Early Spring Training Thoughts And Disappointments

The Cleveland Guardians have been playing exhibition baseball for a little over a week now, and it is hard to believe the regular season will start three weeks from Thursday in Seattle. As we always say, the results of the games aren’t important, but how younger players perform does.

Since outside of Jose Ramirez and Steven Kwan, most of the Guardians don’t have a real track record, we do look through the box scores to see how the prospects are performing and also, we look at the players the front office should be ready to move on from.

Of course, the guy causing the most buzz and the most worry is Chase DeLauter. He has started off 5 for 8 with a home run and two doubles but also missed three days with leg soreness. His durability has been in question since he was drafted and having to miss a few days after playing in three games has to send up a warning flare.

George Valera is 5 for 14, but with five strikeouts and just a walk. We aren’t too concerned about the lack of walks, as we have seen he is a patient hitter, but if he keeps hitting, we would expect him to open the year on the big club.

It is also good to see Bo Naylor get off to a strong start (5 for 10, 3 doubles, two walks). After a solid September, perhaps he’s found something at the plate.

On the other hand, so far, it’s been more of the same from Gabriel Arias and Nolan Jones.

Arias is two for nine in his four games, but that’s not the problem. His issue has been making contact and he was already whiffed five times in those nine plate appearances and hasn’t walked. He’s coming off a year where he fanned at a 34.4% clip, the highest of his career. He walked only 27 times in 471 times at the dish.

His competition at shortstop, Brayan Rocchio has gone 4 for 14 early with a walk and just two punchouts. If Rocchio wins the spot, it could make room for rookie Juan Brito at 2B.

As for Jones, after hitting a homer in his first exhibition appearance, he has struck out six times without a walk in 17 plate appearances. He whiffed 113 times versus 39 walks a year ago. If he’s vying for playing time against DeLauter and Valera, it would seem he would be the odd man out.

The front office has a lot of faith in both Arias and Jones, and frankly we don’t know why. Forget the metrics, the eyes tell you both need to learn the strike zone better to be consistently successful.

Switch-hitter Angel Martinez is just 2 for 10, but with two walks, but his success vs. southpaws keeps him in the mix for Opening Day. We like the walks, but in both of the last two seasons when he came up, he was very patient and then started free swinging. We think he’d be better, especially from the left side, being more selective.

Petey Halpin is off to a good start too, going 5 for 10 with three walks and if he was a right-handed hitter, he’d probably would have a leg up on a roster spot, but the glut of lefty bats makes it likely he goes to AAA.

There are a lot of games and a lot of at bats for these guys to impress or turn it around. That’s the beauty of spring training baseball.

Hoskins Gives Guards A RH Stick

It took a long time, but the Cleveland Guardians finally signed a proven right-handed bat, inking veteran Rhys Hoskins to a minor league deal, but who is kidding who, barring an injury, Hoskins is going to break camp with the big-league club.

It kind of supports the old saying “good things come to those who wait”.

Hoskins will be 33 soon and seems to be exactly what the Guardians needed. The major league average OPS last season was 717 and Hoskins has been over that number every year of his career.

By the way, the 2025 Guards had two hitters who exceeded that average number, Jose Ramirez and Kyle Manzardo. Yes, that’s how bad the Cleveland offense was last season.

For his career, Hoskins has an 882 OPS vs. left-handed pitching, with a .382 on base average, something the Guardians badly need, and even last year, when he was limited with a thumb injury, the veteran still had a 731 OPS vs. southpaws.

He did lead the National League in walks in 2019 with 119, but his walk rate has decreased from 16.5% in that season to a still respectable 11.6% a year ago.

As a frame of reference, no Cleveland player had a rate that high in 2025, the closest was Carlos Santana at 11.4%.

We don’t know the agreement (beyond contractual) the Guardians made with Hoskins, but it would seem to us that if you limit his at bats against righties, he should be productive for Cleveland.

It was definitely a concern here how Steven Vogt’s squad was going to do vs. lefties. They are very left-handed hitting dominant. Even the broadcast during the exhibition opener commented there were only four right-handed hitters on the 40-man roster: Austin Hedges, Gabriel Arias, David Fry, and Johnathon Rodriguez.

