For Guardians. Get Over .500 And Then We’ll Talk

It is make or break time for the Cleveland Guardians. They are in the midst of a 12 game stretch where they play some of the teams in Major League Baseball with the worst records. They won a three-game set against the San Franciscon Giants at home and have won the first two of a trio in Colorado against the Rockies.

They then take on the Angels before coming home to play the Royals, who by the way are currently on a six game winning streak.

We know where they are in the standings, 3.5 behind first place Chicago and tied for the last spot in the wild card race, but for us, until they are over the .500 mark, it is difficult to get excited about post-season baseball.

Because really, if you can’t win more than half of your games, you aren’t a good baseball team. If Steven Vogt’s team emerges from this stretch over the break-even mark, then we can feel like it’s a pennant race.

That doesn’t mean we don’t want them to win. We have written about this many times. We have been a fan of this baseball team since 1965 and like everyone else, would like nothing better than to see the franchise win its first World Series since 1948.

However, it doesn’t mean that we will polish a turd and say this year’s edition of the Guardians is a threat to do just that. Nothing would be better if they did it, we just don’t see it.

These Guardians just can’t hit. After finishing last season with the third worst offense in the game, they have improved this season. They are fourth worst. That’s not luck, by the way, it’s a trend. And if the organization doesn’t do something about it in the off-season (if not sooner) we really have to wonder what goes on at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.

And for those who point out the one good thing a hitter does in a week (Hey, Petey Halpin hit a HR!!!) let us remind you baseball is an everyday sport. You have to contribute on a nightly basis (hey, he has a 569 OPS). That’s why we keep track of the number of games where a player gets three or more plate appearances and does not contribute offensively.

We understand baseball is a game of adjustments, especially for young hitters. Chase DeLauter has done a great job changing and reacting to how pitchers are working to get him out. Is he perfect at altering his approach? Of course not.

And he is probably the best hitter this organization has drafted since Steven Kwan. Those two are gifted in putting the bat on the ball. But name another hitter who has gotten significantly better since getting called up? Guys like Angel Martinez, Halpin, Daniel Schneemann, and the since released Gabriel Arias, have never understood a ball from a strike.

For Schneemann, he was much better at it in the minor leagues. What happened up here?

But we digress.

Can the Guardians get hot and make a run at another AL Central title and/or a wild card spot? Of course, we saw it last year. But there is a reason that had never been done before. It’s unlikely and difficult.

We hope the 2026 edition can pull it off. But excuse us for not getting excited right now.

What Guardians Should Do With The Rest Of The Games.

The Cleveland Guardians’ struggles since the All-Star break, they’ve gone 9-18, makes it pretty clear to most fans that it is time to look toward 2027 (or maybe 2028). We say that because it would not be a shock if labor issues caused Major League Baseball not to be played next year.

It remains to be seen how long the organization continues to look at salvaging this season, because the players and Steven Vogt will want to keep trying to win games until they are mathematically eliminated, which with the three wild card spots available, may not occur until mid-September.

However, among those who don’t kid themselves on a daily basis, it is time to look towards the next season, and what moves should be made with that in mind.

The Guardians made a move yesterday, bringing back southpaw Logan Allen, most likely because the relief corps has been used a lot and the pitcher he replaced, Franco Aleman, pitched in the last two games and wouldn’t have been available.

One thing we would like to see is playing Angel Genao at shortstop. The 22-year-old switch-hitter looks very mature at the plate, starting his big-league career with a four hit game, and overall has gone 10 for 34 with a home run and just three strikeouts to date. He uses the whole field, which is a good sign, but it is time for him to get an extended look at his natural position.

We like Brayan Rocchio, and we understand that this move is not fair to him, but that’s baseball. Does Rocchio fit in as a utility man next year or can he be used as trade bait? He’s shown he’s more than capable defensively, but he’s blocked at second base unless Travis Bazzana changes positions.

And that might be on the table. We wouldn’t be shocked if the former first overall draft pick went back to the minors where a transition might be started. Since June 1st, Bazzana has hit just .208 with 60 strikeouts in 256 plate appearances. He seems very susceptible to the high fastball. He just can’t lay off.

