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Guardians Designate Ramon Laureano For Assignment

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The Guardians have designated outfielder Ramon Laureano for assignment, tweets Zack Meisel of The Athletic. In his place, the team is promoting outfield prospect Johnathan Rodriguez for his MLB debut. Rodriguez is already on the 40-man roster, so the move also frees up a 40-man spot for Cleveland. Guardians Prospective first reported that Rodriguez was getting the call to the big leagues.

Laureano, 29, came to the Guardians early last August after the A’s placed him on waivers in hopes of finding a taker for the remainder of last season’s salary. The Guardians obliged, hoping that Laureano would provide a boost down the stretch as they tried to keep pace in the American League Central. The veteran did provide a bit of offense, hitting .243/.342/.382 following the claim (106 wRC+), but the Guards wound up missing the postseason.

It was something of a surprise to see a budget-conscious team like Cleveland tender Laureano a contract this winter. He wound up agreeing to a $5.15MM salary, which amounted to a significant portion of the Guardians’ very limited offseason resources. The team made that commitment despite Laureano having turned in a bleak .224/.304/.371 slash (91 wRC+) on the season overall — and a .218/.296/.373 batting line in 2022-23 combined (93 wRC+).

The decision didn’t go at all as the Cleveland front office or the player himself hoped. Laureano’s strikeout rate has absolutely erupted to a career-worst 38.6% this season. He’s hitting just .143/.265/.229, albeit in a small sample of 83 plate appearances. Just four of his 10 hits have gone for extra bases (one homer, three doubles). The Guardians will have a week to try to trade Laureano, place him on outright waivers or release him.

Given the pronounced nature of Laureano’s struggles at the dish and his relatively notable salary, they won’t find a trade market for his services. Laureano is overwhelmingly unlikely to be claimed on waivers due to that salary and will thus likely clear and become a free agent. He has enough service time to retain all of his salary even if he rejects an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

Earlier in his career, Laureano was a quality regular in Oakland. From 2018-21, he turned in a sound .263/.335/.465 batting line (119 wRC+) with 49 homers and 34 steals over the life of 1257 plate appearances. That came while playing strong defense across all three outfield spots. Laureano was an oft-rumored trade candidate and might well have been part of Oakland’s fire sale, but an 80-game PED suspension midway through the 2021 season tanked his value. That proved all the more costly, as his suspension surely played a role in pushing the A’s to part with left-hander Jesus Luzardo to acquire Starling Marte from the Marlins in a rental deal while Oakland made a push for the postseason.

As for the 24-year-old Rodriguez, he’ll step into the Cleveland outfield for his MLB debut after hitting .276/.389/.449 in 185 Triple-A plate appearances this season. The 2017 third-rounder entered the season ranked 23rd among Guarda farmhands at Baseball America, 16th at MLB.com and 30th at FanGraphs.

The 6’0″, 225-pound Rodriguez draws praise for his plus raw power but also some skepticism for his penchant to chase and whiff. He’s walked in a huge 15.7% of his plate appearances in Triple-A Columbus but also fanned at a 25.4% clip. That’s a suboptimal mark against Triple-A pitching but also a marked improvement over 2023’s 32.4% strikeout rate in 202 Triple-A plate appearances. Rodriguez is a former switch-hitter who now bats exclusively from the right side of the plate. He popped 29 homers between Double-A and Triple-A last season, and he’s already slugged seven long balls on the season.

Strikeouts will likely continue to be a part of his game, but probably not to the extremes that Laureano experienced this season. Rodriguez will also add some legitimate thump to a Cleveland lineup that in recent years has been light on power but is turning a corner this season. Thanks in part to a big step forward from emerging star Josh Naylor, the Guards rank ninth in the majors with 51 big flies on the season. Rodriguez gives them another power bat. He won’t be nearly as strong a defender in the outfield corners as Laureano was, but MLB.com pegs him as a potentially average right fielder and Baseball America touts his plus throwing arm.

Guardians Notes: Kwan, DeLauter, Williams

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Guardians fans received a positive update today regarding the status of injured outfielder Steven Kwan. President of baseball operations Chris Antonetti told reporters (including Mandy Bell of MLB.com) this morning that the club is hoping that Kwan can begin a rehab assignment within the next seven to ten days. The 26-year-old was placed on the 10-day IL earlier this month due to what was described as an “acute” hamstring strain and was initially expected to miss around a month of action.

