Matt FestaCLE · RP

2026 review

Matt Festa settled into a steady middle-relief role for Cleveland: a 2 W and 3 L record with a 3.78 ERA and 1.30 WHIP in 66.2 IP over 66 games, a 23.9 K% and a 7.3 BB% over 289 BF, with 1 SV and 7 HLD. His fastball ticked up from 92.1 mph in Mar-Jun (211 pitches) to 93.0 mph in Jul-Sep (332 pitches), a change of +0.9 mph, and his best month was Aug at a 0.71 ERA in 12.2 IP against a 6.30 ERA in 10.0 IP in Jul. Drafted at NFBC ADP rank 701, he finished 669th of 1472 in the TDK LABS 5x5 value rank and 287th of 575 relievers. The TDK LABS card placed him behind Smith and Brogden in the bullpen hierarchy in early May, calling an early save blowout cleanup rather than a role shift; by late Jun it read him as an arm without a path to saves or holds, by late Aug as a pitcher shifted into a middle-innings role after working longer stints, and by late Sep as a non-leverage middle man valued only for ratio depth with no realistic path to higher-leverage work.