And no one has ever compared any of them to Joe DiMaggio.

We contemplated what Vogt was going to do with a tough lefty going for the opposition, after all, the two-time AL Cy Young Award Winner resides in their division in Tarik Skubal.

The signing allows the skipper to not have to expose rookies like Chase DeLauter and George Valera to a hurler of that caliber, at least early in the season. And for a historical comparison, remember that Jim Thome wasn’t in the lineup for the first game at Jacobs Field because Hall of Famer Randy Johnson was pitching for Seattle.

Now, Vogt can play Hoskins at first, DH Manzardo, and use David Fry in rightfield vs. a tough lefty, assuming Fry’s elbow has fully recovered. Of course, he could also use Fry behind the plate as well.

The move also probably means it will be very difficult for CJ Kayfus to make the opening day roster. We would rank him behind DeLauter and Valera as a hitter anyway at least right now. Besides, good teams need depth in the high minors. We are sure Kayfus will be in Cleveland at some point this summer.

We still wouldn’t mind adding another right-handed bat to this lineup, but getting Hoskins is no doubt a good move and is insurance in case one of the young guys show they aren’t ready to produce when the season begins.

Hard to find any reason to disagree with the move.

Being Consistent Is So Important In Pro Sports, Especially Baseball

The thing about professional sports (or all sports for that matter) is they are all about consistency. The best players do it almost every game. Think about it, at the professional level, the players are the best in that sport. That means all of them are capable on a certain day or night.

Unfortunately, in today world of social media, people glom onto these players who are sporadic and show flashes of brilliance. But those guys aren’t great players.

In northeast Ohio, we have several players who fit that description. For the Guardians, the player who stands out most is Gabriel Arias.

Arias has skills. He has a tremendous throwing arm and has hit some mammoth home runs. But when you look at the whole, it isn’t pretty. He has an OPS well below the league average at 638 in 2025. He struck out 162 times last season, walking just 27.

Last season, we kept track of games where Guardians’ players did not get a hit, walk, sacrifice (fly or bunt) or got hit by a pitch. Meaning, they did nothing to contribute to the offense. Arias led the team in that category, followed closely by Angel Martinez and Daniel Schneemann.

If you visit this site, you know how important we think walking is to an offense. Why? Because it’s contributing to the offense and it’s not making an out. In today’s baseball world of exit velocity and launch angle, being patient takes a back seat for a lot of people who analyze the sport.

Looking at the MLB leaders in walks, there isn’t a bad hitter in that list. It is populated by players like Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Rafael Devers. We think at times people forget that half of OPS is on base percentage.

One of the reasons the Guardians’ offense struggled in 2025 was because they ranked last in the American League in getting on base. The list of players who couldn’t reach base 30% of their plate appearances seems endless.

Besides the trio mentioned before, you can add Brayan Rocchio, Nolan Jones, and any catcher the Guardians employ. And the 30% threshold isn’t overwhelming either. If a hitter goes 2 for 9 with a walk, they will accomplish that.

And with the ridiculous velocity and spin rates being used by today’s pitchers, we think it makes sense to make hurlers show they can get in the strike zone. If you watch games, think about how many times a batter could literally go to home plate without a bat and draw a walk?

But we digress.

Players in all sports need to be judged on what they do on an everyday basis, not picking out individual game highlights and hoping they can do that every day.

We are privileged in this area to watch a future Hall of Famer, Jose Ramirez, on a daily basis. And when Ramirez has a slump, let’s say he goes hitless in three straight games, it is shocking. Why? Because generally, he does something good with a bat in his hand in most contests.

That’s the mark of a good professional athlete. We are surprised when they don’t do something rather than being shocked when they do.

How Do Guardians Make Room For Young Players?

The Cleveland Guardians had one of the worst offenses in team history this season and fixing it should be the primary goal of the front office this winter.