Now two weeks out from his initial diagnosis, it appears that Kwan remains on pace to meet that timeline. It’s an encouraging update, particularly given the fact that manager Steven Vogt indicated to reporters (per the Associated Press) on Friday that while Kwan had resumed baseball activities and was running “relatively pain-free,” there was still no clear timetable for his return to the majors. Today’s addendum provides a bit more clarity regarding the status of the third-year outfielder.

Cleveland figures to be particularly antsy for Kwan to return to action given the incredible start he was off to at the time of his injury. In 145 trips to the plate with the Guardians this season, Kwan has slashed an incredible .353/.407/.496 with three home runs, six doubles, and two triples. That home run total is particularly impressive given the fact that Kwan’s career high homer total is just six, a figure he achieved over the course of 638 plate appearances during his rookie season. Estevan Florial has handled left field in Kwan’s absence but is hitting a mediocre .189/.263/.400 in 32 games this season.

Kwan isn’t the only outfielder making progress in his recovery from injury, as Bell also notes that top outfield prospect Chase DeLauter has resumed baseball activities. The club’s first-round pick in the 2022 draft, DeLauter entered the 2024 season as a consensus top-30 prospect in the game but suffered a fractured fifth metatarsal in his left foot earlier this month. There was some initial concern at the time of the injury that surgery would be required, as it was when DeLauter previously suffered a fractured foot during the 2022-23 offseason.

Fortunately, that did not come to pass and it appears that DeLauter is already making excellent progress towards a return to action as Bell notes that he’s currently hitting on the field, though he hasn’t yet begun a running progression. DeLauter was off to a tough start at Double-A this year prior to this injury, having slashed just .197/.296/.295 in 16 games. Even so, it’s not hard to imagine the youngster taking off and reaching Triple-A before the end of the year in the event that he hits the ground running upon his return to action, a timeline that could potentially put him on the big league radar for 2025 or perhaps even a September call-up.

Also making progress towards a return is right-hander Gavin Williams, who according to MLB.com’s Injury Tracker threw a 50-pitch bullpen session on Wednesday and was scheduled to throw again on Friday. The 24-year-old has not yet pitched in the majors this season after opening the season on the 60-day IL due to discomfort in his right elbow, but appears to be making good progress in his rehab and could be an option for Cleveland sometime next month. Williams’s return would provide a major boost to the Guardians, who have seen both Logan Allen and Carlos Carrasco struggle during their time in the rotation this year. Williams, meanwhile, pitched to a sterling 3.29 ERA with a 4.09 FIP in sixteen starts for the club during his rookie season last year.

Dodgers Acquire Anthony Banda From Guardians

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The Guardians announced that they have traded left-hander Anthony Banda to the Dodgers in exchange for cash considerations. The southpaw was not on Cleveland’s 40-man and therefore won’t need to be added to the Dodgers’ roster.

Banda, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Guards in January. He has been pitching for their Triple-A club, throwing 17 innings over 12 appearances. He has a 2.12 earned run average in that time, striking out 37.9% of batters faced, giving out walks at a 9.1% rate and getting grounders on 67.9% of balls in play. It’s a small sample but it seems to have intrigued the Dodgers enough to put some cash on the barrel to get a deal done.

The lefty was once a notable starting pitching prospect but underwent Tommy John surgery in 2018, which wiped out the remainder of that season and most of the following year as well. Since that time, he’s spent more time as a reliever but has struggled to establish himself in that role.

He has bounced to the Mets, Pirates, Blue Jays, Yankees and Nationals since the start of 2021. That’s partly due to him burning his final option year in 2020 but also his struggles in recent seasons. He has thrown 67 1/3 big league innings over the past three years with a 5.48 ERA, 21.1% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate. He also threw 126 1/3 innings in the minors during the 2021-23 period with a 6.91 ERA, though that’s likely somewhat misleading. His 20.9% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate were both similar to his major league work, but his .345 batting average on balls in play and 51.7% strand rate were both on the unlucky side for that stretch.

