As another week at Goodyear, Arizona closes, we become one week closer to having baseball at Progressive Field.
As we inch closer to the beginning of the 2025 regular season, the Guardians had another tough week at 5-4. However, there are still plenty of positives to be seen in those four wins.
Lively Holding His Own
While Shane Bieber gets closer to a return and Triston McKenzie continues to struggle on the mound, the Guardians need someone to take charge in the rotation. For the moment, they’ve found it in Ben Lively. While he had a rough outing on Sunday, his first three games gave the Guards exactly what they will need going into the season. Prior to Sunday, he had pitched nine innings while giving up just one run, nine hits, and three walks. If he can continue to pitch like that into the regular season, he could easily become the number two starter and be a reliable option every fifth day.
Guards Make Interesting Signing
While this technically didn’t happen in the last week, I absolutely have to talk about it. On March 6th, the Guardians announced that they were signing someone familiar. Tyler Naquin, outfielder for Cleveland from 2016 to 2020, was signed to a minor league contract. However, he won’t be playing in the outfield. The Guards signed him as a pitcher, a transition that nobody really knew he was in the process of making. While there’s no telling if we’ll ever see him on the mound at Progressive Field, he is at Goodyear with the team. He was assigned to the ACL Guardians who play at Goodyear, and their season begins on May 3rd.
Familiar Face at Goodyear
Fans were able to catch a glimpse of a friendly face at Goodyear on Tuesday when former Guardians ace Corey Kluber paid a visit to the team. There was speculation on whether he was there as a quiet player signing, as a coaching hire, or something else, but it was discovered that he was just there as a guest observer. That speculation wasn’t entirely far off, though, as there are whispers of him returning to the team in a developmental role. While nothing is confirmed yet, the team is planning to stay in conversation with him in the next few months.