Guardians Need To Find An Alternate Leadoff Man

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.

Viewing The Guards After 27 Games.

The Cleveland Guardians played their 27th game last night in Atlanta, hitting the 1/6th point of the season with an incredible 19-8 record. The Guards were 13-14 last season at this point, continuing a tradition of break-even early season records under Terry Francona.

We are sure even Steven Vogt himself would not have imagined the start this year’s squad is off to, especially after Shane Bieber had two excellent starts and then injured his elbow and will have to miss the balance of the season.

The biggest difference is the offense, averaging over a run a game better than 2023 (5.19 vs. 4.03). Is that sustainable? Only time will tell, but the Guardians are getting better production out of two of their weakest spots a year ago in catcher and centerfield.

Austin Hedges still can’t hit, but Bo Naylor and David Fry have provided more better production. That combo is tied for the team lead in walks with 10 and belted three home runs.

In center, it wasn’t hard to get better hitting with Myles Straw being one of the worst offensive players in the American League, so having Tyler Freeman being a capable bat so far with 3 homers and a 697 OPS is a help.

In terms of WAR (wins above replacement), Cleveland has five spots (1B, 2B, LF, CF, and DH) among the top three in the AL. Last season for the entire year, they had just two: 2B and LF.

Of course, the four mainstays, Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor, Andres Gimenez, and Steven Kwan, have remained productive, although Ramirez hasn’t really been hot yet. He is second in the AL in RBIs though.

The Guardians still don’t strike out a lot, 4th least in the league, and they are third from the bottom in drawing walks. But they lead the league in doubles, are tied for second in stolen bases, and are second in the AL in slugging percentage.

We would like to see more walks as the season progresses, and less hit by pitches, another category Cleveland leads the league in.

The primary concern for this team right now is the starting pitching, which outside of Bieber’s two starts has been underwhelming. The great Bill James used to say (probably still does) a pitcher who allowed less hits than innings pitched and struck out twice as many as he walked was a good pitcher.

Based on that criterion, the Guards have one good starter, Ben Lively, and he’s only made two starts due to a late start out of spring training. If the Guardians are going to be serious contenders, they will need a lot more out of the starting rotation.

To date, Cleveland has issued 93 walks on the season, 7th most in the AL. Of that total, 53 (58%) have been issued by Triston McKenzie (17), Carlos Carrasco (13), Tanner Bibee (12), and Logan Allen (11).

Because of that, the starters can’t go deep into games creating a heavy and probably not sustainable toll on the bullpen. McKenzie has only allowed 20 hits in his 22 innings of work, but the walks are just killing him.

Last night, Bibee probably had Cleveland’s best start of the year, going seven shutout frames against a very good Braves’ offense.

Right now, four Guardians relievers (Emmanuel Clase, Hunter Gaddis, Scott Barlow, and Nick Sandlin) rank tied for 3rd in appearances. Vogt has done a good job limiting innings, as Clase leads in innings pitched with 14, but eventually you have to think it will be a detriment to success.

The Guardians’ start is a welcome surprise, and really it has been a total team effort. It’s not like someone has had an unbelievable start. And they have only played three games against the 1962 Mets-like Chicago White Sox.

So far, the improvement is there and there is no reason it cannot continue.

Maybe Being Slightly Better At Some Spots Will Work For Guards

We have been critical of the inactivity this winter by the Cleveland Guardians. The Guards fell from a division winner in 2022 to last year’s 76-86 record, and really haven’t made any moves to get better.

However, we remembered that when the team gets to the trade deadline, we always remind people that it’s not always a blockbuster move that is needed, sometimes an incremental move works just fine.

So, in that spirit we have cut the front office a bit of slack. We still think going after one or two veterans to have around as a backup plan would have been a smarter play, and of course, we will remind folks of that if what they are doing doesn’t work out.

And that’s not a second guess.

New manager Steven Vogt has talked a few times about newcomer Estevan Florial taking over in centerfield and we have pointed out Florial’s struggles in making contact and his fall from ranking as a top 100 prospect.

Then we remembered he would be replacing Myles Straw at the spot. Last year, Straw was the third worst hitter in the American League with his 597 OPS. The only players who were worse were Javier Baez and Tim Anderson.

If Florial can have a 650 OPS this season (league average is 728), the Guardians’ offense will be better than last year. Heck, overall, Cleveland centerfielders had a 626 OPS, the worst on the team.

