Spring Training Nears And Guardians Offense Is Still Subpar

As of today, spring training opens for the Cleveland Guardians in one month. The regular season is about nine weeks away. Yes, snow covers the ground in northeast Ohio, but in a few weeks, baseball will be in the news.

Actually, it is in the news for some franchises, as those teams have made moves to try to improve weaknesses from last season. Other franchises are making news by pushing the sport toward a work stoppage after the 2026 season. Yes, we are talking about you, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After the season, Steven Vogt talked about improving the bullpen and the offense. The front office has signed some bullpen arms, the most notable being Shawn Armstrong, but it looks like basically they are trying solve that issue with quantity, signing Colin Holderman, Connor Brogdon, and most recently Yorman Gomez.

We don’t necessarily disagree with that because bullpens are arguably the most volatile part of any team, and it is quite possible that by the end of the season, one of the mainstays of the Cleveland bullpen will be someone who isn’t on the radar right now.

But perhaps the bullpen won’t matter because the Guardians had the worst offense in the American League last season, and third worst in all of Major League Baseball, and simply haven’t done anything about it.

Yes, team president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff will tell you they are trying to provide a runway for the Guards’ top prospects, meaning Chase DeLauter, George Valera, and Travis Bazzana, and to a lesser point, C.J. Kayfus and Juan Brito.

And we will offer the usual opinion we have about this organization at times: Wishing and hoping is not a plan. It’s a great song by Dusty Springfield.

If the Guardians were a 90-loss team, going with the young players and giving them a long leash to see what they can do, should be the plan. But that’s not where they are, they are the two-time defending champions in the AL Central, and the goal, the plan, should be how do we go from being ousted in the League Championship Series in ’24 and in the Wild Card Series in ’25 to get to the World Series.

A particular area where the Guardians need help is right-handed hitting. As a team, they had a 647 OPS vs. left-handed pitching and their hitters from the right side against righties batted just .186 with a 545 OPS.

In short, they need a right-handed bat.

All of the young players mentioned earlier hit from the left side outside of Brito, who is a switch-hitter. The Guardians need someone to hit from the right side of the plate.

And what happens if DeLauter or Valera struggle when the season opens, if they even open the regular season with the team? The Guardians are notoriously conservative having young players open the year with the big club, choosing to keep them out of the cold weather.

So, as of right now, get ready to see the same group who struggled to score runs last season getting a lot of at bats.

Remember, the Guardians finished 88-74 last year. Based on their run differential, they should have been 80-82. They had luck on their side.

The best right-handed hitter Cleveland had a year ago was Gabriel Arias. Think about that and think about should the front office be satisfied with that.

Adding Relief Arms – Good. Still No Bats? Bad

After the season ended, Cleveland Guardians’ skipper Steven Vogt spoke about how the team needed to reconstruct its bullpen for 2026. We are sure part of that is knowing Emmanuel Clase will never throw a pitch for the team again.

Also, in today’s game, you can never have enough bullpen arms, and frankly, the Guardians had available spots on their 40-man roster, so they weren’t losing productive players by adding to the relief corps.

So, the additions of Peyton Pallette, Colin Holderman, Connor Brogdon, and Shawn Armstrong are fine. Sometimes, there is strength in numbers. Armstrong is a veteran, and has the biggest track record.

He probably had a career year last season with Texas with a 2.31 ERA and 74 strikeouts in 74 innings, but he has a lifetime ERA of 3.82 and more Ks than innings pitched over an 11-year career that began with Cleveland in 2015.

But if one or two of the other newcomers and another prospect from the farm system emerges, Vogt should have solid options at his disposal for the 2026 season.

Holderman was someone we looked at in 2024 when the Guards were marching to the AL Central Division title when he had a 3.16 ERA and 56 punchouts in 51.1 innings for Pittsburgh, but he had a terrible year in ’25 with an ERA over 7.00.

If he’s healthy, he’s a solid candidate to bounce back.

Brogdon, who will be 31 next season, has struggled since the 2023 season. He can strike people out, but has been vulnerable to the gopher ball recently, giving up 11 in 47 innings with the Angels last season.