The Dodgers will see if the recent improvement in his results can be continued. If it does, they can reap long-term benefits. Banda came into this year with three years and one day of major league service time. There’s not enough time left in this season for him to get to the four-year mark. That means he could potentially be retained for three seasons beyond this one.

First, he will have to get a spot on the Dodgers’ roster. They already have Alex Vesia, Ryan Yarbrough and Nick Ramirez as southpaws in their bullpen but Banda will give them some non-roster depth in that department.

Guardians Acquire Darren McCaughan From Marlins

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The Guardians announced today that they have acquired right-hander Darren McCaughan from the Marlins. The latter club, who designated the righty for assignment on the weekend, receive cash considerations in return. The Guards optioned McCaughan to Triple-A Columbus and transferred Gavin Williams to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot.

McCaughan, 28, spent his entire career with the Mariners until he was designated for assignment in February. He was traded to the Marlins for cash and was sent to Triple-A Jacksonville to start the year. He made five starts there with poor results, posting a 6.14 earned run average despite average-ish peripherals. He struck out 22.2% of batters faced with an 8.1% walk rate, but with a .338 batting average on balls in play and 52.8% strand rate.

The Marlins called him up to the big leagues last week. In Saturday’s game against Oakland, Trevor Rogers allowed eight earned runs in 2 1/3 innings. McCaughan came in for some long relief, throwing 4 2/3 but also allowing eight earned runs on the way to a 20-4 loss. McCaughan was designated for assignment the next day.

The Guardians are undoubtedly interested in McCaughan based on his work in previous seasons. From 2021 to 2023, he tossed 408 2/3 innings for Triple-A Tacoma, in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He had a 4.98 ERA in that time as well as a 21.4% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate.

Cleveland has less pitching depth than other recent seasons. Shane Bieber required Tommy John surgery while Williams has been on the IL all year due to elbow soreness. Their rotation currently consists of three youngsters in Triston McKenzie, Logan Allen and Tanner Bibee, as well as two veterans in Carlos Carrasco and Ben Lively. McKenzie hardly pitched last year due to a sprain of his UCL and is currently getting by with diminished stuff. Allen has a 6.41 ERA on the year, Bibee 4.91 and Carrasco 5.67. Lively is down at 2.08 in only four starts. He was at 5.38 last year with the Reds, his first MLB action since 2019.

Despite the lackluster results from the rotation, the club is 24-13 and leading the American League Central. To help keep things afloat, they have been actively trying to bolster the starting depth. They acquired Zak Kent from the Rangers on Opening Day and later grabbed Wes Parsons from the Blue Jays, sending international bonus pool space away in both cases. With the acquisition of McCaughan, they have now added three optionable starters to their system in the past two months.

As for Williams, as mentioned, he’s been on the injured list all season due to elbow soreness. This transfer is backdated to his initial IL placement, meaning he’s ineligible return until late May. He recently resumed a throwing program but will need to build up a full starter’s workload and isn’t going to be ready in the next month or so regardless.

Guardians Outright Tyler Beede

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The Guardians sent right-hander Tyler Beede outright to Triple-A Columbus, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week. He has the right to elect free agency but it’s not yet clear if he’s chosen to do so.

Beede, 31 this month, made it back to the big leagues after spending 2023 in Japan. He signed a minor league deal with the Guardians and cracked the Opening Day roster by throwing 13 innings in Spring Training with a 4.15 earned run average.

Unfortunately, the regular season results weren’t there for him, despite a strong 26.5% strikeout rate. He allowed 13 earned runs in 14 innings, leading to an ERA of 8.36. There was a bit of bad luck in there, as he wouldn’t sustain a .389 batting average on balls in play nor a 55.6% strand rate over a larger sample. But he also didn’t do himself any favors with a 13.2% walk rate. His 5.00 FIP was better than his ERA but still not great, though his 3.78 SIERA was quite optimistic.

Once a top prospect with the Giants, Beede struggled to cement himself in the big leagues from 2018 to 2022, exhausting his option years in the process. That means he is now out of options and can’t be easily sent down to the minors. He was bumped off the Guardians’ 40-man recently and the other 29 clubs all passed on the chance to grab him off waivers.

All players with at least three years of service time or a previous career outright have the right to reject outright assignments, electing free agency instead. Beede qualifies on both counts and could head to the open market if he so chooses.