Somehow, the Guardians need to get another look at Cooper Ingle, who is terrorizing the International League with an OPS of 999. Yes, we know what he looked like in his brief time with the big club, but he only had 24 plate appearances.

At AAA, he’s batting .306 with 18 homers and has drawn 63 walks. Where to play him might be an issue because the organization obviously doesn’t view him as a catcher, and he struggled in LF in the bigs. However, he could get some at bats at DH, since the Guardians seem to need guys who can hit.

It’s also probably time to see more of Daniel Espino, who has had control issues at AAA (20 walks in 30 innings), but he’s stuck out 39 hitters and has electric stuff. We would also bring Aleman back as soon as possible.

The Allen recall also made us think that Parker Messick’s innings should be limited the rest of the way. He’s already pitched more innings than ever in his career, and with the team falling out of it, there is no reason to overextend him.

These are just a couple of things to do as the season winds down. And if the Guardians go on a winning streak, that’s great. We just don’t see that taking place.

Just When A Hole Might Be Plugged, Another Crops Up For Guardians

Fourth place. That’s where the Cleveland Guardians sit as of this morning, four games behind the surprising Chicago White Sox in the AL Central Division race.

On Friday, May 22nd, the Guardians beat the Phillies 1-0 on Kyle Manzardo’s home run in the 9th to raise the team’s record to 31-22. They had a 3.5 game lead over the Pale Hose and the second-best record in the American League. They were fourth in the league in runs scored, so the offense was generating runs.

Since then, Steven Vogt’s crew has gone 27-39 and the offense has plummeted to third last in the major leagues in scoring. And now the bullpen is collapsing, with only Cade Smith being reliable for Cleveland last in games.

By the way, that’s a 66-game span, which is 40% of the regular season. That’s not a slump, that record over that span shows a bad baseball team.

Cleveland’s front office said they wanted to lean on the organization’s young hitters to provide offense in 2026 after the Guards made the playoffs a year ago despite the 29th ranking offense in the game. That sounds like a good thing, right? But depending on all young players is tough because they tend to have many more ups and downs than a veteran.

And that’s why a priority should have been to get a veteran bat or two to help ease the transition.

Offensively, the Guardians did get two bats at the trade deadline in Jo Adell and Nathaniel Lowe, and the pair would seem to be the perfect platoon. However, it appears the organization thinks of Adell as an everyday player, and he isn’t very good vs. right-handed pitchers.

The problem is still not enough good hitters in the lineup. The league average OPS is 719. The Guardians have four players above the threshold and one of them is Austin Hedges, which is a complete surprise.

Steven Kwan (.364) and Chase DeLauter (.354) are the only Cleveland players with an on base percentage over .350, and the latter’s slugging percentage of .433 leads the team, which tells you there is no one on the Guardians who can drive the ball.

The organization sent Kyle Manzardo to AAA and his slugging average is 8th on the team, slightly behind Travis Bazzana, Rhys Hoskins, and the recently released Gabriel Arias. Our question here is why does Hoskins stay, while Manzardo, who is tied with him for the team home run lead, get sent back to the minors?

Let us be clear, Manzardo’s swing is messed up, as he is trying to pull everything this season. We wonder who told him to change his approach?

Speaking of approaches, let’s look at Brayan Rocchio, who had a good start to the season. On May 31st, he was hitting .293 with a 789 OPS, hitting mostly in the #9 spot in the order. He had fanned 26 times with 20 walks as of that date and had 4 homers with 27 RBI.

Since then, he’s batted .208 with 39 strikeouts and just 11 bases on balls, and five dingers with 23 RBIs. Did he feel more pressure to provide pop after the injuries to DeLauter, Jose Ramirez, and Angel Martinez? Or was it because the team started hitting him in the middle of the lineup?

He’s batted .232 with a K/BB ratio of 19:4 when batting in the #3, #4, and #5 spots in the order.

Yes, the bullpen is in shambles and frankly, the options to improve it aren’t really there. But don’t think the Guardians’ offense has been saved with the trades made at the deadline. They still don’t have enough good bats.

Guardians Need Bullpen To Get Back To Form Quickly.

Early in the season, Guardians’ starter Joey Cantillo was being brought along slowly. He made 91 pitches in his first start of the season on March 28th in Seattle and then didn’t hit the 90 mark again until May 11th.

