CLEVELAND — Straight to your questions (which have been lightly edited for clarity).
I know it’s hard to predict — we thought 2023 would be a huge year and when it wasn’t we thought 2024 would be a down year — but are the Guardians poised to make another run? It doesn’t seem like any AL Central team has made a huge splash. Please give me some optimism, Zack! — Alex A.
The glass-half-full take is, they stood atop the division all season despite an absolute horror show of a rotation. That unit is still full of question marks, but there’s far more upside. It’s hard to envision it not improving. The bullpen has enough depth to guard against inevitable regression. The offense is a different story. Even as a staunch believer in Steven Kwan repeating his All-Star form, in Kyle Manzardo crushing righties and in Juan Brito and Chase DeLauter eventually being above-average big-league hitters, I still have skepticism about the lineup as a whole. But in the AL Central, those ingredients make you a contender.
This will be 14 seasons in a row with a different starting right fielder in Cleveland on Opening Day. Is it more likely we get a repeat in the next two seasons or never again? — Tyler B.
As I wrote last week, it’s been 13-for-13 since 2012: Shin-Soo Choo, Drew Stubbs, David Murphy, Brandon Moss, Collin Cowgill, Abraham Almonte, Lonnie Chisenhall, Tyler Naquin, Domingo Santana, Josh Naylor, Steven Kwan, Will Brennan and Ramón Laureano.
Brennan could be the guy this year and he started the 2023 opener. But they haven’t had a right fielder start on Opening Day in consecutive years since Choo. If the Royals start lefty Cole Ragans on Opening Day, Jhonkensy Noel could make it 14 different names. There’s hope, though. DeLauter could offer some stability to the position. (Yes, we thought the same thing about Moss and Chisenhall and Naquin.) My bet would be DeLauter ends the streak by starting both in 2026 and 2027.
The front office has stockpiled starting pitching depth this offseason. Would you say they have very low expectations for Triston McKenzie and Logan Allen? — Alex K.
Every team tells itself it’s short on starting pitching. The Guardians entered last season banking on McKenzie and Shane Bieber and Gavin Williams and instead wound up leaning on Matthew Boyd and Alex Cobb and Ben Lively. Carlos Carrasco went from “heartwarming homecoming” to “holy mother of God, he ranks third on the team in innings.”
If McKenzie and/or Allen rebound, that’s a massive benefit for the Guardians. If they don’t, maybe Williams will. Maybe Bieber will offer a second-half jolt. Maybe Joey Cantillo or Slade Cecconi will emerge. Maybe Luis Ortiz will join Tanner Bibee as a frontline starter. “It’s better to have pitching depth and not need it than to not have it at all,” said a wise philosopher/and writer for The Athletic.
Who do you see as a possible surprise contributor in 2025? — Craig S.
This isn’t a huge leap, since he showed flashes last season in his first taste of the majors, but I’ll say Cantillo. If he doesn’t throw enough strikes, this answer will look foolish, but there are some intriguing tools. His elite extension (99th percentile) helps his 92-mph fastball play up, and his off-speed stuff, especially his changeup, all graded out well, which explains his healthy whiff and strikeout rates.
What is the plan for when David Fry comes back? With Manzardo and Carlos Santana dancing around first base/DH, will there be room for Fry? — Mike K.
Fry could return from elbow surgery in May or June, but he won’t play the field in 2025. Between him, Santana, Manzardo, Noel and the fact that Stephen Vogt is insistent on getting José Ramírez some DH days, it’s crowded. Fry, Santana and Noel all tend to fare better against lefties, so Vogt could deploy them at DH, first and right field, respectively. So, Manzardo might have until Fry returns to prove he doesn’t need a platoon partner.
Top five Guardians/Indians games this century? — Thomas K.
I’m favoring games that had some stakes, with all due respect to some long-forgotten, zany, back-and-forth bout from April 2004. (Otherwise, I would have included the May 2018 game in which Cleveland scored five in the ninth to tie the Astros, both teams scored in the 13th and then Greg Allen walked it off in the 14th.)
1. Game 7, 2016 World Series
2. Game 3, 2024 ALCS
3. The comeback vs. the Mariners on Aug. 5, 2001
4. Game 2, 2017 ALDS
5. Win No. 22 in a row, Sept. 14, 2017
Five honorable mentions:
• The Bug Game (Game 2, 2007 ALDS)
• The Jason Giambi Game, Sept. 24, 2013
• The 19-inning win in Toronto on Canada Day in 2016, Cleveland’s 14th consecutive win
• The 1-0 marathon win against the Rays in the wild-card round in 2022
• The 15-inning win against the Twins on Sept. 17, 2022, that all but sewed up the division
What player(s) do you anticipate filling the leadership and locker room roles of Josh Naylor and Andrés Giménez this year? — Connor C.
Don’t forget Boyd, who had an enormous influence in the clubhouse, even in a short period. I’ve heard rave reviews about Paul Sewald’s presence. Santana is an obvious answer to your question. Kwan and Ramírez, too. Bieber and Bibee on the pitching side. Austin Hedges was born for the role. There are plenty of candidates.