Steven Kwan Expected To Miss Around Four Weeks

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The Guardians placed American League batting leader Steven Kwan on the injured list this afternoon. Testing revealed the underrated left fielder suffered an “acute” strain of his left hamstring, tweets Zack Meisel of the Athletic. Kwan is expected to be sidelined for about a month.

It is tough news given Kwan’s scorching start to the season. The left-handed hitter has turned in a .353/.407/.496 batting line over 145 plate appearances. Kwan has walked as often as he’s gone down on strikes (11 times apiece). It looked to be a massive rebound after he had a league average .268/.340/.370 slash in his second big league campaign. Paired with his characteristically elite left field defense, Kwan has been one of the sport’s most valuable players through six weeks.

The silver lining is that Cleveland has a high-upside replacement stepping into the lineup. The Guards promoted top prospect Kyle Manzardo as the corresponding move for Kwan’s IL placement. Manzardo should get everyday run at designated hitter after hitting .303/.375/.642 to start the season at Triple-A Columbus. Estevan Florial, who has been Cleveland’s primary DH, should see the majority of the left field work in Kwan’s absence. That was the arrangement Stephen Vogt ran in this evening’s 2-1 win over the Tigers. (Manzardo struck out in his first three big league at-bats.)

Cleveland’s outfield injuries aren’t exclusive to the major league level. Top prospect Chase DeLauter has been diagnosed with a fractured fifth metatarsal in his left foot, the team announced over the weekend (link via Mandy Bell of MLB.com). The 22-year-old is going to see a specialist to weigh his treatment options.

This is unfortunately not unfamiliar territory for DeLauter, whom the Guardians selected 16th overall two years ago.. He also suffered a fracture in that foot over the 2022-23 offseason. That required surgery and prevented him from making his season debut until early June. DeLauter tore through High-A pitching when he returned, hitting .366/.403/.549 in 42 games. He earned a late-season bump to Double-A and was widely regarded as a Top 50 minor league talent going into this year.

DeLauter continued to rake in Spring Training, connecting on four homers while hitting .520 in 13 exhibition games. That didn’t carry over into his first few weeks at Double-A Akron, as he was off to a .197/.296/.295 start over 71 plate appearances. That’s a small sample in a cold early-season setting, so it likely wasn’t of much concern to the organization. The potential for another extended injury absence — particularly with a second foot injury — is more worrisome, though it remains to be seen if he’ll be able to rehab without surgery this time around.

Guardians Promote Kyle Manzardo, Place Steven Kwan On 10-Day Injured List

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May 6: Cleveland has now announced the promotion of Manzardo and Kwan’s placement on the injured list. In a pair of corresponding moves, the Guards optioned righty Peter Strzelecki and reinstated lefty Sam Hentges from the injured list.

May 5: The Guardians will promote slugging prospect Kyle Manzardo prior to tomorrow’s game with the Tigers, according to The Athletic’s Zack Meisel (X link).  Cleveland has an open space on its 40-man roster to add Manzardo, and the 26-man space will be created when outfielder Steven Kwan is placed on the 10-day injured list.

Kwan left Saturday’s game due to hamstring tightness and was set to undergo an MRI today.  The results of the tests aren’t yet known, but even if the MRI is clean, the Guards might’ve felt it necessary to sideline Kwan anyway given his long history of hamstring problems.  As Kwan explained to reporters (including Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer) yesterday, he has battled hamstring issues both in the minors and during his college days.

Losing Kwan for any amount of time is a blow to the Guardians, as his huge early-season performance has fueled Cleveland’s rise to first place in the AL Central.  Kwan is hitting .353/.407/.496 over 145 plate appearances, leading the American League in both batting average and hits (47).  Some regression is inevitable since Kwan has a .370 BABIP and has continued to make some of the weakest contact of any hitter in baseball, but the Guards were happy to ride that offensive wave for as long as possible.  In addition to this surge at the plate, Kwan has also been delivering his customary superb left field defense, and looks like a favorite to win his third straight Gold Glove.

Will Brennan got the start in left field today, but the Guardians will probably keep the Brennan/Ramon Laureano platoon going in right field and address Kwan’s absence by using Estevan Florial a bit more regularly in left.  Florial has gotten the bulk of DH at-bats for Cleveland this season, yet the team will now need the designated hitter spot as a way to get Manzardo (who only plays first base) and Josh Naylor in the lineup at the same time.  Gabriel Arias and David Fry also figure to get some playing time in the corner outfield in certain situations.