While the bullpen has added depth, the hitting still hasn’t been addressed. Spring training is still two months away, so the front office still has time, but some bats that could have been useful have either come off the market or the rumors are the Guardians aren’t in play.

President Chris Antonetti has said the organization doesn’t want to block the progress of the club’s top prospects, but if the Guardians have designs on winning the Central Division for a third straight year, that cannot be the only plan.

Remember, the Guards had the third worst offense in baseball last season and the absolute worst in the American League. They simply cannot depend on players like Chase DeLauter, George Valera, and C.J. Kayfus, players who combined have less than 200 major league at bats.

What if none of them turn out to be good players? Before you think we are crazy, check most teams’ list of Top 10 Prospects from 4-5 years ago. Probably about half of those players don’t ever turn out to be solid MLB players.

So, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that none of the trio winds up being an everyday player, and for the record, we really like DeLauter, whose problem has been health more than anything else.

That’s why as a contending team; the front office has to plan for the worst-case scenario. And that’s why they have to get at least two proven hitters, in our opinion.

We are sure there will be plenty of disagreement here, but we would look at Luis Arraez as an option although the defensive positioning could be an issue.

The 28-year-old left-handed hitter had a down year last season, but that might make him very affordable. And he’s just a year away from a .346 on base percentage, and his career mark is .363.

We just imagine having Steven Kwan and Arraez at the top of the lineup hitting in front of Jose Ramirez. That ain’t bad.

As we said, there are still six weeks before spring training starts so there is still time. But Guardians’ fans would still like to see some offensive improvement.

Understand Seeing Prospects, But Guards Need A Proven Stick

The Cleveland Guardians are usually very tightlipped when it comes to talking about making changes to their roster, so when in an interview Chris Antonetti talked about balancing giving the current inexperienced players on the roster a shot with going out and bringing veteran players in, let’s hope that is just front office speak.

In 2025, the Guards ranked 28th in all of Major League Baseball in runs scored, 29th in OPS, on base percentage and slugging percentage. It really is kind of a miracle they made the playoffs with that bad of an offense.

Cleveland has some prospects that are on the cusp of helping the big-league team. We saw many of them in September and in the Wild Card Series. We are talking about guys like Chase DeLauter, George Valera, C.J. Kayfus, and Juan Brito has had some solid years in AAA and deserves a look.

However, outside of Kayfus, availability has been a big problem for those guys, and as we always say, the job of the front office should be to have a backup plan. What happens if those young players get hurt or aren’t ready to handle big league pitching?

We know what the alternative is for that, and quite frankly, it’s not pretty. Do the Guardians really feel like they can contend giving extensive at bats to players like Jhonkensy Noel (480 OPS in ’25), Nolan Jones (600 last year), or Johnathan Rodriguez (career 586 OPS)?

Again, we remind you with those guys and we can add in Daniel Schneemann’s 636 OPS and Gabriel Arias’ 638 figure, Steven Vogt’s squad had one of the worst offenses in the game.

That’s why the front office needs to add someone with a track record of offensive production. If DeLauter and one of the other prospects wind up being solid bats as rookies, then you have added depth and also you have the ability to protect them when they are in tough stretches at the plate, which most rookies go through.

In particular, the Guards could use a right-handed hitter with some pop and at least two hitters who can get on base. Arias led the team in homers by a right-handed hitter in 2025 with 11. As a comparison, their chief division rivals, the Tigers had four players that exceeded that total.

Of the four young players listed previously, Brito is a switch-hitter and the other three hit from the left side. Even if they all emerge, the Guards need a solid right-handed hitter.

As for getting on base, Jose Ramirez (of course) had a .360 OBP last season and the next highest was Steven Kwan at .330. The only other hitters over .300 were Kyle Manzardo (.313) and Carlos Santana, who was released in late August and is 39 years old.

That’s a lot of hitters making a lot of outs.

And we would prefer the organization to not take flyers on hitters who have declined over the past few seasons with the hope they can have a renaissance. That rarely works either.

