And Now, The Guards’ Bullpen Is Leaking Oil

If it’s not one thing, it’s another. That’s the story of the Cleveland Guardians this season.

The offensive troubles are well documented. The Guards have fallen to 13th in the American League in runs scored. They don’t get on base, now 13th in the league in on base percentage, and they have no pop, ranking 14th in slugging percentage.

They are particularly awful against left-handed pitchers, and there isn’t any help on the horizon from the minor leagues perhaps the best hitters in Columbus, Chase DeLauter and C.J. Kayfus, both swing from the left side of the plate.

Again, by now every fan of the team is aware of that.

However, over the past few weeks the mainstay of last year’s squad, the relief pitching has started to spring a leak. It’s not surprising because of the workload put on the bullpen a year ago, but it seems to have happened.

We know Emmanuel Clase struggled early in the year, but since Steven Vogt gave him a little break and used Cade Smith to close at the end of April, he’s been pretty much back to being that guy.

Since May 1st, Clase has pitched 22.1 innings and has put up a 1.21 ERA. He has allowed 18 hits, a little high for him in that span, but has fanned 24 and one of Clase’s biggest strengths, hasn’t allowed a home run.

Smith has been solid as well, appearing in 36 games with 53 Ks in 34.1 innings and a 2.36 ERA. But he’s been down over the last few days with a back injury.

The rest of the relievers seem to be sucking wind at this point. Hunter Gaddis was so good last season, but over his last three appearances has allowed eight runs in 2.2 innings. And even before that, he allowed 10 of his 17 inherited runners to cross the plate.

Last season, Tim Herrin allowed just 39 hits and 25 walks in 65.2 innings. To date this season, he’s walked 17 and allowed 22 hits in 27.2 frames.

Because of these struggles, and an injury to free agent signee Paul Sewald, Vogt has been using journeyman Matt Festa in higher leverage situations. He has a 5.48 ERA in his 25 appearances.

Jakob Junis is another free agent signed this winter, and although his numbers are decent (3.96 ERA in 33 games), he’s allowed 42 hits and 12 walks in 36.1 innings. It seems like every time he comes in, he allows a hit or two and/or a walk, and is immediately in trouble.

Erik Sabrowski has been activated from the injured list and should be able to help Herrin against left-handed hitters. Koby Allard is another lefty, but he seems best suited to giving the Guardians some length if the starter gets knocked out early.

The point is this team doesn’t get leads often because of the hitting, but unlike last year, when Vogt goes to the bullpen, it’s no longer automatic.

The front office tried to get some help for the bullpen in Sewald and Junis, with the former having closer experience. He should be back soon and hopefully can take some of the responsibility from Gaddis until he gets back to form.

If it’s not one thing, it’s something else for the 2025 Guardians.

Guardians At Halfway Point, Teetering On A Cliff

The Cleveland Guardians have hit the halfway point of the 2025 schedule and it’s not looking at though they can return to the post-season.

Steven Vogt’s squad was sitting at 25-17 on May 13th after beating Milwaukee, but since have struggled mightily, going 15-24 in that span. The offense has been mediocre at best. In the month of June, they have scored four runs or more in just ten games, and currently rank 12th in the American League in runs scored.

The pitching has been inconsistent at times, but still ranks ahead of the league average ERA at 3.93.

But back to the hitting. When you look at this team, seriously, how many good hitters do they have? Of course, there is the incomparable Jose Ramirez, a perennial all-star, and Steven Kwan, one of the best leadoff men in the sport.

Kyle Manzardo’s walk rate has dipped in June (just two free passes), but he looks like he has potential, tied for the team lead in homers (13) and third in RBI (33).

Beyond that? Daniel Schneemann has been a surprise, but this month has dropped to .196 with just one homer and overall, his OPS is just a little above league average.

For us, there isn’t anyone else on the team that we can see a path to being an above average hitter, and having only three players like that on a team pretty much ensures you are going nowhere.

The frustration is that this team went to the AL CS a year ago and was just three wins away from the World Series. They’ve had some bad luck, true, but as we have written many times, they also traded one of their best hitters in 2024.

FYI, they weren’t a good offensive team a year ago.