The second worst spot was rightfield, where the players manning the spot combined for a 629 OPS. The favorites to play there in 2024 are Will Brennan and Ramon Laureano in a platoon role.

Brennan had a 695 OPS vs. right-handed pitching in ’23, while Laureano had a 794 OPS against southpaws. And remember, the latter didn’t join the team until August last season.

If they repeat those numbers, the offensive production out of that position will be improved.

And the third worst spot should be better because it is the catching position and Bo Naylor should get the bulk of the playing time there. Barring the dreaded sophomore slump, that is.

Naylor put up an 809 OPS, belting 11 home runs in the 67 games he played last season. And he’s patient at the plate, drawing 30 walks. That’s nothing new, he had a .348 on base percentage in his minor league career.

We have no question that he can boost the production from that position, after all, the Guards unbelievably gave 149 at bats to Cam Gallagher last season, who put up a woeful 322 OPS.

Baseballprospectus.com listed Steven Kwan and Andres Gimenez as the most likely players to have improved numbers at the plate this season. And we agree they will probably be better in 2024.

With the Central Division being what it is, perhaps those things, coupled with the usual solid pitching, can vault the Guardians back to the top of the division standings.

We still would rather have invested some money (we know, we know) into getting a decent hitter or two to improve the roster instead of trying to project how a 20-year-old who has never played higher than AA can make an impact. The front office is back to their Dusty Springfield approach.

For younger people, she was a singer who had a big hit called “Wishin’ and Hopin'”.

Maybe we just have a case of Spring Training Fever. After all, exhibition play started yesterday.

Non Money Moves Made Or Not Made By Guardians

We have talked about this a lot since the calendar turned to 2024, but it has been a very, very quiet off-season for the Cleveland Guardians. Outside of a few transactions around the time a team had to offer arbitration to its players, it seems like the construction around Progressive Field has closed the front office too.

We aren’t going to get into the financial stuff here, we have been well informed on the whole broadcast revenue with Bally Sports and how the Guardians have claimed it prevented them for spending this winter.

However, there are things we would have liked the organization to do this off-season which would not have caused a financial burden. Here are some things we wish they’d have taken care of:

Ease The Middle Infield Glut. If you have five shortstops do you have one? Once the exhibition games start, new skipper Steven Vogt will have to decide who will get the majority of the playing time in the middle infield, particularly at short.

We say that because the Guards seem loathe to move Andres Gimenez, who played 400 games in the minor leagues at shortstop to that spot in the big leagues. So, the primary candidates are Gabriel Arias and Brayan Rocchio, with Tyler Freeman and Jose Tena on the outside.

They gave Arias a full shot at the job a year ago after Amed Rosario was traded, and he had a 643 OPS in the second half, batting .227. Rocchio had an outstanding winter league season, and frankly, we have felt he was regarded as the heir apparent to the spot by the organization.

We would give Rocchio the spot to start and see if the winter league carries over. The back up plan for us would be moving Gimenez to SS and seeing if Freeman can hit like he did in the minors with regular at bats.

Catching Reserve. Last season, the Guardians employed Cam Gallagher as the backup catcher all year, first behind Mike Zunino and then Bo Naylor. He received 143 at bats and hit .125 (322 OPS).

We dare you to find anyone worse with a bat in their hand. Early in the off-season, they claimed Christian Bethancourt from Tampa. He hit .225 but banged 11 homers and had a 635 OPS. Not Babe Ruth production but better than what Gallagher provided.

But then they let Bethancourt go and re-signed veteran Austin Hedges for a second go round with the Guards. Hedges is an excellent defensive catcher, but he can’t hit.

In 199 games with Cleveland, he has a .169 batting average and 502 OPS. We get he is a great clubhouse presence, but he can’t hit.

Have we mentioned the Guardians need hitting?

Find A Taker For Straw. Vogt and Chris Antonetti have both talked about giving the Guardians’ young outfielders an opportunity this year, but that may prove difficult because Myles Straw is still on the roster.

The problem for the Guards is Straw still has two years on his deal, worth an estimated $13.8 million. A second problem is as we said before, the Guardians need offense and Straw has been one of baseball’s worst hitters over the last two seasons.

We get that no one wants to take that contract unless it is included in a bigger deal, as many proposed in possible trades involving Shane Bieber. But the Guardians usual move is to play Straw because they owe him the cash. That’s the real problem.