There were games when he was doing quite well too. We are thinking particularly of a start against the Royals on May 6th when he allowed just one run in five innings and was removed despite throwing only 70 pitches. Cantillo has not thrown more than 98 pitches in a gane this season.

Slade Cecconi, just put on the injured list, but who has been in the rotation all year, has hit the century mark for a pitch count just once. Parker Messick has done it four times, once because Steven Vogt let him start the ninth inning (and rightly so) because he had a no-hitter. He threw 112 that night.

Tanner Bibee, now in his fourth year in the big leagues has hit 100 pitches, which by the way in an arbitrary mark set by organizations to supposedly limit injuries, only three times this year, and we pulled once while throwing a shutout for eight innings at just 83 tosses.

Only Gavin Williams, who is a large man at 6’6″ and 250 pounds has been given some rope by Vogt and pitching coach Carl Willis, going over the 100 mark six times.

This is probably one reason the Guardians have used only seven starting pitches this season, and went to the All-Star break using just five.

However, for every action there is a reaction. Cleveland has put a lot of burden on the bullpen to win games and right now, the relief corps is leaking a bit of oil.

For example, Hunter Gaddis, who has pitched in over 70 games each of the last two seasons and has been in 45 this year, has allowed six runs in eight innings over the last month.

Lefty Erik Sabrowski was dominant early on, pitching in 25 games by the end of May allowing just four runs in 21 innings (1.71 ERA). He then went on the IL with some elbow tenderness, and since he’s returned has allowed 9 runs in 10.2 innings, and prior to his stint on the IL had fanned 38 with 13 walks.

After coming back, it’s 14 Ks and 9 walks.

The ‘pen’s other southpaw, Tim Herrin has had problem throwing strikes in each of the last two years, Since his tremendous 2024 campaign, where he had a 1.92 ERA with 68 strikeouts and just 25 walks in 65 innings, Herrin has 76 Ks and has issued 53 free passes in 80.1 frames.

And even Cade Smith has shown a bit of wear. Although he hasn’t allowed an earned run in seven appearances since being in the Midsummer Classic, he has walked seven in those outings. Before that, he had walked just 11 hitters.

Only Colin Holderman (45 appearances, 2,22 ERA) has been reliable until last night’s debacle and if the Guardians want to make another playoff run, they need a solid relief group. The struggles made the front office go out and get Craig Yoho from Milwaukee, and he did a good job in two of his three appearances.

Perhaps they can get a boost down the stretch from Franco Aleman or Daniel Espino. The Guardians also just signed veteran lefty Ryan Borucki, who has held left-handed hitters to a 530 OPS in his career.

Maybe Vogt will give the starters a little longer leash over the next two months, but in reality, the Guardians are going to need the bullpen to start putting up some zeroes at the end of games if they want another playoff appearance.

The Patience Vs. Stubbornness Argument And The Cleveland Guardians

One of our sports beliefs is that there is a fine line between patience and stubbornness. We also understand front offices of professional sports teams have to error on the side of the latter. Fans want players replace after they have two poor weeks. Front offices have to make sure before cutting ties with a player.

And players who have put up with good numbers for a long time deserve and get a longer leash. For example, Jose Ramirez hasn’t had a good season, although his OPS is still over league average. And even though he is now 33, you have to think he will get to being the player he has always been, with maybe a bit of a regression to age.

We are trying to ascertain how the Cleveland Guardians approach this process and make no doubt we believe they skirt the line of stubbornness. We ask this because of the recent move to cut bait on Juan Brito and earlier this year with George Valera.

The question comes because both players seem to have had patient approaches while hitting. In AAA, Brito fanned 192 times and drew 163 walks in 1151 plate appearances. Valera’s ratio wasn’t as good, but he still walked 164 times in over 1200 plate appearances at the AAA level.

Let’s take a look at Daniel Schneemann. He got off to a great start, putting up a 955 OPS in April. However, in May he struggled going 11 for 74 (417 OPS). Steven Vogt and the organization gave him 63 more plate appearances in June, and the results were much the same (11 for 63, 498 OPS).

