In a little over a week, the Hot Stove season will start in earnest for baseball. Teams all over the sport will be looking to get better, shore up weaknesses, and even make room for hot prospects.
The Cleveland Guardians aren’t a team that generally makes big splashes in terms of acquiring talent. They made two major deals a year ago, but both were more about dealing players who were going to make big money soon (in the case of Andres Gimenez) or were going to hit free agency soon (Josh Naylor).
Despite their September run, the Guardians have a lot of holes on the roster. It has been well documented how bad their offense was, they were third worst in the sport, ahead of just Colorado and Pittsburgh, meaning they were the worst in the American League.
They were also second worst in team OPS, on base percentage, and in slugging percentage.
Where do the Guardians have to get better? If you look at WAR (wins above replacement), it is quite clear where the improvement needs to be. Cleveland had the worst centerfield play in the majors.
Who played there in 2025? Angel Martinez played 114 games, followed by Lane Thomas (38) and Nolan Jones (35). Martinez is still young (he will be 24 next season) and was very good vs. LHP, batting .279 with a 792 OPS. He’s still young enough to develop against right-handers, although he batted .197.
We would guess the Guards will move on from Thomas, who is a free agent, and Jones, who frankly just wasn’t good.
They were third worst in rightfield. Again, Jones got the bulk of the playing time there, appearing in 101 games, followed by Jhonkensy Noel with 60 games.
Noel’s struggles at the plate, mostly involving making contact, are well documented. His OPS was under 500 in 2025.
The third position where the Guardians were near the bottom, 27th in this case, was shortstop, with Gabriel Arias playing 106 games and Brayan Rocchio playing in 72 contests.
Arias received a career high in plate appearances in ’25 and his numbers were pretty much the same as before. He batted .220 (career mark .215), his on base percentage was .274 (same as career) and he slugged .363 (.356).
He has a tremendous arm, perhaps the best in the game, but let’s be truthful, he struggles going to his left. We feel Rocchio has more range by far.
So, what can the team do about these trouble spots?
We don’t know if Cleveland will deal Steven Kwan this winter, but if they don’t, shouldn’t they consider putting him in CF? He’s a great defensive outfielder, so why not put him in the most important position?
That would open up LF for players like Martinez, Juan Brito, and maybe even Chase DeLauter and Travis Bazzana.
With DeLauter’s injury history, it seems weird to mention him in center.
Besides RF needs shoring up as well, and we don’t want to forget George Valera there, but as we have said before, the organization cannot just depend on all young players. They still need a right-handed bat, and preferably a veteran one. A “professional hitter” as they say.
And at short, we just believe Rocchio is a better choice. We think he’s a better hitter and as noted earlier, has more range.
The 2025 Guardians don’t just need improvement at those spots, they need to not be the worst on those positions, and two of them are key defensive spots.
Upgrading at CF, RF, and SS will help make this team a lot better in 2026.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 