This season, Cleveland\u2019s rotation ranks 16th in the league with a 3.96 ERA. OK, whatever.<\/p>\n
Since May 1, Cleveland\u2019s rotation ranks seventh in the league with a 3.42 ERA. You have my attention.<\/p>\n
Since June 1, Cleveland\u2019s rotation ranks second in the league with a 3.19 ERA. Oh yeah, that\u2019s the stuff.<\/p>\n
The group has been trending in the right direction for nearly two months and has really clicked the last few weeks, a pivotal development to help bail out an offense that has scored more than four runs only once in June.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most encouraging sign? There\u2019s still room to grow for every member of the rotation. Tanner Bibee hasn\u2019t pitched as effectively as he has in previous years. Gavin Williams has overhauled his repertoire and plan of attack \u2014 a cutter might have been the missing piece to make his fastball and breaking balls work in harmony \u2014 and is still searching for more efficiency. Luis Ortiz is working at a ratio of three great efforts for every two clunkers, a proportion that needs improvement. Slade Cecconi is still getting accustomed to a new coaching group.<\/p>\n
The Guardians\u2019 path to the postseason lies in the rotation returning to its customary role as the team\u2019s backbone. The group seems to be well on its way to reattaining that role.<\/p>\n
Stock up: Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez\u2019s bid to lead the franchise in absolutely everything<\/strong><\/p>\n Last week, Ram\u00edrez became the fifth player in franchise history to collect 900 RBIs, joining Earl Averill, Jim Thome, Nap Lajoie and Hal Trosky. Three of those four played for Cleveland before duct tape was invented. Ram\u00edrez should have little trouble eventually claiming the top spot on the team\u2019s RBI leaderboard, held by Averill (1,084).<\/p>\n Ram\u00edrez sits 69 home runs shy of Thome\u2019s franchise record of 337. He sits behind only Tris Speaker (486) and Lajoie on the doubles leaderboard. Those two played for Cleveland before the corn dog was introduced.<\/p>\n Ram\u00edrez ranks eighth on the club\u2019s hits leaderboard, a mere 462 behind Lajoie. He ranks fifth in runs scored, 213 behind Averill. He needs 190 stolen bases to unseat Kenny Lofton as the franchise record-holder; that one might be out of reach, but the rest seem doable for Ram\u00edrez, who is under contract with Cleveland through the 2028 season.<\/p>\n Ram\u00edrez was the No. 9 prospect in the organization, according to MLB Pipeline, in 2013, the year he debuted shortly before turning 21. There was apparently no way evaluators could rank him ahead of Dorssys Paulino or Ronny Rodriguez or Mitch Brown. (He was nowhere to be found on their prospect list in 2012.)<\/p>\n Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez\u2019s excellence with the Guardians could be unparalleled. (Dennis Lee \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n Ram\u00edrez batted .325 in 2011 and .354 in 2012. There were always signs of, well, something. But this?<\/p>\n Imagine, right now, that Welbyn Francisca will one day lead the Guardians in just about every offensive category. Some of you are thinking, \u201cWho?\u201d Some of you are thinking, \u201cHuh?\u201d Some of you (Francisca\u2019s relatives) are thinking, \u201cDuh.\u201d<\/p>\n Francisca measures about 5 feet 8 and 148 pounds, a similar stature to a minor-league version of Ram\u00edrez. MLB Pipeline considers him Cleveland\u2019s No. 7 prospect. He turned 19 last month.<\/p>\n Will Francisca develop into a major leaguer? Will he be a productive major leaguer? Will he lead a charter member of the American League in a boatload of categories? It would have been the same line of thinking with Ram\u00edrez more than a decade ago. No one saw this coming.<\/p>\n Ram\u00edrez\u2019s ascent was remarkable in itself. His longevity and consistent excellence in Cleveland might one day be unparalleled.<\/p>\n Stock up: Chase DeLauter and C.J. Kayfus<\/strong><\/p>\n Perhaps you\u2019ve heard of these two young lads. Perhaps you\u2019ve dreamed of them rescuing the Guardians\u2019 2025 lineup. Perhaps you\u2019ve pounded on the front door of the newly renovated offices at 2401 Ontario Street while threatening Guardians officials that you refuse to eat another Sugardale hot dog until they promote one or both of the prospects.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time \u2014 for at least one of them. Choose your fighter. What they have left to prove at Triple A is rather immaterial.<\/p>\n The Guardians have, understandably, been cautious with the injury-prone DeLauter. They can continue with that approach at the major-league level, too. He hasn\u2019t yet played four straight games this year, and that\u2019s OK. He\u2019s too talented for Triple-A pitching, and the Guardians need his bat. He reached base 10 times in 21 plate appearances last week. His OPS was 1.300.