Every year, it seems that the Cleveland Guardians are a slept-on team in the AL Central. The Twins always seem to have favor because of bigger-named players and additions like Carlos Correa or Byron Buxton. The Royals have veterans and exciting young players like Bobby Witt and Cole Ragans. The Tigers pitching staff is now considered one of the best, with defending Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal adding back Jack Flaherty and phenom Jackson Jobe. Cleveland has Jose Ramirez, and seemingly that is all. Josh Naylor is gone, Shane Bieber is coming off an injury and Andres Gimenez is playing in Toronto now. How is it possible that Cleveland can still win the Central Division again? The youngsters must immediately step up and perform.
Replacing Naylor’s bat in the lineup will be Kyle Manzardo. Just two years ago, Manzardo was a top-75 prospect in all of baseball. He received a small amount of time last season in Cleveland with 145 at-bats, but he was far from the bat the team needed him to be. He has all of the tools to be a 25+ homer guy and provide support to Ramirez, but he is not the only bat that needs to perform. While not considered a younger player anymore, Lane Thomas is still under the age of 30 but struggled mightily when he came to Cleveland via trade last year. After attempting 40 steals in Washington, he came to Cleveland expecting to slot in ahead of Ramirez and Naylor and score runs like crazy, but he could not get his offense going in any aspect. He batted just over .200, only had six stolen base attempts and had an on-base percentage of only .267.
On the pitching side, I personally think it all comes down to how Tanner Bibee and Gavin Williams perform. They have to match Ragans/Lugo, Lopez/Ryan and Skubal/Flaherty and allow Cade Smith and Emmanuel Clase to close the doors. Both Smith and Clase received votes last year in the Cy Young race and I wholeheartedly believe that this year, Gavin Williams will be on the list of guys receiving votes. Gavin, like Manzardo, has the prospect pedigree to align with that thought process, being ranked 42nd in 2023. He has the pitch mix, the physical size and the capabilities to be the next dominant arm in the game.
Outside of the current White Sox roster, this division is jam-packed with talent and should be one of the most competitive in baseball, and is just right for the Guardians to swoop in again and take the division title.
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