And based on the Guardians’ history, if he is on the roster, they will feel obligated to put him in the lineup.

Stuff We Would Like To See Guardians Do in 2024

It is pretty clear to us that the Cleveland Guardians aren’t going to make any impact moves before spring training starts in two and a half weeks.

They did make a small move over the weekend, bringing back Carlos Carrasco on a minor league contract, and of course, he has a chance to open the season with the big club. While we are happy to see Carrasco return, as he was a longtime fan favorite, but this is a classic move by the franchise. We aren’t trying to improve the roster, but we’ll do the ticket buyers a favor and bring back an old popular player.

Carrasco spent parts of 11 seasons with Cleveland, winning 88 games for the home team. He led the American League in wins in 2017, and of course (in the pantheon of Cleveland what ifs), missed the World Series run in 2016 with a broken hand after he went 11-8 with a 3.32 ERA.

Many Carrasco can give the Guardians a turn back the clock moment and be a solid fifth starter in 2024.

All that said, if the Guardians don’t make any moves before camp starts, here are some things we would like to see in the 2024 season.

Enhance The Running Game. Cleveland finished third in the AL in steals last season with 151, but we think they can and should run more, particularly with the famous lack of power. Andres Gimenez led the Guards with 30, and Jose Ramirez was next with 28.

While we really don’t want Ramirez to run more because he’s getting older, but why can’t Gimenez, Steven Kwan, and if he plays, Myles Straw run and steal more. Newcomer Estevan Florial stole 25 bases in AAA last year. We think they try not to run with Ramirez coming up, but early in games, why not?

If as a team, you aren’t going to get a lot of extra base hits, why not take extra bases in the steal game?

Find Out Once And For All. We don’t have a plan on this (we do, but what we think doesn’t matter), but the Guardians need to find at bats for Tyler Freeman to find out if he can be a big-league player.

Freeman’s minor league number show he can hit, .311 batting average, .382 on base percentage, 812 OPS. However, he has just 254 plate appearances in the big leagues since his initial call up on August 3, 2022. He had just two instances where he had four at bats in back-to-back games in 2023.

There have been reports he has worked in the outfield this winter, so perhaps he becomes a “super utility” player, getting a lot of at bats filling in at different positions. For a team looking for hitters, it is curious how they have treated Freeman.

Cool It on Defense. Without a doubt, defense in baseball is important. However, you also have to be able to contribute with a bat in your hands. In recent years for the Guardians, defense has been perhaps too much of a factor in getting playing time.

Straw was one of the worst offensive players in the game a year ago, and the Guardians gave up over 500 plate appearances. Cam Gallagher got almost 150 at bats last season despite hitting .126.

If you want to put elite defenders on the field, get a lead, and then put them in after the sixth inning, and in the meantime, put someone in the batter’s box who has a decent chance of contributing on offense.

It will be interesting to see how new skipper Steven Vogt handles issues like these or will it be organizational group think going forward.

Guardians Still Need Offense

The Cleveland Guardians had an issue scoring runs last season. They ranked 12th in the American League in runs scored in 2023 and were last in the league in home runs.

The Toronto Blue Jays scored the least runs of the teams that made the post-season, and they scored 84 more times than Cleveland did. Although pitching is the name of the game in Major League Baseball, you have to score runs to win in the regular season.

The off-season player movement cycle has moved slower than normal this year in the sport because everyone is waiting for Shohei Ohtani to sign, which he did about a week ago.

To date, the Guardians’ front office has done nothing to improve the hitting and frankly, seems to be depending on the young starting pitching getting better through experience.

The Guards were 10th in on base percentage and 14th in slugging percentage. So they need help, and a lot of it in both areas.

We have said this before, but we feel you need seven solid bats in a lineup to have an contending team’s offense. Right now, we would say Cleveland has five: Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor, Steven Kwan, Andres Gimenez, and Bo Naylor, although remember, the younger Naylor has less than a full season’s experience.

Right now, the lineup would look something like this:

Kwan LF
Gimenez 2B
Ramirez 3B
J. Naylor DH
Laureano RF
B. Naylor C
Manzardo 1B
Arias SS
Straw CF

Of course, that what the Guardians will likely do, not what we would do. We understand folks are high on Kyle Manzardo, who came from Tampa Bay in the Aaron Civale deal, but the reality is he doesn’t have a single big league at bat.

