-A, his electric strikeout stuff got him the call to Cleveland towards the end of the year. He made his major league debut on September 4th, but not after anxiously awaiting his turn for more than a week.

"I actually got called up on the 27th of August. So it was a good seven or eight days before I finally got in. The first few days felt like the world's coolest vacation. I'm across the locker room from Jose Ramirez. He's going to be a Hall of Famer one day," Said Sabrowski. "You saw what that bullpen did all season, and someone in the Cleveland front office felt like I belonged there. There's no better confidence boost than that. I'm in a big league locker room getting treated like a big leaguer, but there was still that step of actually pitching in a game. And so during that time, I just did everything I could to stay mentally and physically ready."

https://twitter.com/FanDuelSN_CLE/status/1831519411779571781

The six-foot-four southpaw Sabrowski dominated throughout the rest of the regular season, striking out 19 in 12 2/3 innings across eight scoreless appearances. He contributed to a <a href="https://www.si.com/fannation/mlb/fastball/history/cleveland-guardians-bullpen-joins-extremely-rare-history-in-2024-season-with-fourth-lowest-era-of-wild-card-era">historically good</a> Guardians bullpen led by Emmanuel Clase and fellow Canadian Cade Smith. Despite only spending a few weeks with the team, he was able to pick up some valuable insights from his teammates about staying consistent.

"From Cade, I learned so much about his preparation," Sabrowski explains. "That guy has everything dialled in. He's a robot in the nicest way possible, but he doesn't ride the highs too high and he doesn't get too low after a bad outing. I don't remember who it was, but we got blown out in one of the games where I was there, and I was wondering what the locker would be like afterwards. 20 minutes after the final out, it was the same as if we had won 10-0. No one's celebrating the fact that we lost, but it was like, okay, it's done. Let's turn the page."

Sabrowski's late-season success led to him getting added to the playoff roster after the Guardians clinched the AL Central pennant. He appeared in five games against the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees collectively, allowing just one run while striking out eight. Despite the increased importance of the games, he was unfazed by the atmosphere change that the postseason brought.

"My second [regular season] outing was at Dodgers stadium on a Saturday night and there were about 45,000 people there. I'd say that atmosphere was pretty close to some of the playoff atmospheres we had in Detroit and New York. Cleveland was something else. Those people love that team and we love their support, so it wasn't totally unfamiliar."
<h3>Sabrowski's three-pitch mix has fueled his high strikeout numbers</h3>
Sabrowski relies on three pitches to get batters out: a four-seam fastball, a curveball, and a slider. He's proven that he can miss bats at any level, as his career 13.4 career minor league K/9 mirrored his major league mark of 13.5, albeit in a smaller sample size. His fastball sits in the mid-90s and it's thrown around 50% of the time. Despite not lighting up the radar gun (by today's standards), the lefthander explains what makes it so difficult for batters to hit it.

"I think it's a combination of vertical break and location," said Sabrowski. "I have a higher-than-average vertical break on my fastball. So that paired with trying to live in the upper half of the zone. I think I do a pretty good job at missing bats or generating weak contact."

As far as his breaking balls go, the 27-year-old typically throws his curveball and slider at a similar rate, but new information regarding the success of his slider may lead to him tinkering with his usage going forward.

"The curveball is a little more batter dependent, definitely more to righties than lefties," Sabrowski explains. "But the slider, Cleveland showed me that the slider is the best-performing pitch against either batter, no matter which way you hit. So I'm definitely trying to work that in a little more."

https://twitter.com/FromTheDish/status/1847454962667966515

One thing that has held Sabrowski back has been his command, as he's run into some issues with walking batters at times. After initially struggling at triple-A Columbus in 2024, he was sent down to double-A, which allowed him to refocus his approach on the mound.

"I was trying to be too fine. I was trying to be Greg Maddux when I first got up to triple-A. Those hitters in triple-A or at any level of professional baseball, they're really good, but I was giving them too much credit. I was throwing a pitch while in the back of my mind thinking, 'I hope he doesn't rope this down the line.' And so then, all of a sudden you're down 2-0 to a guy and you're trying to throw the perfect fastball on the outer third."

When you have the kind of nasty stuff that Sabrowski has, simply being around the zone is enough to be effective. The call-up to Cleveland may have given him the confidence boost to believe in his stuff while worrying less about being too fine. Across 18 major league innings (including postseason), he held a 3.5 BB/9, down from 7.3 in triple-A.

"It's just a matter of mentality," said Sabrowski. "It's trusting that even if I leave a fastball down the middle, it won't get hit a million miles. And that's going to happen. [Giancarlo] Stanton hit one a hundred thousand feet off me in the playoffs. And that's going to happen. They get paid to hit the ball out of the yard, just like I get paid to get them out. But it's knowing that as a pitcher, you have all the advantages in the world. You're standing on the mound with the ball. You have most of the power."
<h3>Playing for Canada in the WBC and representing his hometown</h3>
With the 2026 World Baseball Classic in the not-so-distant future, it's easy to speculate on what rosters may look like. Having never represented his country before, Sabrowski made it clear that he would love to be a part of Canada's bullpen.

"I grew up like many Canadians watching hockey, especially watching the World Juniors every Christmas. I've spent my whole life idolizing guys who I get to watch on TV wearing Canada across their chests. I think that would be a pretty special moment. Something that, if I'm lucky enough to get to that point, I would love to do it."

The opportunity to play against the Blue Jays in Toronto also offers up an opportunity for Sabrowski to do something he's never done before: playing a professional game on Canadian soil. Toronto will host the Guardians from May 2nd to 4th.

"Just like playing for Canada in the WBC, I've thought about playing in Toronto. I grew up watching the Jays back when they were on TSN. That would be pretty fun."

https://www.tiktok.com/@oilersnation/video/7433111366065556742

Hailing from Edmonton means that Sabrowski has always been a diehard Oilers fan. He mentioned that he was able to go to nine Oilers games this season before he left for Arizona to get ready for the upcoming season. The only problem with being a professional baseball player is that the season overlaps with the most important part of the hockey season, making it hard to watch games.

"I kind of ran through that problem last summer [in Columbus] with them going on the run," laughed Sabrowski. "It was a lot of getting fans in the stands to check the score for me and missing the last bus out of the clubhouse 'cause I was in there watching the game on TV. So I made it work."

Despite his success at the end of last season, Sabrowski knows that he has to go out and earn his roster spot this spring. Although it may be highly unlikely that he can attend an Oilers playoff game in person this summer, he should be able to take in the action from the comfort of a <em>major league</em> clubhouse this time around.

<hr />

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Edmonton-born Guardians pitcher Erik Sabrowski speaks with Blue Jays Nation about his journey to the Major Leagues

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