There is hope on the horizon in rookies Chase DeLauter, George Valera, Juan Brito and perhaps Travis Bazzana, but depending on players who have very few, if any, big league at bats is foolhardy. Team president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff have to find a proven hitter, preferably a right-handed one, as the players listed hit from the left side except for Brito, a switch-hitter.

However, if those players are going to be contributors next season, obviously some of the players currently on the roster will not be back.

With Brito and Bazzana on the horizon, once again there is a logjam in the middle infield. What we would do is move Brayan Rocchio back to shortstop and end the Gabriel Arias experiment.

During broadcasts, several times there were mentions of a “breakout” year for Arias, who will be 26 next season, but frankly, we don’t see it. His OPS in 2024 was 608 and in 2025, it was 638, still well below the league average (719).

His strikeout percentage increased to 34.1% (to be fair, his walk rate also increased), but the much advertised “pop” still hasn’t shown, his slugging percentage was just .363. We don’t think he will ever provide average offense. And he’s now had over 1000 plate appearances in the big leagues.

With DeLauter and Valera seemingly ready in 2026, the outfield has to get weeded out. Lane Thomas is a free agent, and we’ve seen reports the Guardians could be interested, but unless you are bringing him in as a platoon player, we would pass.

We also aren’t interested in bringing Nolan Jones or Jhonkensy Noel back. Jones is now two years removed from his 20 home run season in 2023. He’s hit just eight since. And the team touted his hard-hit percentage, but the results just aren’t there.

The more big-league pitchers see Noel, the worse the results are. Noel simply has no feel for the strike zone, evidenced by his unreal 52:4 K/BB ratio. Heck, Valera was on the roster for a month and walked more. The big man has a sluggers’ chance, we remember the playoff HR against New York, but he’s just not a good hitter.

We would like to see more of Johnathan Rodriguez, but not in rightfield unless he can drastically improve defensively.

And then we have Austin Hedges. We know how the organization values him for his leadership and his handling of pitchers. We also find it difficult to believe there isn’t another player who can do those things and not be one of the worst hitters we have ever seen.

David Fry should be able to catch next year, but he’s more of a utility guy, someone who can hit right-handed, play corner spots and can catch in a pinch. If Steven Vogt is going to play the platoon game, the Guardians need a better partner to pair with Bo Naylor.

We do think Angel Martinez has value, at least as a platoon player (very good vs. LHP) and he’s young enough to develop from the left side. He may be better suited in the Daniel Schneemann role, a multi-positional player.

Martinez needs to be more selective at the plate and as for Schneemann, he was not good after June 1st (.188 batting average).

We repeat, the organization can’t depend on the young guys if they consider themselves a contender, which they should with the results of the last two seasons and the relative youth of the club.

They need a Plan B, if something happens to those four young players. And really, their collective health in the past two years alone should provide enough evidence to do just that.

Much Like The Entire Month, The Post-Season Clincher Was Unreal.

Somehow, it was fitting that the Cleveland Guardians clinched a playoff spot last night on a hit batsman with the bases loaded.

When C.J. Kayfus got hit with a Robert Garcia pitch, the party was on, but probably somewhat muted because a win tomorrow means Steven Vogt’s crew will open the Wild Card Series at home on Tuesday.

The post-season clinching game was kind of a microcosm of the entire year. Vogt put Johnathan Rodriguez in the cleanup spot in the lineup, replacing David Fry. We said on social media that it was an odd choice, seeing the Rodriguez was only called up because of the Fry injury, and he had only amassed 70 plate appearances with the big club all year.

But there he was in the bottom of the first, hitting a two-run homer to give Cleveland the lead. And then, Rodriguez started the winning rally, drawing a two out walk.

Kyle Manzardo, who didn’t play against left-handed pitching most of the year, then blooped one into left field against the southpaw Garcia, sending pinch-runner Petey Halpin to third.

Texas intentionally walked Gabriel Arias, kind of an odd move with Arias’ swing and miss tendencies, to load the bases.

By the way, it was also the first time Garcia hit a batter the entire season.

Joey Cantillo, who started the season in the bullpen, and had two stints in the minor leagues during the season, was the starting pitcher in the game. He also was the starter on September 3rd, an 8-1 win over the Red Sox that started this stretch.

