The Cleveland Guardians are usually very tightlipped when it comes to talking about making changes to their roster, so when in an interview Chris Antonetti talked about balancing giving the current inexperienced players on the roster a shot with going out and bringing veteran players in, let’s hope that is just front office speak.
In 2025, the Guards ranked 28th in all of Major League Baseball in runs scored, 29th in OPS, on base percentage and slugging percentage. It really is kind of a miracle they made the playoffs with that bad of an offense.
Cleveland has some prospects that are on the cusp of helping the big-league team. We saw many of them in September and in the Wild Card Series. We are talking about guys like Chase DeLauter, George Valera, C.J. Kayfus, and Juan Brito has had some solid years in AAA and deserves a look.
However, outside of Kayfus, availability has been a big problem for those guys, and as we always say, the job of the front office should be to have a backup plan. What happens if those young players get hurt or aren’t ready to handle big league pitching?
We know what the alternative is for that, and quite frankly, it’s not pretty. Do the Guardians really feel like they can contend giving extensive at bats to players like Jhonkensy Noel (480 OPS in ’25), Nolan Jones (600 last year), or Johnathan Rodriguez (career 586 OPS)?
Again, we remind you with those guys and we can add in Daniel Schneemann’s 636 OPS and Gabriel Arias’ 638 figure, Steven Vogt’s squad had one of the worst offenses in the game.
That’s why the front office needs to add someone with a track record of offensive production. If DeLauter and one of the other prospects wind up being solid bats as rookies, then you have added depth and also you have the ability to protect them when they are in tough stretches at the plate, which most rookies go through.
In particular, the Guards could use a right-handed hitter with some pop and at least two hitters who can get on base. Arias led the team in homers by a right-handed hitter in 2025 with 11. As a comparison, their chief division rivals, the Tigers had four players that exceeded that total.
Of the four young players listed previously, Brito is a switch-hitter and the other three hit from the left side. Even if they all emerge, the Guards need a solid right-handed hitter.
As for getting on base, Jose Ramirez (of course) had a .360 OBP last season and the next highest was Steven Kwan at .330. The only other hitters over .300 were Kyle Manzardo (.313) and Carlos Santana, who was released in late August and is 39 years old.
That’s a lot of hitters making a lot of outs.
And we would prefer the organization to not take flyers on hitters who have declined over the past few seasons with the hope they can have a renaissance. That rarely works either.
The farm system has some depth, move some prospects to get a hitter who was productive last year. That’s what is needed.
We know there are a lot of people out there who put blind faith in anyone who has ever had a decent month or two in the minor leagues. We still go with the axiom that prospects are suspects until proven otherwise.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 