There’s been some bad luck. David Fry provided some offense last year (804 OPS), but had to have elbow surgery, can’t play in the field, and probably needed more than the 33 at bats he received rehabbing before he was activated. He’s currently 6 for 40 with 19 strikeouts in 44 plate appearances.

Their closest hitting prospects to the major leagues, Juan Brito and Chase DeLauter had injuries where they missed significant time. Both are back in action, and the latter seems poised to make his big-league debut anytime now.

With others, the organization has done some miscalculation. Lane Thomas has been made an everyday player, when his career mark vs. right-handers is a 672 OPS. Carlos Santana was signed after Josh Naylor was traded, and right now, he is producing like someone who is 39 years old, which he is. His OPS is below league average and in June, he is batting .163 with two home runs.

Gabriel Arias was supposed to provide some pop, but his contact problems haven’t been resolved (he leads the team with 88 whiffs), and he has only six home runs.

Bo Naylor looked promising in ’23 when he came up and hit .237 with 11 homers (809 OPS), but since has batted .190. He is tied with Ramirez for third on the team in walks, which is a good thing.

Rightfield, centerfield, and shortstop rank among the worst in the league in terms of production.

And perhaps the worst development recently is the defense is falling apart. This team makes way too many defensive mistakes, resulting in extra outs being needed, extra pitches by the guys on the mound, and extra baserunners for opponents.

Perhaps all of the defensive shifting has taken its toll on the team.

As an old coaching friend once told me, starters are starters for a reason.

The good news is the Guardians are at .500 and there is still half a season to go. We saw what the Tigers did last season, and Cleveland isn’t buried like Colorado or the White Sox.

But thinking this is going to turn around with the same players and style of play is probably foolish. Where is the “Guards Ball” the team advertises?

We have speculated about trading Emmanuel Clase, with the bullpen being a strength for the Guardians. We hate saying that, but this lineup simply isn’t good enough.

Right now, this team looks listless, and while it is true teams that aren’t hitting tend to look like that, we believe it goes beyond that. Something has to change in the second half.

This Trip Means A Lot For The Guardians At The Deadline

This shapes up as a big trip for the Cleveland Guardians. They’ve already started by losing the first two games of a nine-game sojourn to the west coast where they will play San Francisco and the Athletics, as they like to be called, following the set in Seattle.

Steven Vogt’s squad has lost seven of nine and 12 of their last 18 contests and the offense continues to struggle. In those 18 games, the Guards have scored three or less runs in more than half of them (10!) and outside of Wednesday’s 11-run explosion against the Reds, haven’t scored five runs since the calendar switched to June.

Why is it a big trip? Because the trade deadline is coming up at the end of July and the Guardians are 9.5 back in the AL Central Division and currently would not make the playoffs if the season ended today.

Many people have speculated about the team making a move to improve the roster at the end of July, but history tells us the organization only adds when they are ahead, in recent years they haven’t made a move to try to get a wild card spot.

Think about 2023. Cleveland was two games behind Minnesota on July 26th and in the next few days moved Amed Rosario, Aaron Civale, and Josh Bell, and the only big leaguer received in return was Noah Syndergaard.

In the pandemic season of 2020, the Indians were a game behind the White Sox in the division and traded off a starting pitcher, Mike Clevinger, who had a 3.18 ERA to the Padres in the megadeal that netted Cleveland six players, but at the time only Josh Naylor was a regular when he arrived.

And the year prior, when the Tribe was just three games out of the division lead on July 31st, the front office moved another piece of the rotation, Trevor Bauer, for some offensive help in Franmil Reyes and Yasiel Puig, but at the time, we felt that was a deal made more with the following season in mind, rather than trying to win the division.

Both those moves in 2019 and 2020 were made more with the future in mind.

From now until the deadline, the Guardians play more teams in contention than out of it. They really don’t have an also ran on the schedule until they go to Chicago to take on the White Sox on July 11th, followed by home games against the A’s and Orioles.

Where will this team be in the standings by then?

They continue to rank at the bottom (SS and CF) on second to last (RF) at three positions around the diamond, and the pitching, lately the hallmark of the franchise ranks 11th (by WAR).