A second-round pick for the Rays in the 2021 draft, Manzardo came to Cleveland at last year’s trade deadline in the one-for-one swap that sent Aaron Civale to Tampa Bay.  Manzardo’s minor league numbers had already drawn him top-100 prospect attention prior to the trade, and he has only gotten better since joining the Guardians organization.  Manzardo is hitting .303/.375/.642 with nine home runs over 128 PA with Triple-A Columbus this season, and while the Guards chose to start him at Triple-A rather than add him to their Opening Day roster, it only seemed like a matter of time before Manzardo made his MLB debut.

MLB Pipeline ranked Manzardo 52nd on its list of the sport’s top 100 prospects, and Baseball America has him 87th.  (For lists released prior to the season, The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked Manzardo 66th and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel had him 83rd.)  The consensus is clear — Manzardo’s bat is definitely ready for the big leagues, though the 23-year-old might already be ticketed for a DH-only future even in a world where Cleveland didn’t have Naylor locking down first base.  Manzardo is viewed as a decent first baseman at best, and his lack of speed makes him an implausible choice to play outfield.

At the plate, however, Manzardo is a threat.  He both makes a lot of hard contact and a lot of contact in general, befitting the Guardians’ preference for hitters who rarely strike out.  Manzardo has 50 home runs over his 990 PA in the minors, and there is some sense that he might be able to unlock more power given how well-developed his approach is in the batter’s box.

This is music to the ears of a Guardians team that has long been lacking in power, though Cleveland’s offense has been greatly improved in the early going this season.  Naylor has been a big contributor to that more dangerous lineup, but since Naylor is a free agent after the 2025 season, there has been a sense that Manzardo might well be the heir apparent at first base.  Cleveland’s history of trading pricier players prior to free agency could make Naylor a big trade chip this coming offseason, so while a nice showing from Manzardo in his rookie season would certainly help the Guardians’ chances in 2024, it might have the Catch-22 of also hastening Naylor’s eventual departure.

Even if he stays on the Guards’ roster for the rest of the season, Manzardo won’t earn quite enough service time for a full season of MLB service.  As a result, he wouldn’t garner the Guardians an extra draft pick under the Prospect Promotion Incentive even if he had a top-two finish in Rookie Of The Year voting.  It is possible Manzardo might earn Super Two status and an extra year of arbitration eligibility if he garners enough service time over his first three seasons, though we won’t know that answer until the 2026 season is complete.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Guardians Designate Tyler Beede For Assignment

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The Guardians designated right-hander Tyler Beede for assignment Friday and recalled fellow right-hander Peter Strzelecki from Triple-A Columbus in a corresponding move, Mandy Bell of MLB.com tweets.

The 30-year-old Beede (31 later this month) signed a minor league deal over the winter and won a spot in Cleveland’s Opening Day bullpen with a nice spring showing. He’s been hit hard through his first 14 regular-season innings, however, yielding 13 runs on 16 hits, nine walks and three hit batters. He’s fanned 18 opponents, giving him a nice 26.5% strikeout rate, but a poor 13.2% walk rate and a lofty 44.7% hard-hit rate have overshadowed his ability to miss bats.

Beede spent the 2023 season with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, for whom he posted a 3.99 ERA in 49 2/3 innings out of the bullpen. A former first-round pick by the Giants back in 2014, the Vanderbilt product was a top prospect but has seen his career stall out — in part due to injuries (most notably, Tommy John surgery). He’s pitched 201 innings in the majors and been dinged for a 5.55 ERA with worse-than-average strikeout and walk rates of 19.6% and 10%, respectively.

Between MLB stints, Beede has rather dramatically overhauled his pitching repertoire. His initial MLB run saw him use primarily a four-seamer, changeup and curveball, but the 2024 version of Beede is brandishing a four-seamer, splitter and sinker in addition to his breaking ball (which FanGraphs classifies as a slider but Statcast considers a curveball). Beede didn’t throw a single splitter from 2018-22, but it’s been his most heavily used pitch in 2024. It’s been hit hard when put into play, but Beede has also missed tons of bats with the pitch (16.8% swinging-strike rate).

