Thanksgiving itself may have passed, but I am taking some time on this long holiday weekend to rest, reflect and consider what we can all be thankful for. Of course, this appreciation knows no bounds. It is filled with family and friends, but also the topics that family and friends can congregate around. This includes our favorite team, in this case, the Cleveland Guardians.
With that said, there are a number of things that come to mind to be thankful for as a Guardians fan. Here’s just a few I have settled on that may be worth all of our consideration.
Jose Ramirez
I try to speak glowingly of Hosey at every opportunity that I can. He deserves it. The national baseball media love talking about how they don’t talk about Jose Ramirez enough rather than actually just talking about him more. The local media is too obsessed with its continually floundering football team and overly casual baseball takes in order to notice what it has in front of them.
And what it has in front of them is a player that has hit .284 and averaged 29 home runs, 97 RBI, 96 runs scored, 40 doubles and 26 steals per 150 games over the course of the last eight years. What it has in front of them is a ballplayer that is probably about three more similar years away from making a Hall of Fame case. What it has in front of them is a player who has committed to this city and its team, taking less money to embrace a future in Cleveland. This is supposed to be a positive and happy weekend and snark isn’t a good look, but if this guy was a Brown he would be worshiped in this city. Instead, I just state my thanks for being able to count on him playing third, batting in the 3-spot and being one of the flagship players in the franchise’s entire history.
Stephen Vogt
Former Pirates/Marlins/Rockies/Tigers manager Jim Leyland was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame this year, the only manager in a decade to be given the honor. Leyland found success early in his managerial career both with Pittsburgh and Florida and both teams immediately cratered below the .500 mark after his departure. Detroit may have fared better, making the playoffs in subsequent seasons after Leyland’s retirement, but has never truly returned to the same prominence that they had before he left.
The point I am trying to make is that it is really hard to replace a legend in the dugout. Still, the Guardians seemed to have found their man. Terry Francona may be going on to manage in Cincinnati this coming year, but we all can be happy for him because we find our favorite team in the capable hands of Stephen Vogt. The Guardians’ culture remains super healthy, and really, the Guards made it farther in the playoffs in 2024 than they had in any season since their World Series appearance in 2016. Vogt brought new ideas and a fresh spirit to the team, and it showed in their results.
Progressive Field
You can still call it The Jake if you want, I just decided to go with its government name. Look around the sports landscape right now. The Athletics find themselves homeless, playing their games in a AAA stadium in Sacramento this coming season, hoping that the City of Las Vegas really will welcome them in 2028, which is still four years away. The Tampa Bay Rays have a dome (that was abysmal to begin with) that’s had the roof ripped off of it. They’re probably playing at a Single-A facility this year and the politics around their new ballpark in St. Petersburg are murky after Hurricane Milton this fall. Even look in our own backyard at the controversy of the Browns abandoning what is only a 25-year-old stadium on the lake.
Meanwhile, Progressive Field remains one of the finest ballyards in the country. Renovations continue this off-season- renovations that cost about a tenth of what a new football field will cost the local taxpayer. But enough of the shade-throwing at the Browns, because a warm summer evening in the left-field bleachers, or behind one of the dugouts really speaks for itself. Our parents and grandparents suffered through bleak summers in the cavernous and dilapidated Cleveland Stadium, by comparison, we watch baseball played at the Taj Mahal.
The Front Office
The Guardians hired a Director of Baseball Operations earlier this off-season. I’ll be honest. I don’t know what that is, or how that job is any different than Team President Chris Antonetti or General Manager Mike Chernoff’s job. What I do know though is that Bobby Kinne (the DOBO, in question) came highly regarded as a pitching strategist from Tampa Bay. Usually, it is the other way around. Other teams have been sniping our best and brightest, particularly from the pitching apparatus the Guardians have built, but this time we got one.
All of this is to say, that the Guardians organization (led yes, by the Dolan family) continues to hire, entrust and retain incredibly bright and competent people to run their baseball operations. The aforementioned Francona purposely came to Cleveland and stayed for 11 years because he trusted and believed in the organization so much. This season, we saw the much-maligned hitting development start to perk up. Balls started flying over the fence more. David Fry, Jhonkensy Noel and Kyle Manzardo, in particular, look like legitimate threats at the plate. We obviously aren’t going to be able to spend with teams like the Dodgers, but money doesn’t buy wins anyway. It is going to be an uphill battle, but I love what this organization is building.