The farm system has some depth, move some prospects to get a hitter who was productive last year. That’s what is needed.

We know there are a lot of people out there who put blind faith in anyone who has ever had a decent month or two in the minor leagues. We still go with the axiom that prospects are suspects until proven otherwise.

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.

Guards Need Hitting And More Hitting This Off-Season

Well, it’s all over.

After a furious comeback, an MLB record for the Cleveland Guardians, coming back from a one-time 15.5 game deficit to win the American League Central Division title, the Guards lost two games to one in the Wild Card Series to their division rivals, the Detroit Tigers.

The season ends with another post-season appearance, but with the championship drought now at 78 years.

We are not celebrating because they failed. They didn’t even get as far as Steven Vogt’s crew did a year ago, when they got to the AL Championship Series. And you know what, the Vogt and his team aren’t celebrating either.

The Guardians should take satisfaction from the fact they did not lay down when faced with the huge deficit, something that other teams have done. And frankly it was something of a miracle for Cleveland to win the division because this was one of the worst offensive clubs in Major League Baseball, ranking 28th in runs scored and 29th in team OPS.

Cleveland batted .226 as a team the lowest in club history. The previous low for a full season was in 1968, a year the sport refers to as “The Year Of The Pitcher”. Baseball changed its rules, lowering the pitchers’ mound after that season.

The last time they had a team OPS this low was in 1991. The then Indians’ record that year was 57-105.

We have said it all season long. This club has three good hitters: The incredible Jose Ramirez, Steven Kwan, and Kyle Manzardo. Everyone else is frankly bad.

How bad was it? Well, the organization brought Chase DeLauter, who hasn’t had a big-league bat in his life, up to start the last two playoff games. And DeLauter wasn’t alone. In those games, the Guardians also played George Valera, who had 48 plate appearances and C.J. Kayfus, who had 138.

Remember, the Guardians traded one of their best hitters from a year ago because he was entering the last year of his contract. So, the organization did this to themselves.

As the organization enters the off-season, there simply has to be an emphasis on getting more hitting. Certainly, DeLauter, Valera, and Kayfus figure into the mix, but the Guardians should not put all their eggs into the “rookie” basket. And those four, along with another top prospect, Travis Bazzana, all hit from the left side.

They need a “professional” hitter, preferably right-handed to add depth to the lineup.

They also need to be truthful to themselves about some of the players on the roster. We heard several times on telecasts about the “breakout” year from Gabriel Arias. He batted .220, right in line with his .215 career mark, and although his OPS was a career high at 638, it is still way below league average.

Daniel Schneemann, at age 28, received the 7th most plate appearance on the roster. He had a very good month of May, but after June 1st, he hit just .188. Again, that’s over a four-month span.

Angel Martinez received the fourth most plate appearances on the team and his OPS was just 628. The problem was there weren’t any real alternatives and to be fair, Martinez was pretty good vs. lefties, with a 792 OPS.

More emphasis has to be put on getting on base. Cleveland ranked 29th in on base percentage in the major leagues. Only four players with more than 100 plate appearances got on base at even a 30% clip. Carlos Santana joining the Ramirez, Kwan, Manzardo trio.

Why do they need to be better offensively? On the top ten teams in the majors in runs scored, eight made the playoffs. Only the Diamondbacks and Mets didn’t get there, and both of those teams were in the mix in the last week of the regular season.

The Padres (18th) and the Guardians were the two teams making the post-season without having a good offense. Normally, the top run scorers get to play in October. The Guards can’t tempt fate in 2026.

Let’s hope ownership opens their wallets and the front office doesn’t rely solely on rookies to help.

The Times Should Be A-Changing For The Guardians

We talked about the Cleveland Guardians needing to do well heading into the stretch in the schedule that started this past weekend against the Texas Rangers. They had nine games against the Marlins, Braves, and Diamondbacks.

At the time, they were 61-56 and just six games behind the Tigers in the AL Central, and more importantly were just a half game behind New York for the last playoff spot in the American League.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t hold up their end of the bargain, going 3-6 in those series and then following that up by getting swept in a three-game set at Texas. Losing nine of twelve isn’t conducive to staying in a playoff chase.