We are talking about someone with a career 632 OPS, so it’s not like he has a long track record of success. Despite that, Schneemann got 40 more at bats in July, producing just five hits and a 362 OPS. At some point, perhaps in the middle of June, someone should have said even though he’s a great defensive player, maybe we shouldn’t be giving him semi-regular at bats?

Look at the way the team uses Rhys Hoskins. He is used mostly as a platoon bat against southpaws. Over his career, he’s been great against them, compiling an 855 OPS. This season, in 113 PA, he’s batting .143. Now 33, you have to wonder if he’s about done. On the other hand, as a veteran, he should get more of the benefit of the doubt.

The unfortunate thing with Hoskins is the Guardians keep hitting him in the middle of the lineup against lefties, and as we said, the .143 average doesn’t help. If we were a fading veteran, we’d sign with the Guardians and be a leader in the clubhouse. We’d get every benefit of the doubt.

Look at how long it took to make a decision on Gabriel Arias, he of the career 635 OPS. Let us remind you, the average OPS hovers around 710 most seasons, so you can see, Arias is a below average bat.

Yet, he now has almost 1200 plate appearances in the bigs and has fanned in over 1/3rd of those times at the dish, and hardly ever draws a walk, meaning he makes an out 72.5% of the times he goes to the plate.

He is what is known as “toolsy”. He has a cannon for an arm and occasionally can hit the ball a long way. However, he is wildly inconsistent and doesn’t seem to have a good feel for the game. Despite his pop, he has never had a slugging percentage over .400.

All of these weaknesses have been on display for at least three years, but it took this long for the Guardians to cut bait.

Meanwhile, a guy like Brito, a switch-hitter gets 56 at bats and is cut loose. We understand Brito is borderline terrible with a glove but deserved more of a chance in the majors in our opinion.

It will be interesting to see if the Guardians’ impatience with him is merited.

The Guardians’ Front Office Swings Into Action.

Well, the Guardians certainly did not stand pat at the trade deadline this season. And that is good to see.

For us, the biggest move was trading four players, one of whom saw time in the bigs this season in Will Dion, to the Washington Nationals for 30-year-old left-hander Foster Griffin, an All-Star with a 12-3 record and a 3.06 ERA with 116 Ks in 129 innings this season.

He will slide into Slade Cecconi’s spot in the rotation giving the Guardians a solid starter in every game in which they take the field. The southpaw spent the last three seasons in Japan winning 18 games with a 2.57 ERA.

We also think getting Griffin helps manage Parker Messick’s innings. He’s already at 129.2 IP just four short of his career high. So, he may get skipped a bit to keep him fresh for the stretch drive.

This move comes after the front office dealt for Craig Yoho from Milwaukee to bolster a sagging bullpen.

Yoho is the guy Cleveland wanted, he had a 3.15 ERA with the Brewers in 20 innings, despite a strikeout to walk ratio of 13 Ks vs. eight walks. Last year, in limited action (8.2 innings) he walked nine. But in his minor league career, he fanned 193 hitters in 131 innings, including 29 in 23 frames at AAA Nashville this season.

As for the offense, when several reactions to a trade, particularly in baseball, are something like “well, at least we didn’t give up much”, that’s not a good thing. That’s the reaction of several people when the Cleveland Guardians acquired OF Jo Adell from the Los Angeles Angels for minor league catcher Zack Cozart.

First, the good news. Adell has some power. Since the beginning of the ’24 season, he’s hammered 73 home runs, His 19 dingers this year would easily lead the Guardians this season, as Kyle Manzardo has hit just 13 HRs.

As we said, that’s the good news.

The bad news is Adell has an obscene strikeout to walk ratio. This year, he has fanned 108 times against just 16 walks. For a comparison, Gabriel Arias has whiffed 55 times vs. seven walks. More good news, Adell has like three times the plate appearances.

The good news is Adell does have a career 793 OPS against southpaws, and this year, has killed lefties, hitting .303 with a 910 OPS. However, against right-handers, his career mark is just 654 and just 593 this season. Which means he should be taking the Brandon Guyer role.

It is doubtful the Guardians will use him that way though. Our guess is he will be in the lineup most days and will madden fans by whiffing in key situations.

A better move, in our opinion, was getting 1B/DH Nathaniel Lowe from Cincinnati. A left-handed bat, he has a career 775 OPS and a 798 figure vs. righties. Lowe will replace Kyle Manzardo, who was sent to Columbus along with David Fry.