Andres Gimenez’s Defense
I know why this man is underappreciated, but that doesn’t make it right. Yes, Andres Gimenez hasn’t been able to recreate the exemplary offensive campaign he put together in 2022. What he remains though is the best defensive second baseman and possibly the best defensive player in the entire sport. I think a lot of people who were around to see him play would argue that Roberto Alomar was the best fielding second baseman that Cleveland’s ever had. Gimenez is right there though. When all is said and done, perhaps we will be able to make an argument that Gimmy is even better.
That defense matters. It saves runs. It makes a first baseman of limited range like Josh Naylor more palatable- so that his 30-home run bat can stay in the lineup more often. It is also just a lot of fun to watch a maestro at work. That is exactly what Gimenez is. Beyond just being good, there are few players in the sport that are more fun to actually watch play in the field. He’s also locked up through 2029. If Gimenez can hit just a little better, he’s one of the more valuable players in the sport. He will be just 26 next year, so improvement is certainly within the bounds of the imagination.
Carl Willis
In a past life, Carl Willis was a really good reliever on a couple of high-quality (even World Champion) Minnesota Twins teams in the early 1990s. We know him instead as Cleveland’s two-time, long-time pitching coach- the figurehead and leader of one of the best pitching factories in the industry of baseball.
Willis has been a pitching coach for five different Cy Young Award winners over the course of his career- three with Cleveland. Cleveland’s overall pitching has the 4th best ERA since Willis returned as pitching coach in 2018. He is a holdover from Francona’s staff that has stayed on during the Vogt era and will not be jumping ship to Cincinnati this coming year. At 63 years old, it is yet to be seen how much longer Willis will want to impart his craft, but we should be appreciative of every season we’ve had as well as any additional that are yet to come. The story of the Guardians recent success cannot be told without him.
The Best Bullpen in Baseball
Willis needs someone to coach, right? His masterpiece this season was the work that he did to help construct far and away the best bullpen in baseball. Emmanuel Clase and Cade Smith led the way of course, both nearly being unhittable and recently receiving post-season awards and award considerations. The bullpen went deeper than just two men though.
Hunter Gaddis went from a woeful spot starter to a legitimate 8th-inning lock-down man. Tim Herrin went from wobbly lefty backup option to Sam Hentges to trusted high-leverage lefty. Pedro Avila went from middling waiver wire pickup to a multi-inning reliever sure to keep the Guards in ballgames. Eli Morgan may not be with us anymore but pitched incredibly well without much fanfare while being willing to pitch in any role necessary. Guys like Erik Sabrowski, Peter Strzelecki and Andrew Walters may not have given a sheer volume of innings at the MLB level but did help keep the bullpen glued together in times of wear and tear. Bullpens are more important in baseball than ever, and the Guardians are going to be able to add a quality reliever in his own right in Trevor Stephan to already the best pen in the sport in 2025. It is a wonderful thing for us to be able to hang our hats on.
To Conclude
I could keep going. For those that didn’t get named- Steven Kwan, Josh Naylor, David Fry’s heroics, Big Christmas himself, the Lane Thomas trade, a potential ace in Tanner Bibee and Ben Lively‘s contract situation. They are all deserving of our thanks as well.
To sum it up, the Guardians didn’t bring home the trophy in 2024, but this season was incredibly fun all the same. A 5-game series loss in the American League Championship Series isn’t what we all wanted, but even in that failure, the Guards were in nearly every ballgame. This wasn’t the tale of past seasons- questioning how our team would ever scratch a run across the board in a playoff series. It sounds like a coping mechanism or like a lame moral victory, but I am thankful for that different feeling this year. The Guards felt like they belonged. They felt like they were just a swing or two away from a different result in each game. That provides hope. That allows the imagination to take hold about what could go differently next year with a little improvement, even if it is only internal. We were right there. These guys just need to get a little better.
Ultimately, I am thankful for that.
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