And of course, the bullpen played a big role with Hunter Gaddis getting four outs and Cade Smith getting five. They were the anchors of the relief corps most of the season, and the skipper leaned on them heavily.

Of course. There was something unexpected about the entire run the Guardians went on after losing their first two games in September. Winning 19 of 24 games is incredible in itself, especially when the Guards were pretty much a .500 team heading into that stretch.

Make no mistake, the run was accomplished with incredible pitching. Cleveland has allowed just 67 runs in the month, their previous low in a month in 2025 was the 101 allowed in June. That’s an unbelievable turnaround.

They won seven games where they scored three runs of less during the streak. That’s insane.

They got huge hits during the run from Kayfus, whose 2-run homer turned a 2-1 Kansas City lead into a 3-2 Cleveland win on September 11th.

Another rookie, George Valera, belted a big homer last Wednesday to get the Guards going in a 5-1 win. And Jhonkensy Noel, hitting .152 on the season, homered off Tarik Skubal, on September 18th.

And of course, Rodriguez last night.

They can finish the job today with a win that would give the team their second consecutive division title and their 14th since the three division set up which started in 1994, and their 15th post-season spot in the same time frame.

To be honest, we have no idea how this happened considering the offense is still among the worst in the majors, but who cares. It’s fun just enjoying the winning.

The off-season seems to go quicker when the Guardians are in the playoffs.

Re-Examining The Middle Infielders Of The Recent Past

Over the past few seasons, the Cleveland Guardians’ organization has been accused of collecting middle infielders. Several of these players have dotted the teams’ Top 10 Prospects lists since the 2020 season.

We are using Baseball America‘s lists and focusing on the SS and 2B positions.

Starting with 2020, here are the middle infielders ranked in the organization’s Top 10:

2020: Tyler Freeman (2nd), Brayan Rocchio (5th), Aaron Brocho (9th), Gabriel Rodriguez (10th)
2021: Andres Gimenez (3rd), Freeman (4th), Gabriel Arias (7th), Rocchio (8th)
2022: Freeman (1st), Rocchio (3rd), Arias (5th), Angel Martinez (10th)
2023: Rocchio (5th), Martinez (8th)
2024: Rocchio (2nd), Juan Brito (5th), Martinez (6th)
2025: Travis Bazzana (1st), Angel Genao (2nd), Welbyn Francisca (7th), Brito (10th)

We aren’t going to talk about the last group here because Bazzana and Genao been hurt much of this season and are still at the AAA level, while Francisca is only at the low-Class A level.

As for Brocho and Rodriguez, they haven’t played in the major leagues, so for purposes of this discussion, we are overlooking them.

We also looked at the offensive production of the players at the AAA/AA levels only. We feel that’s fair because top prospects have a tendency to dominate the lower levels at times and can skew the total minor league stats.

One more thing, the renowned Bill James said if you have an on base percentage of .350 and a slugging percentage of .450 you are a good offensive player. That’s where the magic 800 OPS came from. We are using that as the line of demarcation as to what makes a good offensive player.

If you are over one of those figures, that’s still a good thing, it demonstrates you can contribute to a major league lineup.

For what it’s worth, the league average OPS is around 700.

Using those numbers, the best offensive players among these prospects are Juan Brito and Tyler Freeman.

Brito has an 809 OPS in AAA coupled with an 817 OPS in AA. He gets on base regularly (.366 and .373 respectively) and his slugging percentage is very close to the .450 mark. He’s fought injuries this season, but the front office was not wrong in trading for him from Colorado.

Brito is more of a second baseman, and has already been moved around because if Bazzana gets to the bigs, 2B is likely his spot.

Freeman is also a big on base guy, putting together a .398 OBP in AAA and .372 in AA. He did slug .470 at the AA level but was at .399 in AAA to accumulate a 797 OPS at the highest rung in the minor leagues.

The only other player to have a number over the .350/.450 threshold is Rocchio who got on base at a .352 clip in both AAA and AA.

The Guardians seem enamored with the “pop” of Arias, but his slugging percentage at AAA was only .456. While that’s good, it’s not off the charts, especially when you remember the pitching at the big-league level is better than that of AAA.

