Improved Offense A Huge Development For The Guardians

Memorial Day has always been a time for Major League Baseball teams to self-evaluate. Back in the day, the holiday meant about one quarter of the season had passed. Today, since the regular season starts at the end of March, a third of the regular season has been played.

The Cleveland Guardians are on a hot streak right now, winning seven of their last eight and 10 of their last 12 contests, sitting at 31-23. That puts them on a pace to win over 90 games and would seem likely to be playing some post-season baseball.

An improved offense has been a key component to their good start. After finishing in the bottom three in all of baseball in runs scored a year ago, they are 16th this season. A key factor in this improvement has to be patience.

We aren’t talking about the patience in developing players; we are discussing patience at the plate. Last season Cleveland hitters ranked 20th in drawing walks. This year, they are 3rd. They were 29th in on base percentage in 2025 and currently are 11th in the same category this season.

The improved offense plus a pitching staff that still ranks 7th in the majors in ERA equates to their 31-22 record, although a year ago at this time, the Guardians were at about the same place. They were 29-24.

We were skeptical about the Guardians’ success coming into the season because they did not really add a bat to the roster, outside of Rhys Hoskins, and depending on rookies to make big differences is always risky.

The current league average in OPS throughout MLB is 707. As of today, Steven Vogt’s squad have seven hitters over the league average. Last year? They had three, Jose Ramirez, Kyle Manzardo, and Steven Kwan.

Two of those three, Kwan and Manzardo, have gotten off to slow starts and currently sit below than number, although Manzardo is closing the gap.

The difference has been the rookies, Chase DeLauter stepped right into the lineup and because of his approach, very selective at the plate, he has been consistent. Right now, he has the over 800 OPS the best hitters have, over .350 on base and over .450 slugging.

Another rookie, Travis Bazzana, has also contributed nicely, getting on base at a ,391 clip.

Two other players who have been with the Guards the past couple seasons have also blossomed. We have long championed Brayan Rocchio as being the Cleveland shortstop of the future and he is showing that thus far.

Solid defensively as always, Rocchio has a .376 on base average and has mixed in 12 extra base hits, and sorry for the younger fans, also ranks second on the team in RBIs with 27 behind only DeLauter.

The other is Angel Martinez, who is just a little more plate discipline away from being an all-star player. Martinez is slugging .476 and is third on the team in extra base hits behind Ramirez and DeLauter. And he seems to be learning more and more from Ramirez.

His strikeout to walk ratio needs improvement, as he has fanned 35 times and his six walks are the lowest figure on the team. He has stolen eight bases and takes the extra base often, like Ramirez. He is earning the right to be in the lineup most days in Vogt’s everyone plays rotation.

Getting men on base is the opposite of making outs. Keep doing it, and the Guardians’ offense will continue to pick up. If it continues, it could be a fun summer at Progressive Field.

Guardians’ Patience Will Likely Lead To Better Offense

We love walks. We love baseball players that take walks rather than swinging at bad pitches. And better yet, we like teams that draw bases on balls because they make pitchers work hard to get outs.

Over the last few years, the Cleveland Guardians are heeding our advice (not really, we aren’t that egotistic). In 2023, they ranked 13th in the American League in drawing walks, moved up one spot in ’24, and last season were 9th.

Entering play on Wednesday, Steven Vogt’s crew sits second in the junior circuit in getting on base via the walk. That’s a good thing. A real good thing.

People ask us from time to time why we like walks, after all it is not a reason people go to baseball games. But if a player walks, he’s not making an out and each team gets 27 outs in every nine inning baseball contest. Let us say that again. They aren’t making outs.

Last season, the Guardians had no one who walked more than they fanned. The closest were Jose Ramirez who walked 66 times with 74 strikeouts and Steven Kwan (55 walks, 60 Ks). Kwan did accomplish the feat in ’24 when he whiffed 51 times, drawing 53 walks.

So far this year, and we know there is a lot of season still to be played, Cleveland has four batters in this situation: Ramirez (31 BB, 28 Ks), Kwan (22 BB, 21 K), rookie Chase DeLauter (20 BB, 16 K) and another rookie, Travis Bazzana (12 BB, 8 K). In addition, Brayan Rocchio (14 BB/14 K) is even.

In addition, newcomer Rhys Hoskins who is hitting just .185, but has drawn 24 walks, making his on base percentage a very respectable .353.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t translated to runs yet because the Guards still rank 12th in the AL in that category. But perhaps we need to be patient with that.

Last season in MLB, of the top five teams in runs scored, three of them were in the top five in walks, and all of them with in the top half of the sport in drawing bases on balls. In 2024, the same was true, meaning three of the top five in scoring also were in the top five in walks, and only Baltimore wasn’t in the top half of baseball in walking.

In 2023, two of the highest scoring teams (Dodgers and Rangers) also ranked in the top five in walks, and again, four of the five were in the top half of MLB.

So, more often than not, if you draw a lot of walks, you will score a lot of runs.

Why haven’t the Guardians converted more of the walks into runs yet this year? Our theory is once they have runners in scoring position, they revert to their old impatient ways, swinging early in the count and often trying to hit pitches that aren’t strikes.

We get it. They are trying to do too much. They need to keep the same approach, get good pitches to hit, and as David Fry did the other night, take a bases loaded walk. It gets a run across and keeps the opposing pitcher in trouble.

Usually in sports, aggressiveness is rewarded. In baseball, sometimes patience is a good way to go. And we think it will pay off in the long run.

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.