The Guardians will have a week to trade Beede, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him. He’d be able to reject an outright assignment to Columbus even if he ends up clearing waivers.

Gavin Williams Resumes Throwing Program

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Guardians starter Gavin Williams has resumed a throwing program after he was reevaluated on Wednesday, manager Stephen Vogt told reporters (X link via Mandy Bell of MLB.com). Williams came out of today’s throwing session without pain.

It’s an encouraging development after last week’s ominous news that Williams was being shut down after experiencing discomfort in his elbow. The second-year righty has been on the injured list all season after battling elbow soreness in Spring Training. He received an anti-inflammation injection last week that seemingly addressed whatever was ailing him.

The Guardians will certainly proceed with caution as Williams builds arm strength. Cleveland hasn’t released a specific timeline when he might be ready to embark on a rehab assignment. Clearly, getting into a throwing routine is a meaningful step towards working back to game action.

Williams is arguably the best of Cleveland’s trio of highly-touted pitchers who debuted last year. The 23rd overall pick in the 2021 draft, he quickly developed into one of the game’s most talented pitching prospects. The Guards promoted Williams in June. In his first 18 MLB starts, he turned in a 3.29 ERA over 82 innings. The East Carolina product fanned a solid 23.5% of opponents while picking up whiffs on more than 12% of his pitches. Despite a 10.7% walk rate that’s higher than ideal, it was a strong debut showing. Tanner Bibee and Logan Allen also turned in sub-4.00 ERA performances in their first seasons.

Cleveland’s rotation nevertheless feels a bit more tenuous than it has in prior years. The Guardians lost Shane Bieber to Tommy John surgery after two starts. Triston McKenzie has subpar strikeout and walk rates in his return from last season’s UCL sprain. Carlos Carrasco, who made the Opening Day roster after signing a minor league deal, has a 6.59 ERA through six starts. Allen has allowed seven homers and has an earned run average above 5.00 through his first seven appearances. Ben Lively has been excellent in three outings, but he went unclaimed on waivers as recently as last offseason.

Reinstalling Williams alongside Bibee at the top of the staff would be a major boost. The Guardians have thrived despite the rotation questions, thanks in large part to one of MLB’s best bullpens. They’re tied with the Orioles for the American League’s best record at 20-11. Cleveland leads an AL Central that surprisingly has four teams sitting at least four games above .500.

Josh Naylor Just Keeps Getting Better

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There have always been fairly high expectations for Guardians first baseman Josh Naylor. He entered the 2015 draft considered one of the 60 or so best talents available and instead vaulted to the No. 12 overall selection when the Marlins took him and cut an under-slot deal with him, signing him for a $2.25MM bonus that clocked in shy of his $3.05MM slot value.

As if the draft stock wasn’t enough, Naylor was soon included in a pair of relatively high-profile trades. Miami sent him to the Padres alongside Carter Capps, Jarred Cosart and, ahem, Luis Castillo (whoops) in exchange for Andrew Cashner, Colin Rea and Tayron Guerrero. Naylor ranked among the game’s top-100 prospects heading into the 2019 season and made his debut with San Diego that season before being packaged with Owen Miller, Austin Hedges, Joey Cantillo, Gabriel Arias and Cal Quantrill to acquire Mike Clevinger, Greg Allen and Matt Waldron from Cleveland (again… whoops).

For the first three seasons of Naylor’s career, he was an up-and-down first baseman/outfielder/designated hitter who didn’t do much hitting. In his first 633 plate appearances, he posted an anemic .250/.306/.389 batting line (88 wRC+). His 19.1% strikeout rate was lower than the league average, but so was his 7% walk rate. Naylor hit the ball on the ground at a huge 51.6% clip, which is far from ideal for a hitter who drew 20- and 30-grade marks for his speed as a prospect. He was borderline passive at the dish, only swinging at 48% of pitches thrown.

In what amounted to roughly a full season’s worth of plate appearances (603) over that three-year span, Naylor was more or less a replacement-level player. He made plenty of contact but didn’t do much damage with it and didn’t really contribute defensively. Naylor posted below-average grades from both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average in the outfield corners and only saw sparse action at first base (106 innings).