As for Arias, we don’t think any hitter with a 32% strikeout rate will ever wind up being a solid bat, no matter how hard he hits the ball when he does make contact. And we have seen Straw the past two seasons, with his OPS under 600 in each of those years.

Laureano will likely platoon with Will Brennan in right field, and both are similar, neither has a lot of pop, and neither walk a lot. Those two attributes make up to be a mediocre offensive player.

Given the financial restraints (although they are not as severe as the ownership says they are) of the Guardians, what free agents would make sense for Cleveland?

We would be intrigued by Brandon Belt, but he plays the same position as Josh Naylor, and we believe the Guardians have to give Manzardo a shot unless he is terrible in spring training.

A one-year deal for a veteran like J.D. Martinez (33 HR and 893 OPS with the Dodgers) would make sense, if he is willing to take one year. Martinez could DH and play some LF (with Kwan sliding over to CF) and provide some right-handed power the Guardians sorely need.

Mitch Garver, formerly of the Twins and Rangers is also intriguing, although he is more of a catcher/DH which would make it tougher for Manzardo to get at-bats. Garver hit 19 dingers in 344 plate appearances for Texas last year.

Even though he’s a left-handed hitter, what about taking a chance on Austin Meadows, who has battled injuries the last two seasons, playing just 42 games for Detroit. In his last full season in 2021, he did hit 27 homers and knock in 106 for Tampa Bay. He’s likely looking for an incentive laden “prove it” deal.

There have been reports that Tyler Freeman has started working out in the outfield in Goodyear, and no doubt we would love to see the front office give him a full shot at an everyday spot based on his minor league numbers. Our guess is they are looking at him in LF with again Kwan moving to the middle of the outfield.

In any case, Cleveland’s offensive needs are exactly what they were when the regular season ended. And spring training will start six weeks after the holiday season ends.

The Guardians’ fans are waiting.

Guardians Need To Score More, Getting Proven Hitters Would Help.

We have started to read various things about what the Cleveland Guardians do for next season. We believe the front office has their ideas of how to get the Guards back in the playoffs next year, and make no mistake, that should be the goal.

This is not a rebuilding season. The Guardians won 92 games a year ago with the youngest roster in the sport. Next year will mark 76 seasons since the franchise has won a world title, and the team’s best player will enter the campaign at 31-years-old.

Offensively, Cleveland has to improve greatly. They rank 27th in all of baseball in runs scored, and that is simply not good enough. To us, barring trades, they have five players who should be fixtures in the lineup: Bo Naylor, Josh Naylor, Jose Ramirez, Steven Kwan, and Andres Gimenez.

So, four spots are open and at least two of them have to be filled by solid hitters. And it cannot be guys who they “hope” can be contributors at the plate, they need proven sticks.

And that’s the challenge for the front office.

It would seem Kyle Manzardo, who came over from Tampa at the trade deadline for Aaron Civale, will come to spring training with a job to lose. He hit .256 at Columbus (936 OPS) after coming to the organization, but overall hit .237/.337/464/802 at AAA in 2023.

Manzardo is highly regarded, but cannot be included as a “for sure” in 2024. If he struggles mightily in the spring, we would anticipate he will open the year in the minors.

Nor should anyone whose AAA numbers include OPS under 750 be counted on to be big league regulars. Johnathan Rodriguez had a very good season at the AA and AAA levels this year, hitting .286/.368/.529/897, but has a lot of swing and miss in his game, with 163 whiffs against 59 walks.

Jhonkensy Noel is another who we hear about because he hit 27 home runs and the Guardians need power. However, he hit .220/.303/.420/723 at Columbus. He might hit 20 homers at the big league level if given a chance. He will also make a lot of outs.

What about George Valera, who has been part of the organization’s top prospects for a while now? He hit .211/.343/.375/718 this season.

By contrast, here’s what Bo Naylor did in Columbus before being called up: .254/.393/.498/890.

It is difficult to imagine players doing better in the majors initially than they did in the high minors. We aren’t saying it’s impossible, but…

You also can’t (and the organization won’t) count on young players like Juan Brito and Chase DeLauter, both of whom we have high hopes for.

Brito, a 21-year-old switch-hitter, batted .271/.377/.434/811 across three levels in the minors this season, but he’s had only 20 plate appearances at AAA to date.

DeLauter, last season’s first round pick, is a left-handed hitter, and he only has 28 plate appearances at the AA level. He shows signs of having an elite hit tool, going .355/.417/.528/945 this year in the minors.

