Active rosters expand from 26 to 28 today. Zack Meisel of The Athletic reports that the Guardians are calling up outfielders George Valera and Jhonkensy Noel as well as right-hander Zak Kent. Infielder Will Wilson is being optioned to open a third active roster spot. Valera wasn’t on the 40-man but the Guardians had vacancies there.
Valera, now 24, was once one of the top prospects in baseball. He crushed his way through the lower levels of the minors. He was eligible for the Rule 5 draft back in the 2021-22 offseason but the Guards made the easy decision to give him a 40-man spot and protect him.
More recently, some injuries and Triple-A struggles dropped his stock. Hamate surgery and a hamstring strain limited him to just 79 games in 2023. Another hamstring strain limited him at the start of 2024 and then that season was later ended by surgery to address a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee. As the recovery for that procedure was going to carry into 2025, the Guards decided to non-tender Valera. That opened a 40-man roster spot for the offseason, when there’s no injured list, but ran the risk of Valera signing elsewhere.
Thankfully, the Guards were able to get him back via a minor league deal for 2025 and he has seemingly gotten back on track at the plate somewhat. Over those injury-shortened 2023 and 2024 campaigns, he slashed .235/.343/.427 in the minors for a wRC+ of 99. Here in 2025, he has been able to appear in 28 Triple-A contests with a .255/.346/.457 line and 113 wRC+.
Though he spent two years on Cleveland’s 40-man, this is his first time getting called up to the show. He is in today’s lineup, batting seventh and serving as the designated hitter, and will make his major league debut in the process.
The Guards are hanging around the playoff race, currently just four games back of the final Wild Card spot, and will add Valera into the outfield mix alongside Noel, Steven Kwan, Daniel Schneemann, C.J. Kayfus, Nolan Jones and Ángel Martínez.
Going forward, Valera could spend more time in Triple-A next year if the Guards don’t have big league playing time for him. Given how much time he has missed due to injury, he would ideally get regular playing time somewhere. He spent three years on the 40-man and therefore burned three options but the Guards could apply for a fourth for 2026. A team is sometimes granted a fourth option for a player who has missed significant time due to injury.
Photo courtesy of Adam Cairns, Imagn Images.
Last line is incorrect. All three option years were burned in 2022-2024, and this current year is where the fourth option year applies (whether or not it’s fully used, it’s done after this year). He’ll be completely out of options after this year.
Correct. He would have been a minor league FA had CLE not called him up, so depending on whether they ultimately keep him up determines his fate. They can only DFA him going forward.
Doesn’t it always seem like the guardians are always in an out of options, rule 5, roster crunch? Its like they hold on to players who then wither on the vine. I wonder if there is any factual basis for that impression.
Nightmares of Andy Marte?
This has been the case with them for more years than I care to remember. Gabriel Arias is a case in point. He entered 2025 out of options, and had never hit at the ML level. He had a hot start but has since returned to normal. They’ll have to DFA him this winter, but they gave him every opportunity to succeed and it hasn’t paid off. This happens way too often with this organization.
Don’t forget the part where he’ll start hitting in another organization after he’s claimed
Good observation. Eric Longenhagen, prospect guru at Fangraphs, thinks we keep these guys too long. A lot of fans in Cleveland like me think so too.
Welcome to the show George! We’ve been expecting you. Let’s see what you can do.
I’m pretty certain both Noel and Valera were already granted that additional option year. They signed together in 2017. Noel was born July 15 so he was given an extra option as the absolute youngest player in his class and Valera due more because of his injuries. Noel used up his last option but Valera’s got tossed away when they chose not to retain him on the 40 this year.
And I’m surprised there’s no mention of Valera’s extreme splits. He’s very good vs lhp, avg over .850 ops vs rhp but had been 300 points below against lefties.
First one to hit his weight wins a starting job. So far plenty of openings