Martinez hasn’t shown numbers above the .350/.450 plateau in the minors, although he did get close to both in AAA.

One thing we did notice was Ernie Clement’s AAA numbers. He went .362/.490/852 at that level.

To be fair, Jose Ramirez did not have great numbers at these levels either. At AAA, he had a .358 on base average and slugged .427. We do know his power developed later.

We do continue to question how important on base percentage is for this organization. Remember, Yandy Diaz had a .361 OBP with Cleveland, and he was dealt away pretty quickly.

Also, let us remind you the game is measured by outs. You get 27 of them, and if you get on base, you aren’t making an out.

Guardians At A Crossroads?

We have been thinking most of this baseball season that the Cleveland Guardians’ success was being done with smoke and mirrors.

Lately, we have been wondering if the mirror has a crack in it.

Yes, if the season ended today (it doesn’t), the Guardians would make the post-season via the wild card, but let’s see where they are after this 10-game stretch where they are on the road against the red-hot Twins and Tigers and then come home to take on the best team money can buy in the Dodgers.

What can Steven Vogt hang his hat on right now? The offense ranks 9th in the American League in runs scored, and in the last eight games, they have scored more than two runs just three times.

Right now, the batting order has four hitters producing: Steven Kwan, Jose Ramirez, Kyle Manzardo, and the surprise of the year to date, Daniel Schneemann. The league OPS is 702 and just two other batters, Angel Martinez and Gabriel Arias are around that figure.

Lane Thomas should be back soon, but while he’s really good against southpaws, whether he can help the Guardians against right-handers is a question.

Nolan Jones, the idol of the exit velocity crowd is still hitting just .181 with a 579 OPS. Will Brennan was given another shot and so far is 0 for 9.

Carlos Santana was brought back, and you have to wonder if he’s going to produce. He is now 39 after all. He’s still walking, leading the team with 23 free passes, but has just seven extra base hits on the year. His slugging percentage is just .320.

When David Fry is ready to return, and he can DH only this season, the front office will be forced to make a tough decision on Santana. Manzardo has to play and platooning him with Fry still doesn’t address the lack of production from Santana’s spot.

Cleveland thought they had shortstop solved after Brayan Rocchio’s breakout in the post-season, but it did not come to fruition. Arias has done okay, but the pop so many people envisioned hasn’t arrived. He’s slugging .393. He is drawing more walks, but his on base percentage is just .313.

The pitching staff, normally the cornerstone of the team, is also ninth in ERA and it’s a daily challenge to have a starting pitcher finish six innings. Here is the average length of a start for the Guards’ rotation–

Tanner Bibee 5.67
Luis Ortiz 5.37
Logan Allen 5.17 (prior to last night)
Ben Lively 4.96
Gavin Williams 4.67

No question this has taken a toll on the bullpen, which understandably isn’t performing as well as they did a year ago.

Cade Smith hasn’t been the fireman he was a year ago. Tim Herrin has allowed 10 walks and three homers, two things relievers cannot do, in 16 innings. Vogt has tried using Joey Cantillo out of the ‘pen, and he has had some success, but he’s also issued 12 free passes and four long balls in 22 innings.

And Jakob Junis has appeared in seven games this month and allowed runs in five of them.

The real problem is what is the alternative? C.J. Kayfus has hit well in the minors this year at both Akron and Columbus, but also has less than 400 plate appearances above Class A.

As for the rotation, with Lively down, we will see what Slade Cecconi, acquired from Arizona for Josh Naylor, can do. In the bullpen, it might be a matter of time before we see Andrew Walters, Nic Enright, or Franco Aleman.

We were surprised by the lack of activity by the Guardians after they got to the ALCS last season. It might be coming back to haunt them over the next week.

A Different Opening Trip For Guardians Compared To 2024

It’s Opening Day in Cleveland and that’s a certain sign of spring, despite today’s weather forecast. However, the Guardians aren’t coming home with momentum like they did last season in manager Steven Vogt’s first season.