<\/p>\n During spring training, Cleveland officials didn\u2019t hide that they expected DeLauter to break into the big leagues and play a meaningful role for the club this season. It\u2019s almost July. He has racked up 119 plate appearances since returning from the core muscle injury he suffered in the spring.<\/p>\n Kayfus, meanwhile, has done nothing but mash all season. He owns a .325\/.408\/.563 slash line this season, most of it spent at Triple A. The Guardians\u2019 hesitation, to this point, has been his defense. He\u2019s a first baseman by trade, but he\u2019s blocked there by Carlos Santana and Kyle Manzardo. So, he\u2019s been learning corner outfield in Columbus. Santana, at 39 and on a one-year deal, isn\u2019t a long-term solution, so corner outfield doesn\u2019t need to be Kayfus\u2019 permanent home. Regardless of his position, his bat seems ready for a big-league challenge.<\/p>\n Stock down: The No. 2 spot in the lineup<\/strong><\/p>\n Stephen Vogt has cycled through nine different options in the No. 2 spot in his lineup. Nothing has worked.<\/p>\n Cleveland\u2019s No. 2 hitters have combined for a .172\/.227\/.285 slash line. Their 41 wRC+ (indicating their output has been 59 percent below league average) ranks last in the majors.<\/p>\n The difference between their 30th-ranked OPS (.512) and the 28th-ranked OPS (.651) is greater than the difference between the 28th-ranked OPS and the 10th-ranked OPS (.787) by a team\u2019s No. 2 hitters.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a spot a team often assigns to one of its best hitters, if not the best. The league-average No. 2 hitter has posted a .754 OPS this season. In Cleveland, it has been a black hole. The answer might be to simply plug in Ram\u00edrez behind Steven Kwan.<\/p>\n Stock down: Platoons<\/strong><\/p>\n Ahead of Opening Day at the Oakland Coliseum in March 2024, Vogt revealed he loathes the word \u201cplatoon.\u201d His reasoning was he didn\u2019t like pigeonholing hitters into limited roles without granting them a chance to prove they deserve daily at-bats.<\/p>\n The Guardians, however, lead the league in platoon percentage \u2026 by a lot. They have had the platoon advantage in 77 percent of plate appearances this season. The Washington Nationals rank second, at 68.9 percent. \u201cAdvantage\u201d might be a strong word; the platoons haven\u2019t really panned out.<\/p>\n The Guardians faced almost exclusively right-handed starters for the first two months of the season, which they admitted did Jhonkensy Noel a disservice, as he received sporadic playing time. Lately, they\u2019ve faced a ton of lefties, which has carved into Manzardo\u2019s playing time. This is a lineup full of young players trying to stick in the majors, and inconsistencies in opportunities probably haven\u2019t helped.<\/p>\n Lane Thomas has struggled this season and is headed for free agency. (Ken Blaze \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n Stock (way) down: The value of Lane Thomas\u2019 next contract<\/strong><\/p>\n Thomas has struggled to stay on the field in 2025. When he has been healthy enough to play, he hasn\u2019t offered much. In 104 trips to the plate, he owns a .151\/.221\/.194 slash line. The season is three months old and Thomas has two extra-base hits.<\/p>\n In his best season, 2023, Thomas totaled 28 homers and 20 stolen bases. Last year, he swiped 32 bases.<\/p>\n Throughout his career, he\u2019s shown evidence of power and evidence of speed. In 2023, he exhibited all of it at once. This season, he\u2019s demonstrated none of it. And he\u2019s headed for free agency this winter.<\/p>\n Teams will pay a few full Brinks trucks\u2019 worth of cash to an outfielder with Thomas\u2019 blend of skills, but not without a reliable track record. In 2013, Shin-Soo Choo entered free agency at 31, on the heels of a 21-homer, 20-steal season with the Cincinnati Reds. He landed a seven-year, $130 million deal with the Texas Rangers.<\/p>\n Thomas was probably never looking at that hefty of a payday, but he\u2019s playing his way toward needing a one-year prove-it deal to re-establish his value. This season hasn\u2019t helped his nor the Guardians\u2019 cause.<\/p>\n (Top photo of Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez: Scott Marshall \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND \u2014 The Guardians will reach the midpoint of their season this weekend. Time flies when you\u2019re watching…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1282,1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-11343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-cleveland-guardians","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114739630701964531","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/USATSI_26511019-scaled.jpg\")
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