As most people thought, the bullpen has suffered a regression. Hunter Gaddis has allowed 63% of inherited runners (10 out of 16) to score, and Tim Herrin, who last year had a 1.92 ERA and allowed just 39 hits and 25 walks (0.975 WHIP) in 65.2 innings, has allowed 20 hits and 16 walks (1.521 WHIP) in 23.2 frames in 2025.

There seems to be more holes right now on this roster than a single trade would be able to fix, and we don’t see the front office (ownership, that is) opening its wallet to make several moves.

Juan Brito is starting to play in Arizona rehabbing, so maybe he can be here in a few weeks. At what point, do C. J. Kayfus and Chase DeLauter make appearances in Cleveland?

Lane Thomas is back again, and he will help, particularly vs. lefties, which the Guards have had real problems with, but his history shows he doesn’t hit righties very well.

Unless some of the hitters get hot, we would guess the Guardians will be sellers in a month and a half.

What’s weird is we remember playing in the ALCS just last season.

Guardians Without Alternatives With Bats At AAA

The good news is the Cleveland Guardians are sitting at 21-15 and have the third best record in the American League, behind only Detroit and Seattle.

The bad news is based on the number of runs they’ve scored and allowed, their record should be 16-20.

The good news is their offense is right at the league average, scoring 4.14 runs per game.

The bad news is they still have only four hitters in their lineup with OPS over 750.

The good news is the performance of Daniel Schneemann to date. The second-year big leaguer, who got off to a terrible start going 1 for his first 19, is currently red hot. He’s hitting .383 over his last 49 at bats and has a 956 OPS with five homers and 10 extra base hits.

Couple this with Angel Martinez, who also didn’t make the team out of spring training, but since his call up has batted .316 (724 OPS) and has handled centerfield for the most part very well.

On the flip side, there are a number of players struggling mightily. Brayan Rocchio, who looked like he turned a corner in the playoffs last season, is in a dreadful slump and hasn’t had a hit since April 26th and his OPS has slipped to 452.

Another post-season hero, Jhonkensy Noel, had a big pinch hit in the doubleheader Tuesday, but overall is batting just .174 with a 484 OPS and has fanned 21 times in 72 plate appearances and has walked just twice.

Rookie Will Wilson is another Guardians’ bench guy and frankly, we wonder why he’s in the major leagues. He’s hit .235 during his time in AAA, and that includes his hot start in Columbus where he started 22 for 68.

Outside of his time in the capital city, there is nothing to suggest he can hit, let alone big-league pitching. Since his call up to the big club, he’s 3 for 18 and the hits are all singles.

It is quite likely the only reason Rocchio, Noel, and Wilson are still on the 26-man roster is there are no alternatives to note in AAA.

We all know about Chase DeLauter’s injury at the beginning of training camp, but recently another top prospect, Juan Brito went down with a thumb injury that required surgery. He was batting .291 with an 891 OPS and more walks than strikeouts when he went down.

If Will Brennan was a right-handed hitter, he likely would be in Cleveland in place of Noel, but he’s not, and when he was here, he’s been shown to be a singles hitter who doesn’t walk. His slugging percentage is .442 in AAA but has walked just six times.

Perhaps another look at Johnathan Rodriguez should be in the cards, but this time with him getting Noel’s at bats. In both of his stints in the majors, he’s received very sporadic playing time, going 4 for 36.

C. J. Kayfus was just moved up to Columbus after starting the season at Akron and has played only five games at AAA. We doubt the front office will call him up any time soon.

Another problem with the roster construction is Steven Vogt’s reluctance to play Kyle Manzardo at 1B when he is DHing Steven Kwan or Jose Ramirez. Manzardo leads the team in RBIs and is third in OPS, ahead of Ramirez right now.

Yet, he’s not in the lineup when Kwan or Ramirez have a “half day” off. Why doesn’t Manzardo play and Carlos Santana, who is 39 years old, get a day off?

We say it all the time, front office people have to prepare for when things go wrong. The lack of organizational depth is telling for the Guardians.

How much longer than they overcome it? We hope until October.

How Can Guards Score More Runs Next Year?

Before the season started, we felt the Guardians would be a .500 baseball team, but they got off to a tremendous start and won the AL Central with a 92-69 record and eventually lost in the Championship Series to the Yankees in five games.