Two million fans, an ALCS appearance and a cut in payroll, it appears. Please explain. Thank you. — David C.
(Takes a deep breath)
Let’s start here: The entire league needs a reckoning. The way MLB operates, this is a miserable sport to discuss during the offseason in more than half of the league’s markets. We’re conditioned to talk market sizes and payrolls and TV partnerships instead of trades and free agents and prospects. We’ll have to wait until at least the next round of collective bargaining warfare to see if anything changes.
In Cleveland, the issue is some combination of revenue and risk-averse ownership, but we’ll never know exactly how much weight to assign each because we’ll never see the books, so we’re left holding the same, brain-rotting conversations winter after winter. The bottom line is, team values continue to rise. League revenues remain healthy. David Blitzer has his hand in a bunch of sports franchises and he jumped at the chance to eventually take over in Cleveland, so the financials can’t be too horrifying. (Even with the messy TV situation, of which some of the details on the new arrangement will be revealed in the next week or so.)
No rational person is suggesting the Guardians spend like the Dodgers or Mets. Spending doesn’t guarantee anything, though it does provide some margin for error, rather than require this front office to be perfect. But to get to the doorstep of the World Series, with fans engaged, and then complete an offseason in which the highlight is that they shed a bunch of future salary (which they guaranteed to those players in the first place) seems far riskier than taking some chances with trades or free agency to address roster deficiencies and get over the hump. (Also, they’re not the only AL Central team to have an underwhelming offseason after a surprisingly successful season.)
The Guardians set out to bolster their starting pitching depth, both in the minors and the majors, and they did that (and they’re still browsing, too). The lineup, though, needs help. They’re banking on DeLauter and Brito. They’re betting on Santana’s bid to outrun Father Time, on Bo Naylor breaking out and on Brayan Rocchio pretending it’s always October. That’s a lot of ifs, and this felt like the right spot on the timeline to get out of their comfort zone to alleviate some risk, especially when considering the countdown until majority ownership changes hands. Wouldn’t the Dolans, native Clevelanders, want to do everything in their power to cement their legacy as the group that ended the league’s longest title drought?
Thank goodness spring training is almost here.
What’s the over/under on the number of times Terry Francona goes to Cleveland camp instead of Reds camp? — Gil R.
The facilities are separated by less than half a mile on S. Wood Blvd in Goodyear, Ariz. It’ll likely take some time for Francona to reconfigure his muscle memory. Here’s a prediction: At some point, there will be pranks. Ten years ago, Francona and bench coach Brad Mills (who joined Francona’s Reds staff) engaged in water balloon warfare with Cleveland’s front office during spring training. Francona always has high jinks in mind, and Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff are not above participating.
Should we even be thinking of Daniel Espino anymore? Or does he still have a path to the major-league bullpen if he stays healthy? — A.J. D.
He hasn’t taken the mound in a game in 34 months, and that number will keep growing as he completes his recovery from his latest shoulder surgery. He’s only 24, and his stuff was so lethal before all of this, that even a shell of his former self would still be intriguing. It’s just impossible to know when he could return or how he’ll look when he does. But they’ve kept him on the 40-man roster this long and haven’t started his service time clock, so there’s always hope, even if faint.
What was the reasoning behind canceling Guardsfest? I don’t live in the Cleveland area so have never been able to attend, but it seemed like a great event to build fan support. The decision to cancel it was puzzling. — Charles S.
I heard rumblings about this last season, with reasoning ranging from cost to the headache of getting commitments from players to it taking a backseat to planning for renovations. I figured with the team scoring its best attendance figures in 16 years and reaching the ALCS, any excuse would be rendered moot. I understand the challenges with putting it together — this grants them a runway to map out how to make it better in the future — but I don’t understand the benefits of dismissing an obvious way to create buzz for the new season and preserve the vibes from a great 2024 campaign. That 6-year-old who gets to whack an underhand lob from Tim Herrin in late January will be a Tim Herrin fan forever. They’ll beg their parents to buy tickets to a game. It’s simple marketing. It’s exposure for a team that needs it. See you in 2027.
What’s the best non-Guardians Random Jersey Sighting that you’ve ever seen? — Steve H.
This bit actually started in 2012 when a friend and I spotted a St. Louis Rams Adam Archuleta jersey at a food festival in downtown Chicago. I’ll never forget the guy in a San Diego Padres Johnny Manziel jersey at a bar near Fenway Park in August 2017.
My favorite Cleveland sightings from 2024, by the way, are Ron Karkovice, Zach Sorensen, Michael Aubrey, Cord Phelps, Matt Ginter, Matt Joyce, Kevin Rhomberg, Aaron Fultz, Arthur Rhodes, Jerry Spradlin, Jim Brower and Billy Traber.
Every year, I think we’ve exhausted the supply of random jerseys, and every year, there are 30-40 new sightings that leave me in awe. God bless you sickos willing to fork over $75 to support some long-forgotten reliever who made six appearances for the team 20-some years ago.
(Photo of José Ramírez: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
