CLEVELAND — In the corner of the home clubhouse sat a fresh-faced, long-haired wannabe rookie with zero days of major-league service time in front of a locker stall that housed a red jersey with his name and the No. 34.

For three years, Chase DeLauter has rated as one of the Guardians’ top prospects, but injuries have stalled his ascent to the big leagues. The story of his hitting prowess has become more legend than non-fiction.

With one, bold choice at a momentous time, that could change. The Guardians are strongly considering adding DeLauter to their AL Wild Card Series roster.

J.T. Maguire, the Guardians’ outfield coach, delivered a crash course to DeLauter on Monday afternoon, with a curriculum on the Cleveland outfield, on the green-padded wall, on where and how the grass meets the dirt track, on shadows and routes and footwork, jumps and angles, wind patterns and hitter tendencies, and third decks and sellout crowds.

No pressure, kid.

The Guardians and Detroit Tigers know each other intimately. They played 18 times last season. By the end of this Wild Card Series, they’ll have dueled eight or nine times in a span of a little more than two weeks. There are no secrets, no square inch of a scouting report that hasn’t been scoured.

But maybe the Guardians have a Chase, err, ace up their sleeve.

Rosters are officially due at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, and if the Guardians include DeLauter, he’ll make his long-awaited debut in the postseason. It wouldn’t be an unprecedented move. Five players have debuted in the playoffs in MLB’s modern era, per Baseball Reference: pitchers Shane McClanahan and Ryan Weathers and outfielder Alex Kirilloff following the shortened 2020 regular season; infielder Adalberto Mondesi during the Kansas City Royals’ march to a championship in 2015; and infielder Mark Kiger, who debuted for the Oakland Athletics in the 2006 ALCS, the only major-league action of his career.

The former first-round pick isn’t the only member of Cleveland’s taxi squad, though. Catcher Dom Nuñez also worked out with the Guardians on Monday afternoon at Progressive Field. That prompted one team source to jokingly ask why there weren’t the same number of questions being raised about Nuñez. That’s easy, though. The presence of an extra catcher is no surprise. Nuñez actually hung around the Guardians throughout their 2024 playoff run to help keep pitchers sharp and to serve as an insurance policy in case of an injury.

DeLauter is a different story.

He would have debuted by now. Heck, he might be hitting in the middle of Cleveland’s order by now. Instead, as has been the case for several years, injuries interfered with his development. He’s basically the patient in the board game Operation. Since the Guardians drafted him in 2022, he has had foot surgery, a hamstring strain, a sprained big toe, a fractured foot, core muscle surgery and a hamate bone excision.

But the guy can hit.



That’s why he’s in Cleveland on the doorstep of October despite not playing in an actual minor-league game since July 11. He has kept busy in Arizona in recent weeks since recovering from hamate surgery (and a subsequent cortisone shot), though live batting practice sessions on back fields in the desert are a bit different than timing up a big-league heater amid the suffocating pressure of the postseason.

Perhaps ignorance would be bliss for someone so new to the challenge.

The Guardians didn’t hatch this idea far in advance. DeLauter had to get healthy and the team had to mount a historic comeback to win the AL Central. They started mulling it over within the last few days.

DeLauter was headed to visit family for a mini-break before playing in the Arizona Fall League for a third straight year, a way to make up for lost at-bats. He flew to Columbus to retrieve his car, and the Guardians called and told him to stick around there to stay ready, just in case they clinched a playoff berth.

Well, they did, and now they might add a top prospect to a lineup desperate for a jolt.

DeLauter boasts a .302/.384/.504 slash line in 583 plate appearances in the minors. Entering the season, he was considered a Top 50 prospect by both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked DeLauter at No. 6 in Cleveland’s system at the start of the year and No. 90 on his Top 100 list, and that’s with Law noting, “I don’t like DeLauter’s swing — at all, really.” He did, however, note DeLauter has only thrived at the plate as a professional, and that the greater hurdle is his health, not his bat path.

During Monday’s workout, Maguire stood between the mound and second base and hit pop-ups toward the cloudless sky to DeLauter and a few teammates. A cluster of coaches watched from near home plate, and a line of front office members stood against the dugout railing. At one point, one executive asked a reporter to move to the side to clear his line of sight to the outfield. Moments later, DeLauter chased after a ball hit to the warning track. DeLauter wrapped up his workday with a round of batting practice.

Since it’s a three-game series and the Guardians have plenty of options who can cover multiple innings, DeLauter could replace another outfielder on the roster, or even a pitcher. The Guardians have an open 40-man roster spot, and they can add DeLauter because he was in the organization when the calendar flipped to September. He simply has to replace another roster candidate who is injured and has fulfilled the minimum stay on the injured list, such as Lane Thomas or Nolan Jones.

There were designs for DeLauter to earn a call-up this summer, and he gave it some thought.

“Any player who’s out in Columbus, if they have a hot streak or whatever, it’s hard not to think that way,” DeLauter said. “The more you try to force it out there, those at-bats start getting a lot more stressful and it’s not a fun way to play.”

The Guardians had him on a strict schedule at Triple-A Columbus so they could control his environment to protect him from injury. It didn’t work how they had hoped, as his wrist started barking in July. Once he underwent surgery, and then needed a cortisone shot, he didn’t think he’d find his way into another game in 2025.

He certainly never imagined he would get a call at the end of September to potentially contribute in the postseason.

“It’s a dream come true just to be here and be a part of the team,” he said, “and have a chance to play in some meaningful games.”

(Photo: Matt Kartozian / USA Today)