When the 2025 season starts late next March in Kansas City, it will have been 77 years since the franchise has won the World Series. And yes, that’s the longest drought in the sport.

What can the Guardians do to defend their divisional title and also to get better in ’25? Today, we will focus on the offense.

Cleveland ranked 7th in the league in runs scored and the only playoff team that scored less was Detroit. Their team OPS was also 7th right at the league average at 703. They were slightly below average in getting on base and slightly above average in slugging.

All in all, they had an average offense.

By position, the Guardians were only above average at four spots: 1B (Josh Naylor), 3B (Jose Ramirez), LF (Steven Kwan), and DH.

We think the one thing the Guardians can focus on offensively is getting on base more often. The league average was .309 and only four players exceeded that: Kwan (.368), David Fry (.356), Ramirez (.335) and Josh Naylor (.320).

Last season, the Guardians made a concerted effort to hit with more power, and they did, hitting 61 more home runs, but it only raised the slugging percentage by 14 points.

How did that happen? They hit 49 less doubles and 11 less triples than they did in ’23.

Let’s look at Kwan, who people talked about his power increase because he went from five long balls to 14 in 2024.

What if we told you he actually had less extra base hits this season? He had 36 doubles, 7 triples last year. This year, just 16 doubles and three triples. Andres Gimenez dropped from 47 XBH to 32 in 2024.

Our point is the “be aggressive and try to drive the ball” approach worked in terms of hitting home runs, but it didn’t improve the extra base hit ability of the Guardians all that much.

The Yankees led the league in runs scored, but their offense is an anomaly because they have Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. They only had five regulars with OPS over 700, one more than Cleveland.

Baltimore was second in runs scored, and they had eight players over 700. Boston was third and they had seven players over that mark. Houston was next and they also had seven hitters over 700.

Can Lane Thomas provide enough offense to hold down a regular spot in the outfield? His combined OPS of 709 was about average. However, we liked his K rate and walk rate a lot better when he was with the Nationals.

At the very least, Fry and Kyle Manzardo should be fine at the DH spot, although the latter might deserve a shot at being an everyday player as the season progresses.

If Fry’s elbow issue isn’t something that requires surgery, getting him behind the plate more often would be a benefit because Austin Hedges doesn’t really help with a bat in his hands.

The tough decision could come up the middle where at least one of the regulars, Gimenez or Brayan Rocchio must do better offensively. Both were liabilities this year, although Rocchio had a solid post-season.

Simply put, the Guardians need better offense, and the best way would seem to be based on being more selective as hitters. Walks are good, when you walk, you aren’t making an out.

In the minor leagues, two top prospects stand out. Juan Brito walked 88 times (13.5% rate) in AAA last year, while Chase DeLauter also exceeded 10%. Brito could be a candidate to open the season with the big club, while DeLauter, who has battled injuries could arrive during the season.

The best way to add to the run total is to add more solid offensive players, not trading them.

Dolan’s Comments Seems Like Rebuilding Year For Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians celebrated their annual winter festival over the weekend, a time to look forward to the upcoming baseball season. It’s a great time for the fans, who get to see their favorite players again after three and a half months.

The team’s resident superstar Jose Ramirez was there. Fan favorite Josh Naylor and brother Bo made an appearance, and the Guards’ new skipper, Steven Vogt, interacted with ticket payers and media people alike.

It was a great time to talk baseball during the cold northeast Ohio winter, and of course, the weather cooperated by providing a snowstorm.

And then, someone put a microphone in front of team owner Paul Dolan. Dolan did say the team is always looking for ways to improve, but seemed to imply the improvement would come “internally and organically” with the young guys coming up from the farm system.

And thus, a wet blanket was put over the event.

Look, we get a team like the Guardians (at least in their own head) have to have a farm system that is producing in order to field a contending team. However, even if you are going to depend on rookies and/or second year players, if you fancy yourself as a contender, you add veterans who can contribute in case the inexperienced players aren’t quite ready.

We know the Guardians need outfield help. Since the end of the 2023 campaign, they resigned Ramon Laureano, who they acquired on waivers in August, and traded with the Yankees for Estevan Florial, who was a top 100 prospect. In 2019.