Both of these players might be able to contribute at the end of next year, but certainly not at the beginning of the season.

So, the front office is going to have to look for gems in other organizations or free agents who might be interested in one or two year deals. A few years ago, we saw D.J. LeMahieu available after Christmas and suggested Cleveland take a look at him. He posted a 893 OPS that season with the Yankees.

The point is there might be a bargain out there after the initial push, that is, of course assuming the Guardians won’t be spending big cash.

It won’t be easy for Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff. It shouldn’t be. But the “wishing and hoping” method shouldn’t be an option either.

No matter what, they have to figure out how to score more runs.

Have Guardians Mishandled Middle Infield Prospects

Following the 2021 season, the Cleveland Guardians had five prospects who were consensus top 100 players, and three were middle infielders: Tyler Freeman, Brayan Rocchio, and Gabriel Arias.

At that time, Cleveland had Amed Rosario as the starting shortstop and also had 22-year-old Andres Gimenez, the biggest piece the organization received in the Francisco Lindor trade. Gimenez hit .218 with 5 homers and 18 RBIs (633 OPS) in 188 at bats that season, so he hadn’t established himself as of yet.

Two years later, and the three highly rated prospects are still kind of in limbo.

Arias was given the starting shortstop job after Rosario was moved at this year’s trading deadline, after spending the first part of the year playing first base and right field.

Since assuming the position on August 1st, Arias has batted .218 (29 for 133) with 5 HR and 15 runs batted in, a 632 OPS.

Freeman has received sporadic playing time all year, hitting .240 with a 631 OPS, and Rocchio has spent most of the season in Columbus, hitting .284 with a 796 OPS, but in 70 plate appearances in the big leagues, he hit .242 with a 574 OPS, striking out 22 times.

The point here is not to criticize the players, but rather question the organization for kind of mangling the entire situation.

The purpose of having prospects is to keep the talent flow going through the organization or to use them to get players who are needed at the big-league level. And if you have someone blocking that player and you believe in them, you can move them to another position.

A good example is Jose Ramirez. Ramirez played primarily second base in the minor leagues, but when he was coming up the then Indians had Jason Kipnis, a solid player at his position. So, they moved Ramirez to third base, where he has become a perennial all-star.

So, with the situation for Cleveland after the ’21 season, a decision should have been made to either trade Rosario, making room for Arias, Freeman, or Rocchio, trade one or two of the trio, or moving them to another position.

You could say they tried the latter for Arias, and is his case, he also had some injuries during last year, but again, we are saying this decision should have been made prior to last season.

It is very likely that all three’s value has been diminished since the lack of decision after the 2021 season. They are no longer prospects, so now they are simply young players who have never proven anything at the major league level.

Rocchio might have the highest trade value right now, because he’s had a pretty solid year at AAA.

And compounding this situation is that the Guardians have Jose Tena, who is currently on the big-league roster and Juan Brito, who came over in the trade for Nolan Jones this off-season.

By the way, we have advocated for position changes for Freeman and Brito about a month ago.

It seems like the front office seems reticent to make a mistake, trading the wrong player. But you also have to strike while the iron is hot. We aren’t saying it is easy, but trading a prospect at the right time is an art.

However, what the Guardians have done is not taken advantage of the number of high prospect middle infielders they’ve had and converting them into players they could use.

Instead, they’ve become marginal big leaguers who they can’t find at bats for.

Much like telling a pitcher to “trust his stuff”, the Guardians’ front office needs to trust their judgment. Two years later, they still have a lot of middle infield prospects who are ranked highly.

Let’s see if they have learned from their mistake.

Hope Guardians’ Front Office Knows What They Don’t Know

The Cleveland Guardians have just 15 games remaining in what has been a very disappointing season.

Before the season we said it was very difficult to project how the team would do because most of the players had no proven track record because they were so young and had no experience.

For example, it was probably fool’s gold to say Jose Ramirez would duplicate what he did last season, which was likely a career year. But since Ramirez has been the league for a long time, you can feel pretty confident in saying he will hit 25 home runs, knock in 90-100, and bat around .280.

You couldn’t say that about anyone else projected to be in this season’s starting lineup.

Last season, Andres Gimenez was spectacular, hitting 17 homers and batting .297 with an 837 OPS. This season, his batting average has dropped to .242, his power has dropped 12 dingers.