So now, Steven Vogt’s crew is 12.5 behind Detroit and has fallen into third place in the Central behind the Royals, and they are now six games out in the wild card chase and behind Kansas City and the Rangers in the standings.

In a week, we will be in September and to us, they can’t be more than five games out at that point to be considered on the edge of the playoff hunt, so they are going to need to have an excellent homestand against the Rays and Mariners.

The offense had been feasting on some of the less accomplished pitching staffs in baseball, but that production ran out in the series against Atlanta and Arizona. All three National League teams on the schedule ranked near the bottom of the ERA standings, and the Guardians did put up 17 runs vs. Miami.

But the Braves held Cleveland bats to five runs in the trio of contests, and the Guardians only scored 10 runs vs. the D-Backs. Texas has the best ERA in the AL, so it shouldn’t be a surprise Steven Vogt’s crew tallied just three runs in Arlington.

We have been saying for some time now that this team only has three legitimate bats, and one of them, Steven Kwan, hasn’t been very good since the All-Star break, hitting just .231 with a .285 on base percentage.

It doesn’t take calculus to tell you if you only have three decent hitters out of nine and one of those guys isn’t hitting, a team is going to have trouble scoring runs.

If this team has any chance to pull off a winning streak, the organization shouldn’t be clinging to any hope the group currently on the roster is going to be able to put something together.

Doing that is grasping at straws looking at the best outcomes for some of these guys instead of looking at five months of numbers.

C.J. Kayfus has been solid since coming up to the majors and his 705 OPS, while not great, is better than anyone on the team not named Jose Ramirez, Kwan, or Kyle Manzardo. It’s a low bar, granted, it’s also 100 points higher than Nolan Jones.

We have seemingly heard about George Valera for years as a prospect, and he had a delayed start to the season because of injuries, but he’s hitting .278 with a 893 OPS at Columbus in 24 games, why not see what he can do?

The same is true with the bullpen, do we really need to see more of Matt Festa and Kolby Allard? Why not take a look at some arms at Columbus?

Isn’t doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result one of the definitions of insanity? That’s what is feels like for a supporter of the 2025 Cleveland Guardians.

Will Guards Be Active This Winter? History Says No

The hot stove league is under way in baseball and the Cleveland Guardians had to do some tweaking to the roster to prepare for the winter meetings, which will take place in two weeks.

The most notable moves were the trade of Eli Morgan to the Cubs and that the DFA’d former top prospect George Valera. Valera suffered a ruptured patella tendon near the end of the season and probably won’t be playing baseball until well into the 2025 season, and we were not surprised to see the Guardians sign him to a minor league contract yesterday.

The Morgan deal was a bit of a surprise, but the team did deal from strength. The relief corps is strong and will hopefully be getting Trevor Stephan back from elbow surgery.

And they added Franco Aleman (1.99 ERA in 22.2 innings at AAA) and Nic Enright (1.06 ERA and 31 Ks in 17 IP at Columbus) to the 40-man roster.

For Morgan, the Guardians dealt for a lottery ticket, a Class A outfielder with some pop in Alfonsin Rosario. The downside of Rosario is there is a lot of swing and miss, as he fanned 32% of his at bats at the low A level. He did hit 16 homers and is only 20 years old. But we aren’t as excited about the return as some of the prospect enjoyers.

What will the Guardians do this winter? Despite the crazy rumors on other sites, mostly figments of someone’s imagination (i.e. it would be a shock if the Guardians’ signed Max Scherzer as a free agent), based on past experience, it won’t be an active winter for the front office.

We still see a need to add an impact bat in the outfield, and the starting rotation is also short at least one starter, maybe two. Will the Guardians be willing to get involved in the free agent market? Unlikely, unless there are some bargains out there as spring training gets closer.

Should Cleveland increase their payroll? Of course, they rank in the bottom five of the sport with the Tigers, Reds, Pirates, and A’s. On the other hand, the Guardians and the Pirates rank as in the top five youngest teams in the game, and Detroit 7th youngest.