Manzardo has been lost at the plate most of the year, and his strikeout rate soared from 25% to 32% this season. We have advocated for him to go down and rediscover his swing, because right now, Lowe figures to platoon with Rhys Hoskins, who frankly has been terrible vs. lefties.

Getting Manzardo right would allow Steven Vogt (and the organization) to platoon Lowe and Adell, which would seem to be a productive pairing.

The Guardians will probably stop there, but we would still like to see Angel Genao and Cooper Ingle with the big club to improve the attack. There is still some dead weight on the roster. Angel Martinez is really struggling, and we continue to maintain Petey Halpin is not a big-league bat.

However, we wanted the Guardians to get better at the deadline and no question, they look to be improved for the stretch drive.

As The Offense Plummets, The Front Office Plays The Fiddle

The Cleveland Guardians haven’t exactly taken off following the all-star break, going 3-7 and generally not playing good baseball. And the hitting hasn’t been good either, as they’ve scored either zero or one run in half of these games.

And of course, the spector of the trade deadline looms, now less than a week away.

This recent stretch has led a few people to suggest that the front office should be selling a week from now, but really, what do the Guardians have to sell? First, Cleveland is still one of the 10 youngest teams in baseball.

Do you really want the Guards’ front office to shop Gavin Williams or even Tanner Bibee? Cade Smith? They aren’t going to move Jose Ramirez obviously, and with the offense already challenged, do people want them to deal Chase DeLauter or Travis Bazzana? That would be ridiculous.

The Guardians have won the AL Central the past two seasons and if the season were to end today (we know, it doesn’t) they would be in the playoffs. Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff should be looking for ways to punch their ticket to the post-season for the third straight year.

And as an added bonus, with the way the AL West is shaking out right now, winning the Central would mean skipping the Wild Card Series and put the Guardians right into the Divison Series.

But they simply have to be better offensively.

As they were last season, Cleveland ranks near the bottom in the majors in runs scored. This has now been the case for a season and a half. Yet it doesn’t seem like any changes in terms of coaching are on the horizon, and we don’t like calling for people’s jobs, but whatever message Grant Fink is sending to his troops, it is not getting through.

But it shouldn’t just fall on Fink. Look at the roster the front office has put together. They have 13 position players on the big-league squad and how many of them are just not even decent hitters? We aren’t going to ignore Austin Hedges resurgence this season, but neither he nor Patrick Bailey are serious offensive threats.

Kyle Manzardo looks lost. David Fry hasn’t been effective since the post-season in 2024, some of that due to injury, but it is what it is. We liked the signing of Rhys Hoskins during training camp, but he was brought in to hit lefties, and he’s batted .129 vs. southpaws.

Petey Halpin simply doesn’t look like a major league hitter, and Gabriel Arias, despite being on a bit of a good streak right now, still has fanned 51 times in 117 plate appearances this season.

And although Angel Martinez has shown some pop, since May 1st, he’s hit .203 with just 12 extra base hits and a strikeout to walk ratio of 35:4.

What this means is out of the 13 position players on the current roster, eight of them simply aren’t even competent big-league hitters as of now. It is tough to put Manzardo in that group right now, but he looks like he could use the same thing the Guardians did with Rocchio a year ago. That is, send him back to AAA for a reset and see what happens.

Let’s see what Kody Huff can do. He’s batting .275 with a .388 on base percentage and a 912 OPS at Columbus. And he’s thriving away from the hitters’ park that is Huntington Bank Field. What about one of the Guards’ top prospects in Angel Genao, hitting .305 with a .389 OBP? We’d also bring back Cooper Ingle.

Could they be any worse than what is currently on the roster? That’s doubtful. But it makes you wonder why moves haven’t been made.

Can Guardians’ Front Office Make The Tough Decision?

With the trading deadline in Major League Baseball two weeks away, teams all around baseball have to make decisions. Are they a contender or a pretender? That’s the first thing executives around the game have to figure out, and we have seen it here and all around the sport, what the fans and even the players think is not the same as the GM.

For the Cleveland Guardians, that decision should be simple. They are currently one game out of first place in a weak AL Central Division, and they have won that division title each of the last two seasons. They should be in the business of strengthening their ballclub.