What kind of player is Gimenez? Defensively, he has remained great, deserving of a second Gold Glove. Offensively? We will likely find out next season. We think you can figure somewhere in the middle, around a 760 OPS which with his glove, makes him a middle infield starter.

Where? He may move back to shortstop, and frankly, he would be our first choice at the position.

Steven Kwan has been reliable compared to most of the balance of the starting lineup, but his numbers have also regressed, dropping from a 772 OPS in ’22 to 715 in ’23. Most of that drop has been his on base percentage, which is .341 compared to .372 a year ago.

If Kwan can get to .350, he’s a solid leadoff hitter and we still think he can become a guy who can get to 10 homers on a yearly basis.

The only players who have exceeded expectations among the everyday players share the same last name: Naylor.

Josh is heading into his prime and raised his OPS from 771 to 849. If not for an oblique injury which cost him August, we would have knocked in 100 runs and still could do it with a hot finish. Again, he’s just 26 years old.

Bo Naylor has greatly improved the team’s offense at the catcher position. Last season, Austin Hedges and Luke Maile combined for 10 homers and 47 RBIs, and a .185 batting average.

Naylor has a 757 OPS, third best on the team for players with over 100 at bats. Why he doesn’t hit higher in the order, particularly in the last month when he has compiled a 1045 OPS (.315 average, 4 HR, 10 RBI) is one of the great mysteries surrounding the team.

Of course, he will go into next season in the same boat as Gimenez and Kwan. That is, with no track record.

So, unless some experienced players are brought in, the Guardians won’t be in a much different position entering 2024. If players like Gabriel Arias or Tyler Freeman are starting, no one will have any idea how they will be able to contribute offensively.

It will still be dependent on Ramirez and Josh Naylor to provide offense and that doesn’t seem like a recipe for success.

A Lot Of Open Spots For Guardians In 2024.

With the Cleveland Guardians now six games off the pace in the AL Central, it’s time to look toward the 2024 season. The front office started this process at the end of July, when they decided to sell at the trading deadline.

Before we go on, let’s just say we are on board with the trades that sent Amed Rosario to the Dodgers and Josh Bell to Miami. Rosario was below average defensively and had an OPS of under 700. Based on that, it is a shock that the deal was made and the Guards got worse offensively at the position.

As for Bell, the Guardians would have been on the hook for $16 million next year. The problem was dealing a starting pitcher and not adding anyone who could help the offense, even incrementally in 2023.

Cleveland is now 13th in the AL in runs per game, and much like the standings, Detroit is getting close to passing them in this category. So, can they improve the hitting next season?

Right now, we would say the Guardians have five players etched in stone for next season:

Jose Ramirez 3B
Josh Naylor 1B
Steven Kwan OF
Andres Gimenez MI
Bo Naylor C

That means they have to fill four spots to improve the offense. We list Kwan as an outfielder, because although he’s a great defensive leftfielder, we could see him move to centerfield next season.

And we list Gimenez as a middle infielder because frankly, he could wind up at either second base or shortstop next season.

Most people thought moving Rosario would cause the shortstop position to be better, and no doubt it has defensively, but right now (and we stress right now), the offense out of the spot has declined.

Rosario had a 675 OPS. Since August 1st, Gabriel Arias has a 568 OPS and Brayan Rocchio’s is 662. The only option with a better number than the player who was dealt is Jose Tena, who has just eight at bats.

The organization probably hoped someone would step up and seize some of the open spots in the everyday lineup, but that hasn’t happened. And there is an old baseball adage that tells us not to be fooled by what happens in April or September.

We know about Kyle Manzardo, who came over from Tampa in the Aaron Civale deal, but right now he’s hurt and his numbers in AAA were down quite a bit from last season at lower levels. Maybe he shows he’s ready in the spring, but right now, the Guardians can’t count on him if they want to contend.

We feel the same way about George Valera, Jhonkensy Noel, or any of the minor leaguers touted by the organization. If you think of yourself as a contender, you cannot have four “hope they work out” guys in your lineup.

One problem that has arisen is the middle infield prospects on the top of the organization’s list of young players haven’t looked very good at the big league level, meaning they have probably lowered their trade value.

So, how do the Guardians get some bats they are insert into next year’s lineup? Seems like a tough job for the front office.

Because it will be tough to win in 2024 unless somehow this club figures out a way to score more.