Because of the renovations to Progressive Field, the Guards spent the first nine contests on the road in 2024 and starting hot, arriving in town with a 7-2 record, in route to a 19-10 mark at the end of April.

This season hasn’t been the same. Cleveland won the season opening series at Kansas City, taking two of three, but the west coast was not kind to the team, as they dropped five out of six in San Diego and Los Angeles against the Angels.

Until Luis Ortiz went six innings in the last game of the trip, no starting pitcher completed that many innings on the sojourn. All in all, Cleveland pitching has the second worst ERA in the American League at 5.09 and is tied for second in allowing the most home runs, giving up 14 gopher balls.

The defense has also been a concern, leading the AL in errors to date. Jose Ramirez has made four errors, mostly not coming up with ground balls. Cleveland pitchers have already allowed eight unearned runs, so the mistakes have been costly.

The baserunning hasn’t been crisp either. The Guardians picked up their first stolen bases of the season on Sunday, their ninth game. They’ve been caught four times. And we’ve seen Gabriel Arias thrown out at third in San Diego with men on first and second and no one out, and Brayan Rocchio allowing himself to get tagged out on a double steal attempt with Steven Kwan at the plate.

The latter also should be filed in the curious managing file.

These kinds of mistakes make us wonder if training camp was a little less focused this season coming off winning the AL Central last year.

Offensively, the Guardians are ninth in runs scored, but averaging only 3.78 per game. To be fair, the league average of 4.37 is bloated by the Yankees and Red Sox’ figures, but outside of Kyle Manzardo, no relatively young player has stepped up.

Against the Royals, Guardians’ hitters fanned 18 times and drew 16 walks. In the last six games, Cleveland hitters have struck out 59 times with the same number of bases on balls in twice the amount of games.

Rightfield continues to be a problem as Nolan Jones and Jhonkensy Noel have combined to go 4 for 38 with 13 punchouts and just three walks and only two RBI, both coming on outs.

Lane Thomas has also struggled at the dish, getting off to a 5 for 29 start that includes just one extra base hit. The bench group of Daniel Schneemann, Johnathan Rodriguez, and Austin Hedges have combined to go 2 for 22 in the young season.

Having young players in part-time roles in tough on them, as it is hard to produce with sporadic at bats. That’s an excuse for Rodriguez. It is more than likely that Schneemann will be a utility guy for his career, so he needs to hit when he’s in the lineup.

Look, it is still early. In fact, it is very early. Our concern is we aren’t seeing the crisp baseball we saw a year ago. And we haven’t even talked about how the bullpen has struggled so far.

Guardians Make A Weird Deal

The Cleveland Guardians had an inordinate number of versatile players on the roster and thinned that herd by one over the weekend when they traded Tyler Freeman to Colorado for Nolan Jones.

If you are a regular reader of this site, you know we have advocated for Freeman many times because of his minor league pedigree. However, it hasn’t translated to success in the majors. In 560 big league at bats, he batted just .223 with a 632 OPS.

Jones was with the Guardians in 2022 and was Cleveland’s second round draft pick in 2016. When he was called up in July of ’22, he was impressive, batting .286 with an 857 OPS in 18 games. He was patient, drawing eight walks to go with 17 strikeouts and had six extra base hits.

In August, it was a different story. Jones went 5 for 30 with 14 punchouts and didn’t draw a walk. He was traded to the Rockies for Juan Brito, who had a shot at the second base job this spring training.

Apparently, this convinced the Guardians’ front office he wasn’t capable of holding down a starting job.

Jones had an excellent season in 2023 for the Rockies, hitting 20 homers and stealing 20 bases with a 931 OPS. He did strikeout a lot, almost at a 30% rate and had a .389 on base percentage. But his home and road splits, always a factor for a hitter in Colorado, were pretty much the same.

Last year, he battled knee and back injuries, and his numbers fell off greatly with just a 641 OPS and 91 whiffs in 297 plate appearances.

So, the question is, which player are the Guardians getting? If spring training is any indication (and it usually isn’t), it’s the latter. Jones is 11 for 47 with no homers and 14 strikeouts in exhibition play to date.