In 2022, the Guardians moved Naylor to first base full time. Whether he felt more comfortable there and thus at the plate, or whether he simply adapted to big league pitching after getting a few hundred plate appearances under his belt, a corner was clearly turned. Naylor took a huge step forward at the dish, smacking a career-best 20 homers while hitting .256/.319/.452 in 498 plate appearances. His walk rate crept up from 5.6% to 7.6% His strikeout rate dipped from 18% to 16.1%. Things continued trending in a positive direction in 2023, with Naylor cutting the strikeout rate all the way to 13.7% as he turned in an even better .308/.354/.489 slash.

This season, Naylor’s gone from a solid middle-of-the-order hitter behind star teammate Jose Ramirez to a star-caliber bat himself, however. He’s out to a blistering .295/.366/.557 start, and it’s not the type of early-season fluke that’s propped up by a .400-something average on balls in play. Naylor’s .274 BABIP is actually 21 points lower than the .295 mark he carried into the season, in fact. So what’s changed?

For starters, the K-BB profile has only continued to get better. He’s walking at an 8.9% clip that’d be right in line with his 9% career-best mark from back in his rookie season. His 10.9% strikeout rate isn’t just a career-best — it’s tied with Mookie Betts for the eighth-lowest in MLB. Naylor has always been a free swinger who’s chased off the plate a lot; he swung at 38.4% of pitches off the plate in his career prior to 2024. This year, he’s at 32.6%. His overall contact rate is actually down a tick, but that’s easier to stomach when he’s laying off more bad balls and working himself into better counts.

It’s also in part due to what appears to be a conscious effort to do more damage at the plate. More than half of Naylor’s batted balls (50.4%) were hit on the ground through his first four seasons. He lowered his ground-ball rate in each of his first four MLB seasons but took a major jump in 2023, cutting that grounder rate from 48.9% in ’22 to 42.7%. This year, Naylor is only putting 40.5% of his batted balls on the ground. Both his 22.8% line-drive rate and 36.7% fly-ball rate are career-high marks.

As one would expect, elevating the ball more regularly is leading to considerably more damage. Naylor may be sacrificing a bit of contact, but he possesses such strong bat-to-ball skills that you’ll rarely see him swing through multiple pitches in the same at-bat. And the extra oomph in his swing is producing better results not just in his rate stats but in the under-the-hood numbers as well. Naylor’s 90.7 mph average exit velocity, 12.7% barrel rate and 44.3% hard-hit rate — as measured by Statcast — are all easy career-highs. He’s seen 20.7% of his fly-balls clear the fence for home runs — a major improvement over his career 13% mark and the single-season career-high of 15.9% he established in 2022.

For years, the Guardians have forged an identity as a team full of pesky, tough-to-strike-out hitters who put the ball in play but also generally lacked pop. Ramirez was a true heart-of-the-order slugger who managed to embody that contact-driven focus while still hitting for power, but Cleveland lacked anyone else who fit that profile. It’s early in 2024, but Naylor looks to be figuring out the recipe for toeing that same line. The six homers he’s hit in 101 plate appearances is already one shy of his 2021 total in 250 plate appearances and already 30% of the way to his career-high in only 20% the playing time.

Still just 26 years old, Naylor remains in his physical prime and is refining an already strong approach and plan at the plate in a way that’s letting him tap into the 60- to 70-grade marks that scouts put on his power during his prospect days. In doing so, he appears on the cusp of breaking out as a potentially elite hitter.

Heading into the season, with questions about how the Guardians would fare coming off a disappointing 2023 season, it was reasonable to view Naylor as a possible summer trade candidate. Multiple clubs expressed interest him over the winter. He’s expensive by Cleveland standards, earning $6.55MM this year, and will very likely command a raise to north of $10MM in 2025 — his final season of club control. The Guardians have a habit of trading players before the get to the point where they could test free agency.

But Cleveland’s excellent start to the season, even in the midst of a severe slate of pitching injuries, should have fans of other clubs pumping the brakes on the idea of prying Naylor from the Guardians’ grasp. If the wave of pitching injuries proves to be too difficult to withstand and the Guards eventually fall out of the race, it could still be a possibility. But right now, Naylor is one of the driving factors in Cleveland’s hot start to the season and breaking out as a critical cog in a lineup that’s vastly exceeding expectations.

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