What president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff have to decide is what areas need improvement and how to accomplish getting better. Those answers should be obvious, the offense is now last in all of baseball in scoring runs and of course, everyone’s bullpen could be deeper.

Offensively, are the Guardians ready to move on from some of the players they have seemed to give umpteen chances to? We look at the position players on the roster currently and see many players who could easily be sent back to AAA or even DFA’d in order to score more runs.

And yes, yes, we know Jose Ramirez will be back, hopefully before the August 3rd deadline and Angel Martinez will return as well, and when both are in the lineup, the hitting will be better. We understand that. But again, the offense is currently last in baseball, so even with that pair returning, Cleveland’s offense isn’t anything to write home about.

The front office leaned into giving their young players a chance this off-season and have been rewarded to some extent by the performance of rookies Chase DeLauter and Travis Bazzana. Still, it hasn’t been enough because, and we know we are repeating ourselves, they still rank last in scoring runs per game.

Part of that is Steven Kwan’s struggles, but he seems to be getting back to the player we’ve seen in his career up to this point.

We are sure they didn’t anticipate Kyle Manzardo’s struggles and that the DH spot would basically become a gaping hole. But the question now is what they are willing to do about it.

Will they continue to hope young players like Cooper Ingle or Ralphy Velazquez will come up and hit the ground running, or that Kahlil Watson or Petey Halpin will figure out the puzzle that is the strike zone and become competent big league hitters?

There are rookies that take the league by storm and maybe that’s what will happen for the Guardians, but history shows it likely won’t happen. Heck, Bazzana is going through a tough stretch right now, hitting .169 with a 525 OPS over the last month.

To us, there are a number of players in the organization we would have no problem if the organization decided to move on, but that seems to be an issue with the Guardians. They have a tough time letting go. However, using assets to go out and get a proven hitter is the prudent move to make. Adding even one bat should make a difference.

Looking At Guardians’ Top Hitting Prospects.

In today’s edition of The Plain Dealer, the great Terry Pluto spoke with Guardians’ farm director, Matt Forman, about the hitting in the minor leagues. Keep in mind, the Guardians rank near the bottom in the big leagues in runs scored. str

Also, in the last week or so, Baseball America came out with its revised Top 30 prospects for each organization. Of the players featured in the article, Jaison Chourio was rated the highest (#3), while Dean Curley (#8) and Jace LaViolette (#10) were also in the Guardians’ current Top 10 minor leaguers.

If you visit this site often, you know we believe the one of the most important indicators of success in the big leagues is strikeout to walk ratio, because in our opinion, hitters have a better chance if they can discern the difference between a ball and a strike.

Last night, Chase DeLauter knocked in the Guards’ first run in the nightcap after falling down in the count 0-2, and fighting off some tough pitches, taking some borderline one, and getting a 3-2 pitch which he (luckily, according to Chris Gimenez) pulled in the hole.

Cleveland’s #1 prospect is 1B/OF Ralphy Velazquez, currently hitting .269 (773 OPS) at Columbus after starting the year in Akron. The left-handed hitter has a 70:39 ratio this year, not bad, but something to watch, at AAA, that ratio is 39:17. Not awful. And the most he has fanned in any minor league season is 104. That’s pretty good contact.

The #2 prospect is SS Angel Genao, a 22-year-old switch-hitter, who the organization will have to get creative with, seeing the keystone at the big league level seems to be in good hands with Brayan Rocchio and Travis Bazzana.

He’s hitting .299 between Akron and Columbus and has drawn 51 walks vs. 55 whiffs. We wonder if he’s the big trade chip or if the Guardians ultimately move Bazzana to the outfield.

Remember, pitching doesn’t get easier as you move up the ladder in the minors and ultimately to the major leagues.

And that’s why we are watching the progress of Chourio, a 21-year-old, switch-hitting outfielder, whose brother Jackson plays for the Brewers. This season, he has struck out 60 times in 315 plate appearances and has drawn 46 walks with 26 extra base hits.

In his minor league career, his K/BB ratio is pretty much even (290/286). He has a .410 on base percentage to date, and we think as he gets older and matures, the power will arrive.

