Former Cleveland skipper Mike Hargrove used to say if you have a leadoff hitter and a cleanup hitter, it was easy to make up your lineup.
With Steven Kwan at the top of the order, Steven Vogt had no problem in that regard, being able to pencil in Kwan at #1 and Josh Naylor in the #4 hole.
In his third year, Kwan was having his best year yet. He had a .373 on base average as a rookie, a season in which the Guardians won the American League Central Division.
After a step back last season (.340 OBP), Kwan was off to a tremendous start in 2024, getting on base at a .407 clip and currently leading the AL in batting average at .353. In addition, his slugging percentage was almost 100 points higher than his career high during his rookie year at .496.
Add in his suburb defense, and some in Cleveland might find this absurd, but Kwan was on track to be an MVP candidate.
Alas, Kwan suffered a hamstring injury a little over a week ago, and so far, Vogt hasn’t found a steady replacement.
You want someone who can get on base consistently (obviously) and unfortunately the next highest on base percentage among the regulars belongs to Josh Naylor, who has we said, is the Guardians’ fourth hitter in the lineup.
Here’s an out of the box thought. David Fry seems to be working his way into more playing time because every time he is in the lineup, he produces. In 87 plate appearances, Fry has 14 walks (to go with 21 strikeouts) and also has a .309 batting average and three home runs.
He’s getting on base at a .437 clip, and he’s also a threat to put you up 1-0 with a leadoff home run. As we said, it’s very unconventional, but the job of the leadoff man is not to steal bases, it’s to get on base.
Besides Fry and Naylor, the only other player on the roster with an OBP over .300 is Andres Gimenez at .307, and his average is that high only because he’s been hit with seven pitches, a total that is second in the AL.
Vogt tried Estevan Florial (34:7 strikeout to walk ratio) initially, and then tried Brayan Rocchio, who is tied for second on the team in walks (with Fry, behind J. Naylor), but neither really did well.
On Sunday, he used Tyler Freeman, who is just 4 for his last 35, but he is among the team leaders in getting on base via walk or hit batsman. He’s led off in the minors, but of course, it’s different at the big league level.
It is obvious that Kwan’s loss has created a huge hole. And not having Jose Ramirez swinging the bat well combined with no Kwan has really bogged down the hitting attack. It has become very home run dependent, something we never thought we would say about the Guardians.
They 5th in the AL in producing round trippers.
While finding a decent leadoff man would help, so would Gimenez and Ramirez starting to hit like they can and very soon.
Hopefully, this is just a slump, and the offense will start producing better very soon. That will be needed if the Guardians want to continue to sit at the top of the AL Central standings.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 