But the trade also makes us wonder what the Guardians’ philosophy is in terms of hitting. For many years, they looked for players who made contact figuring they could teach them how to drive the ball. The biggest success stories in this regard are Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez.

However, they appear to be embracing two players in Jones and Gabriel Arias who have power, but also a lot of swing and miss in their games. We can add Jhonkensy Noel in that group as well.

We had someone comment to you that a platoon of Jones and Noel in rightfield could result in over 200 strikeouts. And for those who will say we are anti-strikeout, we say we can live with them if there are walks and production to go with it.

Jim Thome struck out a lot, the second most all-time, but he hit over 600 homers and had a career .402 on base percentage. We know he’s a Hall of Famer and that his number are extreme. Travis Hafner was another hitter who fanned a bunch but was a very productive hitter.

Another thing that troubles us about Jones is the back issues. He’s only 27-years-old and a back problem at that age is a bit of a red flag.

It is also interesting that the Guardians are looking for a power bat, particularly from the left side. It seems to us they had one and traded Josh Naylor because they didn’t want to pay him this season.

Jones does have a cannon for an arm, so the defense in probably better with him in that spot.

Hopefully, Nolan Jones returns to his 2023 form, a solid power and speed combination. If the ’24 version is the true Jones, then they are still waiting for a decent option in RF.

Four Guys Who Need To Show For Guardians

Spring training numbers don’t matter if you are Jose Ramirez or Steven Kwan, or even someone like Lane Thomas, whose spot on the roster is assured.

But when you are trying to establish yourself as a Major League player, you probably need to put up some numbers to get big league at-bats when the season kicks off next week.

The Guardians have several players who are in that boat, they haven’t really proven anything at the big-league level, and some of those guys are struggling in Arizona.

Other guys have done well in exhibition play, but how they have performed thus far in the majors have a casting a jaundiced eye.

We have really like Tyler Freeman since he made his major league debut. His minor league pedigree says he should be a solid bat. His AAA numbers are .399/.403/802. Overall in the minors he has a .384 on base percentage.

But he’s had 637 plate appearances with Cleveland and has a .223 batting average with a .304 on base and 632 OPS. He’s been solid this spring going 10 for 32 with two homers and four walks.

How much does the brass trust him?

Then you have someone the front office is giving one last shot to, Gabriel Arias, who is out of options. Arias’ minor league numbers aren’t as impressive as Freeman’s (.337/.456/793 at AAA), but he has the metric the new age folks love–exit velocity. He hits the ball hard. When he hits it.

And that is Arias’ problem. His strikeout rate is 32.3%. The league average is 22.6%.

He hasn’t been strong in the spring training games either, going 8 for 35 with nine whiffs and a 707 OPS. However, most people feel he will open the season at second base.

Will Brennan is another player that needs to start showing something. Brennan came up during the stretch drive in 2022 going 15 for 42 with a HR. That followed a minor league season in which he hit .314 with an 850 OPS. That got people excited.

In the two years since, he’s had over 800 big league at-bats and put up numbers of .308/.377/685. That’s a below average OPS. He’s been solid during the spring, going 9 for 34 with a couple of homers and an 806 OPS.

What would we like to see from Brennan? More patience. He seems to swing at the first pitch a lot and if you don’t have a lot of pop you need to be able to draw walks. Singles’ hitters who don’t walk are very replaceable.

Bo Naylor doesn’t have to worry about making the team, he’ll be the primary catcher, but it remains to be seen what kind of hitter he will be in the bigs. In the second half of ’23, Naylor hit .252 with 10 home runs and an 893 OPS.

His strikeout to walk ratio was 35:25.

Last season, he hit .201 and that ratio was 122:29. Which hitter is he going to be? This spring he has gone 8 for 37 and has drawn three walks with seven punchouts.

For a team that seems to have offensive questions, it would be great if Naylor is a viable hitter. And it would be great for Naylor because 2023 draftee Cooper Ingle will start the year at Akron and is showing signs he can swing the bat.

These guys are on the spot both now and for the first month or two of the season. Can any of them emerge for the Guardians