Another player we are keeping an eye on is 18-year-old (soon to be 19) OF Juneiker Caceres, who was just promoted to Lake County. A left-handed hitter, he walked more than he struck out at low A (31 walks, 23 Ks) and batted .320 with a 956 OPS. Again, he’s just 19, and just moved up to high A, but he definitely bears watching to see how he adjusts to better pitching.

Curley is a 22-year-old infielder who has pop, but a good eye. When we are accused of hating strikeouts, we always respond that strikeouts aren’t terrible if the hitter also walks a lot, like Jim Thome. That’s Curley. He has fanned in 92 of his 329 plate appearances this season, but he’s also walked 82 times, giving him a .454 on base percentage.

He was just promoted to AA Akron, so again, watch if that ratio can maintain moving up a level.

We aren’t sure about LaViolette, the Guardians’ first pick in last year’s amateur draft. He certainly has power, 30 extra base hits in 327 plate appearances, but has fanned a whopping 119 times vs. 39 walks. Let us remind you again, the pitching doesn’t get easier as you move up in the minors.

If he can’t harness the strike zone, we don’t see him ever being an impact player in the bigs.

Cooper Ingle is the #6 prospect, and we didn’t talk about him since we’ve discussed him earlier, and we still think he can help the big club.

On the other hand, none of these guys can help until the front office makes some decisions with some of the marginal players currently on the roster.

With Trading Deadline Coming, We’d Get A Bat. What Is The Front Office Thinking?

The Cleveland Guardians resume their season Friday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates and when they start play, they will have a little over two weeks before the MLB trading deadline which ends on August 3rd.

We doubt the front office will do anything major and might not do anything at all. However, the offense still ranks 29th in the big leagues and has been in that area now for a year and a half.

Our guess is the brass will look at the return of Jose Ramirez as a major event (and it is), but we believe a good offense needs seven effective bats in a lineup, and the Guardians will still be well short of that. And remember, the front office should plan things based on a worst-case scenario mindset.

For sure, Cleveland should be in the relief pitcher market because right now Steven Vogt can only have confidence in Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, and Colin Holderman. Franco Aleman might be able to slide into the “circle of trust”, but in watching post-season baseball, a team can never have enough solid relief pitchers.

Back to the hitting, with Ramirez back, the Guardians have what we would consider three solid bats: Ramirez, Chase DeLauter, and Brayan Rocchio. We understand the optimistic fans will ask, what about Travis Bazzana, Angel Martinez, Kyle Manzardo, etc.?

Manzardo is suffering through a bad season. He’s hitting just .215 with an OPS of 669, a hundred points behind last year’s 768 figure. Can he have a much better second half? Of course, but over the last month, he’s hit just .165 and a 550 OPS.

Bazzana is hitting just .222 with a 685 OPS over the last 28 days. This could be the ups and downs a rookie experiences, but the front office should be a tad concerned, particularly over the 26 strikeouts in those 90 plate appearances.

And although Martinez adds some pop with 23 extra base hits and a .442 slugging percentage, he is very inconsistent at the plate, prone to hot streaks and deep slumps, mostly in our opinion because of a 53:7, strikeout to walk ratio.

It would help greatly if Steven Kwan’s resurgence over the past month (748 OPS) can continue. He could be a fourth solid hitter.

What we are saying is president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff should be looking for a hitter between now and August 3rd.

We understand the prospect lovers will say what about Ralphy Velazquez and Angel Genao at Columbus? Again, they are rookies and you don’t know what you will get. Cooper Ingle had great numbers at AAA, but he was overmatched when he came up. And we still have confidence he can be a solid hitter in the big leagues.

As for Genao, could he be a piece used to get a proven hitter, particularly one who hits right-handed? The best deals are made from depth, and it appears like the Guardians are set at the keystone spots with Rocchio and Bazzana.

That said, we know the front office is loath to give up prospects, so it likely won’t happen.

What is more likely is a deal for someone like a Lane Thomas giving up marginal prospects. Don’t forget the organization figures to do something with Bo Naylor too.

How much that moves the needle is up for debate.

Is the goal is to get a first-round bye and ultimately get to the World Series, the batting order needs to be more formidable. Can the management pull the trigger and help the team currently on the field?