Cleveland is 20th in attendance this past season, right behind the Orioles, who spend $23 million more in payroll. And they outdraw the Royals by about a half million fans, and KC spends almost $30 million more.

But reality says something different, so we don’t expect any big deals.

However, we would still like to see the front office clean up the glut of middle infielders still on the 40-man roster. The keystone starters will likely be Andres Gimenez and Brayan Rocchio, but you still have Gabriel Arias, Tyler Freeman, Angel Martinez, and Juan Brito on the roster.

The Guards have used their versatility to make them useful, such as using Freeman and Martinez in the OF, and Brito started playing the outfield and first base at AAA this season.

Brito should be bidding for a big league gig this season, so you would think a couple of others need to be moved to make room for him.

And don’t forget the overall first pick in the ’24 draft, Travis Bazzana, will be involved in this mix sooner than later.

The winter meetings used to be exciting because of the wheeling and dealing, but it hasn’t been that way for years. In our opinion, that excitement is needed. It’s sad that some agents hold up the off-season process.

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.

Reviewing Cleveland’s Prospects From Five Years Ago

We believe that the basis for having a good organization in major league baseball is to have a very good player development program. Especially if you are a smaller market team.

Although we think every major league team could spend tons of money on players (after all, they are all millionaires or billionaires), many teams have a philosophy of not spending, a lot of them because the bang isn’t worth the buck.

For every Corey Seager or Marcus Semien from the newly crowned world champion Texas Rangers that works out, you have a Javier Baez or Jason Heyward.

However, in building a farm system, fans need to understand that the payoff rate for prospects is also not good.

We like to do this every winter, but let’s take a look at the Guardians’ farm system from 2018, five years ago. A system that ranked in the middle of the pack among major league teams, at #15.

Who has worked out, who hasn’t. Here is the list from Baseball America:

1). Francisco Mejia
2). Triston McKenzie
3). Bobby Bradley
4). Nolan Jones
5). Shane Bieber
6). Yu Chang
7). Willi Castro
8). Greg Allen
9). George Valera
10). Will Benson

In our books, there is one all-star type player from this list, and that’s Bieber, who won a Cy Young Award in the COVID shortened season of 2020. He’s 60-32 lifetime, made two all star appearances and thrown 200 innings twice. He has had injury issues in two of the last three seasons.

Although we think McKenzie is very good if he can stay healthy, and he was good in the second half of 2021 and in ’22 (11-11, 2.96 ERA), right now, there is concern over his elbow. But, if he can pitch, he’s a very good starting pitcher.

Mejia was the most highly regarded prospect, but we don’t think the organization felt he could be a full time catcher and traded him to San Diego for Brad Hand. In over 1000 big league at bats, he has a 678 OPS (.239/.284/.394). He never reached what was projected for him.

The book is still out on Jones and Benson, both of whom had very good seasons after being traded by Cleveland after the ’22 season. Jones had a 931 OPS for Colorado, but we worry about a strikeout rate that is over 30% in his time in the big leagues.

Benson had an 863 OPS with Cincinnati, but he fanned in 31.3% of his at bats. High strikeout rates don’t bode well for long term success in the majors.

Bradley, Chang, and Allen never found extended success in the majors, and although the latter two played in the bigs last season, neither are on 40 man rosters heading into the winter.

Castro was traded to Detroit, but had his best year with the Twins this season as kind of a super-utility player, playing six positions, and had a 750 OPS with 33 stolen bases.

What was funny to us was that we’ve been talking about Valera for so long. He had an 816 OPS between AA/AAA in 2022, but fell to 718 at Columbus last season, fighting a lot of injuries. He has pop and patience, but the batting average in his minor league career is just .242, but he gets on base 36.3% of the time.

So, out of the top ten, the successes are Bieber, McKenzie, Jones, Benson, and Castro, although the latter three should be re-evaluated at this time next year.

Valera is still a prospect, probably still top ten in the Cleveland system. The other four simply didn’t pan out.

Keep that in mind when you look at the list that will come out this winter.

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.