We reviewed the organization’s top ten prospect list from Baseball America and we see three outfielders–

Chase DeLauter is the top prospect, but he has only played a handful of games above the High A level, and could be ready late this season. Key word there is could.

George Valera has been on prospect lists since 2020, but has had injury issues the past two seasons and has never played more than 100 games in a minor league season. If he can stay healthy in 2024, perhaps he’s another player who can be in Cleveland by the end of this season.

The third OF is 19-year-old Jaison Chourio, who played mostly in the Arizona Rookie Leauge last year. He’s aways away.

So, it’s not like the Guardians have one of the game’s best prospects ready to step in the lineup on Opening Day. In fact, there has been talk that the readiest minor league player, Kyle Manzardo, might start the year in AAA.

Plenty of players who made these top prospect lists never pan out, and others who don’t make them wind up being real good major league players. Ramirez never appeared on the Top 100 prospect list and he has been one of the best players in the game over the last six years.

Yes, there is still time to sign a veteran outfielder to help the team’s hitting before spring training starts, and actually, there are still good candidates remaining on the market.

But to us, going entirely with your farm system to fill this void, and not having highly tiered prospects ready to go, reeks of a rebuilding team. The Guardians are not a team that is several years away from success, they won the Central in 2022.

Perhaps any warmth fans received at the event over the weekend was the hot air coming out of the team’s owner.

The public relations department of the Guardians don’t get paid enough to spin whatever comes out of the owners’ mouth.

Hopefully Bieber Injury Doesn’t Deter Moves At Deadline

The Cleveland Guardians didn’t exactly provide a lot of good news for their fans coming out of the All-Star break.

First came the news that Shane Bieber is experiencing some soreness in his right forearm and was placed on the injured list yesterday. At the very least, the former Cy Young Award winner will miss two starts.

And then the bullpen was mollywhopped by Texas in the opening game of the three game series after Aaron Civale gave Cleveland five innings. The curious thing was he was removed after throwing just 79 pitches.

The bigger news is Bieber, obviously, since the rotation is already without Triston McKenzie and Cal Quantrill. Yes, the rookies, Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, and Logan Allen have done yeoman’s work so far this season, but as everyone reminds us, they will all be on innings restrictions this season.

We know many people will say this is a sign that the team should be sellers at the upcoming trade deadline, but isn’t the biggest potential trade chip the Guardians have Bieber?

Our fear is that Bieber’s injury will prevent the front office from making a move to help this year’s team, which is still just a game and a half out of first place in the AL Central Division.

Standing pat would be a terrible idea.

First, and this has nothing to do with the team on the field, but attendance is up at Progressive Field, and we fear doing nothing to improve the roster will damper any excitement created during the year.

The other issue is the organization’s bloated situation in the middle infield. Cleveland continues to use free agent to be Amed Rosario at shortstop, with Tyler Freeman and Gabriel Arias still on the big league roster and Brayan Rocchio in AAA.

They haven’t really found out much about any of those players, with perhaps the exception of Arias, who has a whopping total of 154 plate appearances this season. By the way, we agree that’s not enough.

At some point, they have to convert some of these players into pieces that can help the big club win some games.

Down three starters, why not move some pieces for a pitcher who can provide some quality innings down the stretch. They could use that even if Bieber is going to be back sooner than later.

A year ago, the Guardians had one of the top farm systems in baseball, but outside of last year’s first round pick OF Chase DeLauter and Rocchio, most of their prize prospects have graduated.

Southpaw Joey Cantillo is another top prospect, and he may be here soon if the injuries on the staff continue.

In the past week, Baseball Prospectus put out their mid-season top 50 prospects plus 10 other players. No Guardian was listed. Last season, the same publication had four Cleveland farmhands listed, including Bibee and Williams. Daniel Espino and George Valera were the others.

Prospects lose their value quickly in baseball. Valera was looked upon as a big time power bat, and he still may be, but he’s hitting .187 (545 OPS) at AAA, and in his time at the highest level of the minors over the past two seasons, his OPS is 698.

The next two weeks before the trade deadline will be key. If the Guardians continue to hang in the divisional race, will the front office help out the current roster?

Or will they point toward 2024. We aren’t asking the organization to move players like Williams, Bibee, and Allen. But they have some assets they can move. Now is the time.