Cleveland Guardians set 26-man roster plus crowded injured reserve list

Published: Mar. 28, 2024, 4:30 p.m.

By Paul Hoynes, cleveland.com
OAKLAND -- The Guardians officially announced their 26-man roster before Thursday night’s season opener against the A’s at Oakland Coliseum.

There were no surprises, including one of the most crowded injured reserves lists in recent memory. The Guardians will open the season with right-handers Trevor Stephen (right elbow) and James Karinchak (right shoulder) on the 60-day IL. Right-handers Ben Lively (viral infection), Xzavion Curry (viral infection), Gavin Williams (right elbow) and left-hander Sam Hentges (left middle finger) will start the year on the 15-day injured list.

Those moves are retroactive to March 25.

Infielder Angel Martinez (right foot) will open the year on the 10-day IL. That move is also retroactive to March 25.

The rest of the roster breakdown this way:

Pitchers (13):

Logan Allen, Scott Barlow, Tyler Beede, Tanner Bibee, Shane Bieber, Carlos Carrasco, Emmanuel Clase, Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin, Triston McKenzie, Eli Morgan, Nick Sandlin and Cade Smith.

Catcher (3):

Bo Naylor, Austin Hedges and David Fry.

Infielders (5):

Josh Naylor, Andres Gimenez, Jose Ramirez, Brayan Rocchio and Gabriel Arias.

Outfielders (5):

Will Brennan, Tyler Freeman, Estevan Florial, Steven Kwan and Ramon Laureano.

The Guardians selected the contracts of Carrasco and Beede and added them to the roster. They came to camp on minor league deals.

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Which one of those 2 know anything about baseball ?

There's been worse and there's been better. They've been putting some good inside information out there. I guess it's up to us to decide what info is good and which is not.

Anyway, Looks like Vogt made the right decision on Tyler Freeman. I know one sample size game does not a season make, but Tyler crushed the ball on all four at bats. He was 2-4 but easily could have been 4-4. Two of those outs were loud outs only to be chased down by two pretty nice defensive plays by the outfielders. He started in centerfield last night. In my opinion, Tyler is going to hit a lot of doubles and could hit around 15 homers

David Fry was 3-4 and put a charge into a couple of those hits. I believe he will a valuable asset.

Laureano could be a sleeper in this group. He gets on base, he has speed. and good base running instincts.

MY favorite player on the team right now is Brayan Rocchio. I followed him throughout the winter ball season. His defense is exceptional and this winter showed some added power to his swing. He has a good eye, works the pitchers, and has a good walks to strikeouts ratio.

During the regular season, In 61 at bats for the Sharks, Rocchio walked 6 times and fanned 8 times. He had 7 double and 1 homer. He batted .377 and had a .541 slugging percentage with an on base percentage of .998.

During the semi-finals, In 44 at bats, Rocchio walked 5 times and struck out 2 times. He had 4 doubles. He hit for an average of .295, had a slugging percentage of .386 and an on base percentage of .766.

During the championship round, Rocchio had 17at bats with 1 double and 1 triple. That was a big one with bases loaded. He walked 2 times and struck out 3 times. He only hit for an average of .235, slugged .421, and had an OBP of .728.

On defense duriing the regular season, Rocchio had 64 total changes with 3 errors, Durng the semi finals 57 total chances 2 errors. During the championship round 30 chances 0 errors.

I believe Vogt made some smart decisions. I see the offense having an up-tick in production this year. The pitching staff was not that highly rated coming into the season. I think someone made a mistake. This is a good pitching staff.

I think the Guards will be a +500 team this year. I also think they win the division by 2-5 games.

Don't forget that when this team gets back to full strength, they'll only be getting better. The Guards have a lot of talent waiting in the wings. All this present team has to do is keep afloat until help arrives, if needed.

I think this is a better team than was predicted. The thing I like best is the versatility. Vogt has a lot of chess pieces on the board. All he needs to do is make the right moves.

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According to Meisel Shane Bieber will have Tommy John

That's not good!!!!!!!

Considering the Guards hot start, I decided to look at last year to see if it means much.

The 2023 standing on Aril 13th last year. In the AL, 6 of the 8 playoff teams were in the top 8 teams. Of the bottom 4 teams, 3 of the 4 were already in the bottom.

The real outliers were the Angels and the Mariners. They went from the top 8 to the bottom 4. The yankees ended up sliding a bit but ended up over 500.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxe ... 2023-04-13

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxe ... 2023-10-02

Based on last year, a strong start to the season correlates with a good full season around 75% of the time.

Today marks the 4th time this season that someone has gone over the wall to rob Ramirez of a homer. An extra bowl of Wheaties in the morning might help. Could easily have 7 long ones at this point. A couple of drives off the wall would bring the total to 9.

I went away for a month and you guys did a great job with the team. Even when they didn't play As and WhiteSox the Guardians have been playing really good baseball.

Seems to be a change in offensive strategy to be more aggressive at bat. Fewer walks. More homeruns lots more runs scored.
Same hitting coach; different manager. Is that the difference?

The team's strenth -- starting pitching -- has not been very strong. The bullpen depth has been suprisingly impressive Hunter Gaddis is the new setup ace.
Another managerial difference in working the bullpen: roles are not permanent; today's 6th inning guy may be next week's 8th inning guy.

April 21: RHP Gavin Williams (right elbow discomfort) flies to Cleveland for medical checkup

Williams successfully threw three innings in a start in Arizona and was cleared to visit the big league training staff in Cleveland to undergo a medical evaluation. Assuming that goes as planned, he'll likely be cleared for a rehab assignment.

That is huge !

Guardians are 2nd in the majors in runs scored; 1st in the majors in fewest runs allowed.
Result: 55 run advantges; nearly 2.5 per game; and 17-6 record.
Surprise, surprise. Won't last at that level but very impressive work

Almost time to replace Laureano with Johnathan.

OK with me. Not sure JRod is going to be a success but he's been a personal favorite for a long time by now; he was drafted at age 17 and made pretty slow progress until he suddenly developed a home run stroke mid-way in 2022. I had about given up on his big league chances, but he's always been said to have a solid arm so he's potentially a RF. Baseball America says he can succeed as a corner OF only if he keeps his power in the majors; well that's the ideal for a corner OF but certainly for a Cleveland corner for many years

The proof will be in the pudd'n.
On the road again......
Atlanta and Houston ain't Oakland and Seattle. They ain't Chicago.
This will be a true test to see if this team really has what it takes on this trip.
I'd be really excited to come out of this trip at 3-3.
I think, in a lot of cases, the Guards have been pretty fortunate to date.
The bullpen has been saving the day.
I'm starting to worry that the pen will start showing some fatigue soon.
The starting rotation has just got to start going deeper into these ballgames.
Ben Lively and Tanner Bibee have to lead the way to some 7 inning ballgame on this trip.
My hope is that Logan Allan, Tristan McKensie, and Carlos Carrasco aren't just 5-inning pitchers.
That would be devastating over the long haul.
I hope the medical staff keeps a supply of that good o'le snake oil on hand just in case.
It would be huge if we could get Williams back on the mound.
If McKensie andCarrasco can't get it done, maybe switching roles with Barlow & Beede can.
Anyhoo, no matter how you slice it and dice it, this road trip will tell a lot about the make up of this team in the long run.
Side note:
I would feel much more comfortable with Manzardo and Rodriguez around for the righty/lefty matchups.

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